Youth Africa Experience
Sample from this book:
Helping wildlife in Zambia
Kasaka Lodge
Alan’s visit to the Lower Zambezi National Park was nothing
if not eventful! If you are thinking of planning an African adventure,
or want to make contact with a cutting edge African conservation
project, this section should provide you with a brief introduction.
Along with his friends Dave and Cath – long time residents
living near Zambia’s capital Lusaka – Alan stayed
at Kasaka Lodge very close to the actual boundary of the park.
Forget your average UK park immediately and imagine a vast expanse
of mostly thick vegetation and trees covering 4,100 square kilometres,
including 120 kilometres of river bank. Even as the group of friends
arrived at Kasaka Lodge and were having lunch, the realities of
living in close proximity with African wildlife became all too
apparent.
The short wave radio crackled:
‘Calling Kasaka Lodge, urgent, over.’
‘OK, Kasaka receiving, copy.’
‘Your guide’s father (couldn’t hear the
name) has been taken by a croc from his canoe while fishing,
over.’
Everyone at the Lodge – and there were 16 staff plus the
managers, Hugo and Esther – went, literally, a deathly quiet.
Then there arose a loud human wailing as the Zambian guide received
the news of his father’s death at the back of kitchen area.
The Lower Zambezi Valley is situated in the south-east corner
of Zambia, divided from neighbouring
Zimbabwe by the mighty Zambezi river. Getting there is certainly
part of the adventure. You absolutely require a tough 4-wheel
drive vehicle and the know-how to drive it. The 150 kilometre
stretch of dirt tracks from the Kariba dam to the Lower Zambezi
Valley take hours to traverse. In fact during our stay one visiting
couple missed their lunch time arrival by five hours! Staying
at a lodge near an African National Park in itself an experience
which kindles mixed emotions.
Alan recalls: ‘Part of the magic of Africa is the personal
experience of
witnessing wildlife and landscapes that are still truly ‘wild’
in every sense of the word. Kasaka was our fourth lodge stop.
We’d already stayed at three lodges around the Zambezi National
Park, in the Livingstone/Victoria Falls area. I found it very
difficult to justify the expense – approximately £35-£100
per night each, usually to sleep in an elaborately crafted hut
or tent structure. These tend to be equipped with a shower and
toilet, limited electric power and often a mosquito net –
pretty necessary in this malarial area. The problem, though, is
the contrast between our spending power and being waited upon
by Zambian staff who are perhaps only earning a couple of pounds
a day.
This is often made worse by their long working days from
about 5 a.m. until 10 or 11 at night, frequently being ordered
around and being ticked off by arrogant white bosses (and some
guests), many who seem to relish adopting an almost apartheidstyle
approach to being white residents in Africa.’
However, Kasaka is one of the better organised lodges for tourists.
The food is quite imaginative and the activities each day include
fishing for the likes of tiger fish, bream and barbell; canoeing
(a survival course in trying to avoid the submerged hippos and
crocodiles), and day and night-time game drives (we saw a whole
variety of birds and animals and most notably got close up to
a lion and a leopard). These trips are
guaranteed to keep the nerves tingling.
On one drive Alan’s group were charged by two elephants
at sundown – ‘Like us, they’re too hot and
grumpy at this time of year’, Jodie, our guide of the
day informed us. He was also none too amused when his Zambian
assistant tried to make a run for it away from the jeep!
Elephants in yerr face
Hugo informed us that the lodge had been having a little bit
of an elephant problem as we arrived. In point of fact, the little
‘problem’ was definitely elephantine in proportions,
and ‘times two’. In fact, for the past few days two
bull elephants had been amusing themselves munching on the trees,
and uprooting them in the grounds
of the lodge.
‘How close do you get to elephants?’, Alan
asked Hugo, the camp boss.
Hugo replied, ‘It depends on their mood……
But this meant that each short trip from the main lodge building
to and from the frame tent sleeping quarters involved a rather
dangerous game of ‘elephant dodge’, or worse still,
‘meet the ellie’! As guests, it is difficult to assess
the level of danger, but Esther the joint-manager was small and
jittery and chirping shrilly like a bird for much of our stay.
Hugo and his colleague Jodie meanwhile played the big white bwanas,
chasing the elephants around the pond, the pool and the previously
immaculate lawns, yelling something in Afrikaans that sounded
like ‘Come on’, but presumably meant the opposite.
(photos of the elephants by Hugo, Kasaka Lodge)
The day time antics of the two bulls was pretty ‘in yerr
face’. This was a serious case of elephant anti-social behaviour,
coupled with a full-on territorial neighbour-dispute. They charged
each other, tore up anything in their mutual and independent paths
and trumpeted aggressively at any of the humans who confronted
them. Just like the street pub brawlers back home in the UK, after
each extended skirmish the ellies liked to have a drink from the
swimming pool or pond, and prepare for round two.
One night, Alan even had the ultimate elephant experience. He
recalls:
‘We’d been stuck at the dinner table long after
the end of our meal at about 8.30 p.m. when the bar had officially
closed. No problem though, since our white wine was being replenished.
