The Image of Africa is a tour operator and destination management company based in Tanzania. Our mission is to provide alternative ways of travel by crafting authentic and unique routes that will lead you to a more profound understanding of Africa. We are dedicated to providing exclusive services to our guests by giving them the opportunity to visit the country’s most remote corners with comfort and safety. Our priority is to make sure that you will have a memorable once-in-a-lifetime experience that will reflect your needs, passions, and interests. Our routes and the approach to traveling have no analog in Tanzania due to the complexity, logistics, and remoteness of the places that we take you through. We create travel experiences that will give you a chance to immerse yourself in the wild interior of Tanzania which has never been seen by a tourist.
Yours, Antonina Zharko and Godfrey Barongo, the founders.
Godfrey Barongo, co-founder
Barongo was born in 1981 in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region. His father Audax was a safari guide for more than 35 years - that's how Barongo was inspired to get himself into safari business. Barongo completed his primary and secondary education, then enrolled in college where he studied cooking. Since then he had been working for 15 years as a chef cook on safaris. He was so passionate about the world of traveling and safaris that he decided to open his own company The Image of Africa to deliver special travel experiences to his guests. Apart from running business, he still enjoys preparing menus for his clients and is an expert in creating awesome recipes no matter the bush conditions.
Antonina Zharko, co-founder
Antonina (or Siri, her Swahili nickname), born and raised in Siberia, is a photographer with 15 years of experience in fine art, documentary, and fashion photography. She accomplished her photography degree with distinction in the Department of Journalism and Social Communications in Dublin, Ireland, and had been living in New York, Ireland, and the United Kingdom before she settled in Tanzania. There she discovered her true passion for Africa and the exploration of remote places. Her experience of the country and its unexplored interior had led her to create a travel company that would give a chance to like-minded individuals to experience what she has been experiencing up to this day. She believes that this mind-transforming experience, respectful and gentle approach to wildlife, and cultural interactions are indeed the future of tourism in Africa.
Antonina specializes in alternative and private routes only, curating every single trip herself by carefully designing the itineraries. She has a personal approach to every client and adapts to their needs and goals. Her aim is for her guests to see another side of Tanzania - pure, wild, and untouched.
Her list of clients includes filmmakers, photographers, artists, and researchers, as well as a number of private travelers.
