Is this a movie, a bad dream, or is it for real?
Sadly, what I am about to write is the truth and not like the title suggests a movie or a bad dream. It could happen today or tomorrow. Today, March 18th, as we recover from the aftermath of the elections, things take a much more serious and frightening position.
First, may I state that I am apolitical, having never voted in my life, as I believe in nature and animals and prefer to keep out of people politics. Secondly, for nearly two years my husband and I have hardly left our home due to our responsibilities for these wonderful hippos, as well as to our own domestic pets and our home. This area is nearly one million acres of a so-called wildlife conservancy. We are neither owners of land, nor anybody of any importance in the overall ball game. Yet we work for the animals, for the conservation and preservation of an animal that has declined dramatically in this area and in many areas in Africa: the hippo.
Our involvement over the years has helped neighbours in their own safari companies by sending clients to us for free to meet the hippos and find out about the Turgwe Hippo Trust. At all times, I have personally dedicated my life to these animals. Now I believe that my own life and my husband's are at stake.
The previous letters in this website have told of what has been happening on the Zimbabwean front, as well as how we are trying to get on with our lives and help the Turgwe Hippos. We had tremendous support for these animals in 2001 and managed to achieve quite a lot. In the last two months, the poaching here has increased so that Jean-Roger and I have been spending more daylight hours in the bush trying to find and remove the poachers' wire snares than actually working at home with hippo work and research. I wrote to you about the incident with the man and his colleague and the bow and arrows and how he threatened us. Well, things have gotten worse.
We have had, to date, three incidents of a group of men actually using firearms in our area to kill the animals. On the first occasion, they shot about 450 meters from our home. We went to investigate and had a rifle and what looked like a shotgun pointed at us. Like in all good westerns, we hit the ground and luckily they left and then so did we! Since then, they have been back twice in our area. On both occasions we called in our neighbour and he sent his game scouts, as the poachers are operating on his land. Obviously they were long gone before the game scouts could get here. Then, just before our elections, for once I was with the hippos whilst Jean-Roger patrolled alone in the area where we initially found snares set to capture the hippos. He heard a chopping noise so moved closer to the sound. It appeared to be the noise a panga (a sharp machete) makes when cutting meat. The noise came from the little rocky mountains behind our home. (The area where we have had all the poaching).
As it was dusk, Jean came home and the following a.m. ,very, very early we went to investigate, having called the game scouts but not knowing if they would be able to come along. On arriving close to the area where Jean had heard the noise, I lost confidence so he told me to remain by a tree and he walked in closer. He turned on the conservancy radio, which he carries just to have as a deterrent, as a call up emergency radio. He then saw smoke in the rocks and heard voices and at that same moment the radio came to life. It was the scouts calling us from our home. Obviously the poachers heard the radio and Jean backed out quickly, practically walking into one snare set right on a hippo path. He even had the courage to quickly remove it. We shot home- myself to the hippos, Jean to the house. He met up with the game scouts- 12 men in total, two armed with shotguns- and they rushed back to the area, but of course the poachers (two men as noted by their tracks) had left, carrying with them the meat of a male impala but leaving behind 14 new snares, which had not yet been put in the bush. We later found a further 6 snares set in that area and removed them with no other animal deaths. Then, yesterday shots were fired again in our little rocky mountain, three shots. We phoned for assistance and waited. You cannot fight men with rifles when you are unarmed.
As we waited, over an hour and a quarter hours lapsed and then another shot, but this time only 200 meters from our home, nearby to the hippos. Of course I reacted and ran towards the hippos, Jean quickly following me. Thank God all hippos were quite fine and calm. There were even three of the nine crocodiles lying on a sandbank and nobody seemed disturbed. Obviously the rifle had been fired a bit further upstream. Jean went to investigate, but being very careful, while I waited by the hippos for the scouts. Hearing the vehicle approximately ten minutes later, I ran to the house and grabbed the men and headed off in Jean's direction. We met Jean nearly immediately. He too had heard the vehicle and he and the rest of the men went in search of the rifle guy. But of course nothing could be found. That was yesterday.
On a hippo note, early that morning, who should be in the pool with the other 16 hippos but darling Cheeky with her newborn calf, Hope. It was the first time she has been in the water and stayed in for over ten minutes before the other hippos' interest in young Hope made Cheeky once more return to the bushes. I have not seen her since we heard the rifle shot but I must believe she and the baby are fine. There are other animals in that area where we heard the shot come from: one is the son of my lovely warthog Arthur, whose name is Naf Naf and is a wild warthog like his dad. He comes to our home for tit bits. Naf Naf did not come for food last night. Yet again I have to believe he is ok and not a victim of that shot. To try and explain what it is like to love all of these animals, to share and to feel them in their wildness, to watch hippos but to get to know so many of the other inhabitants of this once peaceful and wonderful land, and then to have so much fear around, is so hard to say, in the least. Now the worst fear has come.
