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Luangwa Valley Dispatches
By Jake de Motta
In the annual lead-up to the South Luangwa Safari Guide examinations
there is plenty of opportunity for debate, and with the
establishment of the Safari Guides Association another forum has
opened up that will hopefully lead to dissemination of new
information and good practice in the industry. At this point it
might be useful to lay to rest a trio of “facts” that have emerged
so that should they ever rear their heads when you are on a game
drive in South Luangwa you can treat them with the derision they
deserve. Here we go then…there is NO evidence to support the
following safari guide myths
The extinction of the black rhino in the Luangwa Valley coincided
with the height of the Save the Rhino Trusts activities ergo
the SRT must have killed all the rhinos.
The reason that the fairly common incidence of juvenile white
baboons is not reflected in the adult population is because they are
sought out and stolen from the Park by self-drive tourists, who then
sell them to albino-baboon fanciers (and not because they stick out
like sore thumbs and get killed by predators or because albinism
carries a lower life expectancy in any species!).
The Wild Dog Group which implemented a study on Lycaon pictus
in the Lower Zambezi caused the population to fall from over
40 individuals to only 4-5 and thus should not be allowed to study
the Luangwa population for fear of the same mortality rate resulting
here.
 Other
than these three gems the bulk of knowledge that will be bestowed on
you on a drive in the Luangwa is worthy of a professional wilderness
guide anywhere in the world.
I
was never very good at History in school, nor was I that interested
in Politics or Sociology. Biology was my forte, Ecology my degree
and I tend to this day to draw my understanding of human
relationships from parallels in the animal world, believing that
much of human life is still governed by our basic survival needs as
a species. It’s disturbing though, when you come across folks using
this angle to justify bigotry and racism. Those unconscionable
nutters The British National Party say that because certain groups
of primates exhibit “murderous ‘wars'
against different groups of the same species”
it’s okay to segregate people on the grounds of race. They are also
of the “enlightened” opinion that the British Isles should be the
exclusive homeland of indigenous Britons only, who they define “as
the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers
(here) after the last great Ice Age” (10,000 years ago)………talk
about flogging a dead horse!
Imagine if everyone in the UK had to prove their right to join in
the society by tracing their ancestry back that far and proving that
they descended from some hulking, blonde brute of a Norseman (who
only popped over to Lindisfarne for a couple of pints of mead and a
takeaway wench and got bloody shipwrecked!). Imagine what a dull
place the UK would be without multiculturalism! Imagine what an
international outcry there would be if the objectionable British
National Party won the next elections and made good on their
promises to abolish multiculturalism and scrap all government
policies that promote racial equality and to repatriate (by force if
necessary) all non-Britons.
Good lord…that’d be me on my bike with no passport….what with my
Anglo-Portuguese-Indo-Chinese heritage thanks to my libidinous and
colour-blind ancestors! No Viking blood in my veins I fear!
Luckily in Zambia we live in a country where we’re “good at History”
aren’t we? We learn from it and use it to help map a safe route
through the minefield of human social development and hopefully
avoid the cowpats our forefathers stepped in. We would never condone
a land reform policy (however desperately needed) that resulted in
the bulk of the land being redistributed into
the hands of cabinet ministers, senior government officials and
wealthy businessmen whilst only 70,000 of the general indigenous
population were allocated plots to farm. Nor would we seek to hide
decades of ineffectual education policies and education aid behind a
smoke-screen of xenophobia; or sacrifice the economy on the grounds
that the playing field that was built on independent soil over 40
years ago was still too level and needed to be “sloped” in
favour of the home team. We would certainly never suggest, like
those obnoxious loonies in the BNP, that the only folks allowed to
live in Zambia should be descendants of the people who were here
10,000 years ago (the Bushmen) or even 2000 years ago (the first
Nilotic inhabitants) or even those who arrived over half a century
ago (the Bantu from Congo, the Portuguese or the Arabic Swahilis),
let alone the recent newcomers of the last 200 years like the
British, Angoni and Asians? Surely our leaders want Zambia to be
peopled by people who abide by the laws of the land and provide the
best opportunity for economic growth and improvement in the quality
of life (education, land ownership, employment opportunity etc) for
all citizens and residents of this great nation? Well then that’s a
relief isnt it? It’s a relief to know that Martin Luther King’s
words of more than forty years ago will never be heard to echo in
Zambia……
“I
have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character.”
…….because we’re so good at learning from the mistakes of history.
Many of the
tourism lodges in the South Luangwa are involved in raising
awareness amongst their staff of the issues surrounding HIV/Aids.
This includes “Peer Education” training sessions which are designed
not only to empower people with the knowledge they need to protect
themselves for HIV/Aids or, if already infected, how to live
positively but also to equip people with the means to teach their
peers, families, villages, church groups etc about HIV/Aids. Also
covered are some of the other great challenges to health in rural
Zambia (TB, malaria, family planning, clean water and nutrition).
In order to
make it possible for people to receive Anti Retroviral therapy (ARV’s)
it is vital to keep a track of the CD4 cells which give an
indication as to the progress of the infection.
The Zambian
National Aids Network – impressed by the work of the lodges and
health workers in addressing the HIV/Aids issue have chosen Mambwe
district to be the recipient of a CD4 count machine plus a viral
load count machine and all the necessary training, infrastructure
and support needed. Until now – anyone on ARV’s had to travel well
over 100 miles to have their CD4 cells counted. This is outside of
the reach of the vast majority of the local population who simply
cannot afford the journey or indeed the ARV’s. The machines are just
a small part of the programme which has already started. All
residents of Mambwe will now have free access to testing and
counseling, free CD4 counts, free ARV’s and small grants to enable
those living with HIV/Aids to ensure their diet is healthy – a key
to tackling infection.
Now that really is good news! |
May
2006