Bvekenya Safaris has been mainly privately owned and operated by Pete Barnard since 1994 and is based in Zimbabwe.

The name "Bvekenya" pronounced VeKenya (silent B), is derived from Pete's ancestor, Cecil Rutgert Barnard. Bvekenya is a Shangaan word which means "the one who swaggers when he walks". Cecil obtained his nickname from having suffered a severe dose of sunburn between his legs.

Cecil was born in 1886 in South Africa on a small farm, his father of Scots descent and his mother, mixed Dutch/Irish. In 1910 he packed his bags with his trusty .303 and followed the Great North Road. Bvekenya was a notorious elephant poacher, and did all his hunting on the boarders between Mozambique, South Africa and the then Rhodesia, in an area known as Crook's Corner.

His life story can be found the book entitled "The Ivory Trail" and written by T.V. Bulpin.