At the root of the poaching menace is a veritable clash of value systems
What you need to know:
- To the Samburu, Mr Lekalhaile avers, the elephant is a moral being and when it dies, they go to great pains to bury its skull as they chant a prayer that goes like this; “brother, rest... here are my respects, God be with you.”
Talk about the poaching crisis is no longer news. But our so-called conservationists have taken their campaign a pitch higher. From their recent interaction with the media, it is apparent they have made the debate on the killing of our wildlife an end in itself.
But no matter how much conservation evangelists shout from the roof-tops; no matter how much we try to eradicate the menace by using guns, we are bound to fail because the philosophy, practice and value system upon which Kenya’s conservation enterprise is based has remained fundamentally flawed.
In different circumstances, there ought to be national disgust with someone, or people, who insist on continuing to manipulate the management of a critically important national enterprise even with copious evidence that they have been responsible for the mistakes that led to a near collapse of such an enterprise.
But we are yet to be disgusted because the same group has the wherewithal and ability to wield massive influence on the media as well as on policymakers.
Right from the dawn of colonialism, we put it on paper that wildlife is held in trust by the government for and on behalf of Kenyans.
But what we have refused to acknowledge is that the Western conservation philosophy and practice have inculcated in individuals a sense of ownership of wildlife while consumerism and penchant for domination continue to bring about great damage, not just on wildlife but also on its habitats.
The time has come for us to marry the Western thought system and conservation practice with our own cultures and traditional conservation practices or to even shelve it altogether. It has failed pathetically to endear, as well as inculcate brotherhood bonds between us and animals or even a keen sense of responsibility to nature.
Among the Samburu, the elephant is more than an animal. Kahindi Lekalhaile, a scholar and authority on indigenous knowledge and conservation, says that members of the Masura clan — which is the biggest in the community — have since time immemorial retained symbolic value for snakes, elephants and baboons.
In his post-graduate research “Cultural Perception on the Elephant by the Samburu People of Northern Kenya, Mr Lekalhaile says that members of the Lukumai clan and their sub-clans have mystical powers that enable them to control the behaviour of elephants; they are said to ‘use’ elephants to punish wrong-doers.
Consequently, it is widely believed within the community that if anybody is killed by an elephant, he or she must have been cursed by a Lukumai. The victims are not even buried; they have no funeral rights.
To the Samburu, Mr Lekalhaile avers, the elephant is a moral being and when it dies, they go to great pains to bury its skull as they chant a prayer that goes like this; “brother, rest... here are my respects, God be with you.”
Further, Samburu people say that the best omen one can ever come across is the placenta of an elephant, which they bury in their homesteads believing that doing so would bestow the family with as many livestock as the maggots that later attack the placenta.
Such symbolism is an expression of the veneration with which the community regards elephants.
What is more, most members of nearly all communities in Kenya can narrate one form of symbolic significance they have to different animal species.
But none of the so-called conservationists — and particularly those moulded with the European clay — has shown any willingness to embrace this.
What is more worrying is that even our own policymakers have continued to trash such symbolism at the altar of clichés such as “Oh, Kenyans have lost their culture”; “this cannot work in the 21st Century!” or that “this is voodooism!” ad nauseum.
But because of the total disregard with which the Western cultural system treats other cultures, we have not even embraced it in our national conservation effort.
Instead, the entire sector continues to be dominated by an odious barrage of evangelism, while those engaged in tangible activities (particularly KWS rangers) are forever on the receiving end of unholy fusillades from the self-proclaimed do-gooders.
Mr Mbaria writes on conservation. ([email protected])