We can hear the two male elephants crunching and crashing about
in the trees by our tents. Some time passes while we play spot
the snake – in this case a long green model with a white
underbelly, coiled around a branch immediately above our heads!
Hugo returns from elephant spotting. He yells out to us:
“There’s a window of opportunity, get your things
together and follow me.”
We picked up our white wine glasses, bags, etcetera and followed
him, accompanied by a black guide, using a couple of torches to
find our way in the near pitch-black darkness. Over the rickety
bridge above the pond, across the lawned area to Dave and Cath’s
tent. Then Hugo leads me to my tent. It is only then that we spot
the two bull elephants wedged between my tent and some trees.
They are literally three feet from the foot of my bed.
“Better get in – zip up – and stay in until
the morning”, urges Hugo.
I don’t even turn the light on. I can see the legs
of both elephants moving past the mosquito netting windows of
my tent. I can smell them, strong and pungent in the night air.
I find myself thinking, ‘Am I frightened?’ and strangely
think, ‘No, it’s actually exciting and even exhilarating.’
I’m in bed and I can hear every breath they make, the munching
noises, interspersed by the occasional bellow and trumpet, a bit
reminiscent of the giants of the deep – the whales.
I drifted off to sleep and in the morning the elephants are
still close by and causing more tree damage mayhem. Being able
to see them, I crept around the back of my tent and circumnavigated
my way to a 5.30 a.m. breakfast.’
Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ)
In Africa, poverty and survival are among the ingredients of
everyday life. Alan’s friend Dave explained how the Zambian
population mostly view wildlife. He said: ‘If a Tonga
or Bemba tribesman or child sees an elephant or rhino or lion,
they use one word for it. Depending on their local language that
can be, ‘Nyama’ or ‘Wema’. Nyama, pronounced
Yama means ‘meat’.’
With black market game selling in the local street markets for
less than legal meat, poaching represents an illegal but very
active economy. In the Lower Zambezi Valley, Conservation Lower
Zambezi was established in 1995 to try and work through prevention
and education to eradicate poaching. The organisation was established
by a highly committed group of safari tour operators working closely
with local Chiawa community and the Zambian government’s
National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). But their task is
a daunting and challenging one.
Leanne Edwards, originally from New Zealand and Ian Stevenson,
out of the USA and Australia, are two of the key figures co-ordinating
the efforts of CLZ and provided Alan with information and a guided
tour of the project headquarters. Ian told Alan: ‘Poaching
has been stemmed to some extent, but is still a serious threat.’
Leanne added, ‘We see the education of the children
from the villages throughout this part of Zambia, and it’s
a huge area, as being absolutely vital.’
Alan’s visit coincided with the near completion of a $200,000
building programme. The new CLZ compound is being geared up to
provide ongoing educational programmes for 20 local children at
a time, who will stay for three days at a time, together with
two teachers and two parents in specially provided dormitories
and bedrooms. Ernest Chingaipe has recently been appointed as
the co-ordinator for the education project. The centre also boasts
a workshop area, 4-wheeled people transporters, indoor and open
classroom areas, a conference centre and a space designed to house
an interpretative display showing indigenous African wildlife
using computers and visual aids.
At the time of Alan’s visit, United Nations Development
staff (see photo on right) were being shown around the centre
and together with Alan watched a stomach-churning, emotion-shocking
slide show of poachers killing local animals, including ‘Big
Boy’ a legendary local bull elephant, gunned down for his
ivory.
For the children visiting the centre there will be also plenty
of hands-on experiences of living with and around wild animals.
Trips on the Zambezi river and field trips in the Lower Zambezi
National Park will be core elements of taking pupils into a ‘natural
classroom.’ Linked to this is Leanne’s very practical
care work with injured wildlife. Leanne hopes that the centre
can provide the necessary support and care for a range of wildlife,
leading where possible for animals and birds to be released back
into the wild.
During Alan’s visit, Leanne had two ‘guests’.
First, there was the magnificent Eddie the Eagle, who has suffered
from a severely broken wing. Then there was Joey, a tiny infant
duiker with a broken leg. Both are getting used to human attention
and Leanne anticipates that they and others like them will help
the young visitors to the CLZ centre to form a personal bond with
the animals.
Leanne with Eddie the eagle and Alan with Joey the duiker
Essentially, the CLZ initiative through education provision has
to change the culture of the next generation of Zambians. Abundant
and sustainable wildlife has to become seen as an essential component
of a flourishing society, with an economy increasingly based on
eco-tourism. Locals who have found tourist-related employment
in and near the Zambian National Parks are already perceiving
animals as a part of their new livelihood, but this is far from
the universal attitude.
Along with the new education work, the CLZ has proved itself
to be committed in offering active support to the Zambian Wildlife
Authority (ZAWA), the successors to the National Parks and Wildlife
Service of Zambia. Their work is intended to strengthen anti-poaching
measures, but ZAWA are working with only two vehicles to cover
an enormous geographic area covering Ciawa, Luano and Rufunsa,
an area roughly equivalent to the counties of Devon and Dorset.
