The Eye of the Elephant by Mark James Owens

Author:Mark James Owens
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Mariner Books

11. The Second Ivory Coast

MARK

Yet, though the hope, the thrill, the zest are gone,

Something keeps me fighting on!

—BERTON BRALEY

"THE ONE THEY CALL Chikilinti talked of coming to this camp to kill you and Madam and to destroy the ndeke," Mwamba whispers as we stand under the marula trees.

"While on leave we were in a bar," Simbeye says, picking up the story, "near Mwamfushi Village, not far from Mpika. Since we are from Shiwa N'gandu, the people there did not know us—or that we work for you. We were there for some hours, standing near the counter, when we overheard four men talking." One of them, about forty-five years old and of medium build, was wearing a brown safari suit, his hair straightened, greased, and slicked back. He walked with a swagger as he moved about the bar. This was Chikilinti.

"Who were the other men?" I ask.

"Simu Chimba, Mpundu Katongo, and Bernard Mutondo," Simbeye continues, spearing a leaf with a twig. "This Chikilinti—the people say last year he went poaching for rhinoceros in the Zambesi Valley with his brother and some others. They ambushed game scouts from Zimbabwe. Chikilinti killed two of them, but the scouts caught his brother and dragged him behind a Land Rover through the mountains until he was dead. Chikilinti escaped by swimming across the Zambezi River back to Zambia. He now stays in Mwamfushi."

Shaking their hands, I thank Simbeye and Mwamba. They cannot know how much their loyalty means to me. They turn to go, but Mwamba hesitates, looking back at me. "And Sir, just before Christmas Bernard Mutondo killed a game guard and wounded three others at Nakanduku."

"Thank you; I'll be careful" is all I can think of to say.

By late 1988 nothing is working, at least not fast enough. In the past month alone, from the air I have found twenty poached elephants; and there were plenty I didn't find. We are losing the battle for North Luangwa. For more than two years we have done everything imaginable for the Mano scouts, and our rewards haven't changed them. They still go into the park only when we find poachers and fly the scouts right in on top of them. Even then they rarely arrest anyone. The idea of a long patrol is about as appealing to them as a bad case of malaria. We can only surmise that it is more advantageous to them to cooperate with the poachers than with us. Our work with the villagers doesn't seem to be having much effect either; many of those we've helped most are still poaching. Loyal, dedicated scouts are our only real weapon against poachers. But the ones at Mano are hopeless. It's time to try some different scouts and some different tactics.

Maybe scouts from Kanona, a game guard post about one hundred fifty miles south of Mpika, would be a better solution. Some are military trained, armed with AK-47s, and because they are so far from Mpika, perhaps they are less corrupt. But in

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.