This morning our neighbours have told us their one very reliable worker has told them that, today or tomorrow, the Zimbabwe youth brigades/National Service plus vigilantes and hardliners are targeting our neighbours and ourselves. Fortunately our main neighbours who are on the list are not here. The person who told us is very confused as to why we are targeted. We are not part of that set-up nor are we landowners. All they can think is that it is due to our constant vigilance with regards to the poaching in our area. We have upset whoever are the main people getting the meat and making money from it. On all our occasions of being threatened, we have informed the Zimbabwean police and they have responded and come here for statements. Even today they have told us that nobody can hurt you, it is not allowed to happen. But, the police are a good two-hour drive from us and the bad guys can walk in here and hurt us without much problem.
I have a major problem. People say the woman should get out, hence the man does not have her to worry about and maybe the crowd will not hurt him. But if she is around they can use her as a pawn. I have a bigger problem. I love my husband, my home, and most importantly my animals- domestic and wild. The wild may be able to survive any mob that arrives at our doorstep, in that the hippos immediate reaction will be to run into the bushes if they hear screaming and noise, etc. and then, God willing, they will be safe. Even a mob would be totally foolish to approach 19 hippos in the bushes.
I have pet goats, 10 of them. White and black people have laughed about our goats for years. Goats in Africa are for meat, not pets. Tough! Mine are pets and happy goats and get buried when they die from illness or naturally. They will be the first animals the mob grabs and kills. We also have six cats, a tortoise and then there are all the wild animals that join us here each day: 40 odd vervet monkeys, the warthogs, the genets, the civet et al. They should be able to survive a mob.
Yet in this conservancy, nobody is as crazy as me. Most of the people have dogs not goats, and have always found my attititude toward animals a bit strange. But they put up with me. We can get the animals out right now, drive to one neighbour who is approximately one hour down the road (American), who is at this moment safe and perhaps my animals will be okay there. He has a tiny shed and a spare room for temporary purposes. But, if we go, the mobs have us, in that they can do this all the time (send word that they are coming) and we have to run. And taking 10 goats, 6 cats, and a tortoise is no easy exercise. Also it is incredibly unsettling for the animals. On the other hand, they could be killed in front of my eyes, myself afterwards- but first they would hurt the animals. Yet there may be no mob. The police tell us that it will not happen. So what do you do?
As I type, I am- to put it bluntly- a bit of a mess. I am writing this as a witness. I am hoping that soon I will be able to write and say- "We are fine, the animals are fine, and this wildlife conservancy is being given a chance of a future and the animals are no longer being poached." The history of Africa has many times been involved in this kind of scenario. What I am hoping is that, for once, Zimbabwe and its goodness and its original beauty will shine through; that it will not follow the steps of other countries who have destroyed all of their wildlife and those people who actually care about the animals and, funnily enough, the people as well. I have just taken a break to explain to our worker, an African, what may happen in the next day. We believe in fairness. He is the nephew of our neighbouring war veteran and obviously blood is thicker than anything else.
At the same level, we do not want him nor his wife and their newly born first child, a son, to be hurt. So I have just let him know what may happen today or tomorrow, giving him the option to run or try and talk with the mob if he can, or come with us if we do have to go, with all the animals hopefully with us. He tells me that in his reserve he has been told all along that he is a white man's stooge and supporting the opposition party, as do his bosses. He knows that I did not vote and that Jean-Roger is not allowed to and yet he is also caught between one rock and the other. It is such a sorry state of affairs that in a country with so much potential and mainly lovely, happy people that we can end up with our hearts in our mouths in fear!
I am not afraid for Jean or I in that we believe in the Lord and in goodness, but I am desperately afraid for our animals which would eventually mean I stick with them and that means probably my life goes too... I am terribly sorry to all hippo people who read this link, to be filled with so many negative words. We try not to lose hope, but on days like today one really does not know anymore. Please pray if you believe in prayer or send positive vibes but, whatever, hope for us, for the animals and for the future of Zimbabwe.
Karen Paolillo, Hippo Haven, Save Valley Conservancy, March 18th, 2002.