CLZ describes the Zambian National Park rangers as, ‘…dedicated
men and women on the front lines of preservation and conservation
of wildlife. However, to be successful NPWS staff need adequate
training, equipment and supplies. Currently, anti-poaching patrols
are ill-equipped for effective deterrence. Vehicles, communication
equipment, rations, uniforms and fundamental support are either
lacking or non-existent.’
In fact the situation with regard to funding for their partners
the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) is in a critical state with
ZAWA having been ‘…downsized to approximately
half the number of employees as the former NPWS…therefore
there is a growing dependence upon CLZ’s resources.’
The challenges are immense, given the enormity of the problems
faced in an area which has seen the populations of many animals
decimated. For example, Zambia’s elephants have declined
drastically from 67,000 in the early 1970s to 6,000 now. Even
worse is the fate of the black and white rhino. There are now
only three white rhino left, protected around the clock by six
rangers in the Zambezi National park, near Livingstone and Victoria
Falls. Sadly, the price for rhino horns has lured many professional
poachers into Zambia’s national parks.
One of the last rhino in Zambia
Despite this worrying scenario, CLZ is effectively mobilising
local and international supporters and donations for the provision
of their new education initiative and antipoaching patrols in
the National Park. Many individuals and organisations have provided
sponsorship for the CLZ and the Danish authorities have been especially
generous in their funding for the new education premises and facilities.
Quite close the CLZ is a backpackers’ style campsite called
Chia, which might be able to host visiting youth groups at a reasonably
modest cost. If your youth group or school is interested in getting
involved with Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ) first visit their
web site at:
www.conservationlowerzambezi.com.zm
You can also contact them by e-mail at:
chiacamp@zamnet.zm
And their postal address is:
Conservation Lower Zambezi
PO Box 320197
Lusaka
Zambia
Working with children and young people is a major part of CLZ’s
work. Those young people, especially those of African origin,
will be taught the CLZ credo which is summed up in the following
statement:
‘CREATURES OF THE WILD.... In a world far older than
ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of
the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we
shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings,
they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life
and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the
earth.’
Street games
Alan was privileged to meet a group of girls at the Zambian Nyamphande
Orphanage and Community School who showed him some of the games
that they play amongst themselves on a regular basis. Like many
other forms of ‘play’, many of the African street
games seem to be segregated by gender and the games that are illustrated
here are primarily girls’ and young boys’ games in
Africa.
The games were mostly accompanied by singing and chanting which
tell simple stories or even recite the alphabet. Sadly, Alan wasn’t
able to master the Tonga, Bemba and Nysenga languages enough to
copy out the words, so we have included them here to indicate
the types of games that are common to African street culture,
together with just about enough rules to enable you to use them
or adapt them for use with younger youth groups.
 Chiyenga
Chiyenga is the Tonga word for ‘playing with stones’.
The game appears to be a simple one with the players taking it
in turns to toss one stone from the palm of their hand and catch
them on the back of that hand. At the same time, with their other
hand they attempt to grab one stone at a time out of the circle
of stones. Their turn ends when they drop the stone that they
are tossing or fail to grab a stone from the circle. After a number
of turns, the winner is the player who amasses the greatest number
of stones from out of the circle at the point when there are no
more stones left in the circle itself.
Kambushi-kalilala
This Bemba game is literally called, ‘The goat is crying:
maaa – I will give it to you’.
A circle was drawn on the ground and all the girls started a
chant with all the participants moving around in a crouched position
a bit like a bull-frog, making one leap sideways in an anti-clockwise
with each line of the chant. One player is chosen to move out
of the circle and does so holding an old shirt or other article
of clothing. As the other players move around within their circle,
backs facing outwards, the rhythm gets faster and the outsider
throws the shirt trying to hit one of her friends inside the circle.
If successful, she joins the circle, and the person who has been
hit moves outside of the circle and repeats the sequence. If they
fail to hit anyone, the thrower picks up the shirt and makes another
attempt, although it appeared that you cannot make a throw until
a certain point in the chant.
 Although
probably not African in origin, a typical rhyming chant to sing
to accompany this games would be:
Brown as a coffee-berry, red as a bean
That’s the prettiest colour I ever seen.
Yellow as a daisy, black as ink
That’s the prettiest colour I do think.
Orange as a pumpkin, green as the grass
Keep on dancing as long as you last.
 Pada
This means ‘throw the stone’ in Nysenga.
It is a form of hopscotch not too different from the varieties
played still by some UK children.
Hopscotch has as many variations as there are players, but is
reputed to be one of the oldest games on the planet. All the girls
at Nyamphande needed to create their game was a stick to mark
out the lines on the sand and a stone.
The particular version of pada they were playing appeared
to be what we know as Moon hopscotch. The rules are quite
simple. The first player throws the stone into the square marked
number 1. She then hops from the start area, trying to avoid landing
on any lines between the squares in sequence. On squares with
minus signs she hops on one foot and on squares with plus signs
she hops using both feet. To start, she hops into square one then
kicks the stone into square 2, and so on around the sequence.
Neither the player nor the stone must enter the square marked
with the moon in the top right hand corner.
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