SUNDAY DEBATE: Cecil, the hero we never knew…RIP all the same

02 Aug, 2015 - 00:08 0 Views
SUNDAY DEBATE: Cecil, the hero we never knew…RIP all the same

The Sunday Mail

Even Bobbi Kristina Brown, the late daughter of Whitney Houston, has not been mourned as much as Cecil, The Lion (foreground)

Even Bobbi Kristina Brown, the late daughter of Whitney Houston, has not been mourned as much as Cecil, The Lion (foreground)

The story of Cecil, which should not need any introduction now, should be seen, first and foremost, as an indictment on the state of journalism in this country — we are so preoccupied with issues political, that we ignore some of the things happening around us.

In 2010, a family of elephants were hacked to death in the Save Conservancy area and it took us a bit of a while to find out that such a heinous act had been committed in our backyard.

It was the rather meticulous manner with which the poaching had been done that raised questions as to the tightness, or lack of, of our national security apparatus. That a light plane was said to have been used in the poaching activity, without being detected, raised more questions than answers.

When we tried to get to the bottom of the matter later on, it turned out there is a whole world that is closed to the rest of the country, tourism-wise. Quite coincidental that when the elephants were hacked that was about the same time that Shakira was said to have arrived in the country and stayed in the Lowveld, seemingly under a veil of secrecy.

The hacking of the elephants and Shakira’s visit are not related in any way, but are just footnotes to help the reader understand that there are two countries in this country. We will come to that later as we mourn Cecil, “the symbol of Zimbabwe”.

Some three years later, another environmental catastrophe of similar magnitude to the hacking of the elephants in the Lowveld, was to happen, this time in the Hwange area, home to Cecil.

Probably sensing that the use of a light aircraft had brought attention — and global condemnation — the poachers this time decided to use cyanide to kill the elephants.

Cyanide, because of the residual nature of its poison, went on to cause an extensive ecological disaster in the Hwange area, as anything that ate the dead elephants, also died. This should remind the reader of the food cycle.

Then this year, when we had somehow forgotten about the ecological disaster that befell Hwange National Park, the country exported some live elephants to China, which raised an international outcry.

Animal activists had a field day, pointing to the insensitivity of trans-locating the live animals to new territory, given that the elephant family is almost as good as the human family, that taking one member of the family away is as good as being in-elephant!

As the storm surrounding the live exports of elephants was dying, then Mr Walter Palmer took time out of pulling his clients’ teeth to come to Zimbabwe and kill the face of Zimbabwe! The symbol of Zimbabwe! Africa’s most famous lion! How could he? Honestly?

No need to re-dramatise the media frenzy that has followed the discovery of this heinous crime. Murder most foul.

But let us look at the lessons that we have learnt from the death of Cecil, rather the callous murder of an innocent, peace-loving citizen of this country.

As mentioned earlier, why did the Zimbabwean media have to wait for CNN, BBC, Fox News, etc to break the news of Cecil? He was murdered on July 1, 2 or 6 (depending on which news channel you could have been watching) and that it took the world a good three weeks to discover that Africa’s most famous son had been killed!

There are two scenarios: either Cecil was not that popular, for if he was that popular, the moment he was gunned down, word should have gone out that Cecil is dead.

Imagine Julius Malema (not that I am wishing him anything evil) is to be gunned down in the Limpopo province and it takes the world three weeks to discover his murder, wouldn’t that be wrong?

Either that, or it is because down here in Africa, as much as Cecil might have been loveable, we have other pressing issues, such that the welfare and well-being of a lion is immaterial.

Honestly, how many editors would approve a trip, if a reporter were to suggest that they want to go and spend a day with a lion in the mould of Cecil? Worse still, if the same reporter were to say, “a lion has been killed in Hwange and may I go and cover the circumstances surrounding its killing”. The most likely response is ridicule.

Why? Because as a society, we have tended to be too serious, to look at life in a linear perspective. Our lives are dominated by politics and nothing but politics. I was fascinated the other day on social media when I saw some politician talking about the 2018 election manifesto! Already? It seems like we are in perpetual election mode, which renders the other news around us meaningless, senseless.

With a by-election in Mudzi and Cecil being gunned down in Hwange, chances are any editor would approve the Mudzi trip and not the Hwange one.

But that is just one of the many lessons coming out Cecil’s murder. Callous murder.

The other thing that we learnt is that we have hunting seasons, hunting concessions, hunting licences, hunting as a profession, etc. Some countries, notably Kenya, has banned hunting, because the number of the animals roaming freely in the wild is declining.

The issue of whether to ban hunting in Zimbabwe or not, is an issue that might need another day for interrogation. But just out of interest, who benefits from the hunting concessions? To what level do the returns from hunting filter down to the villager? Or does these returns filter at all?

If these returns do not filter to the common villager, it might explain the indifference that met Cecil’s murder, why should the common man be bothered about the existence of an animal whose existence has no bearing, material or otherwise, on that common man?

Driving from Tsholotsho to Lupane, an area which borders the world-famous Hwange National Park, it is evident that some of the most impoverished communities in this country live on this borderline.

The lives of these communities contradict the affluence that is on the other side of Hwange, rather inside Hwange National Park. You would expect these communities to be the immediate beneficiaries of the tourism returns that accrue from Hwange National Park.

But alas! Ask them if they knew Cecil.

Tourism in this country, especially the so-called hunting seasons and concessions, just typical of the Rhodesian days, has remained an issue of class and race.

When Africans hunted game, it was for a need, to feed the family. It was never for pleasure or leisure. Africans never hunted lions, they never hunted cheetahs or leopards. They hunted game for meat.

That hunting is legal in Zimbabwe does not make it right, there are many voices that feel that it is wrong. And equally, there are many other voices that feel that as much as hunting animals for pleasure and leisure is wrong, there are better issues that the people of Zimbabwe would rather be pre-occupied with, rather than animal rights.

Human rights activists are saying before we solve the mystery of Cecil, we would rather solve Itai Dzamara’s issue first. Aids activists are saying before we bury Cecil, we should make sure the issue of HIV and its treatment gets the same kind of attention that Cecil got.

Those fighting against child marriages are equally arguing, that before we hold a memorial for Cecil, we should make sure all children are in classrooms and not bedrooms.

The black Americans are equally miffed by the attention that Cecil has gotten, and are suggesting that if only their crusade, to have black lives recognised by the American system, get the same kind of recognition as Cecil, then America would have been a better place to reside in.

Whichever side of the divide you might be standing on, either as a human rights activist or animal right activist, the truth is that Cecil has managed to do so much for the publicity of Zimbabwe, albeit under controversial circumstances, much more than the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has tried — and failed — to do with its celebrity host programmes.

What is left to the country now, is to draw lessons from Cecil – and develop a tourism industry that is all inclusive and is not segregative. And to an extent, the murder of Cecil brings to the fore the debate of hunting, whether such a practice, even though it is bringing in much-needed revenue, should continue being legal, in a world which has seen the number of its wild animals dwindling.

 

You can contribute to this debate by sending your arguments to [email protected]

 

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are not able to publish Legal Matters this week. It will be back next wek. — Editor.

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