adminTWO rather strange things occurred in Bulawayo recently. The first was the presence of a monkey in the city’s Emakhandeni suburb and the second was that of a python in Nkulumane. The monkey was a menace to Emakhandeni residents as it stole their groceries and fruits and messed up their residential houses. A python about three metres in length was killed just as it had slid into a fowl-run where it swallowed a couple of hens. The monkey was killed a few weeks after it had been playing hide and seek with terrified residents.
In both cases, the residents concerned reported the presence of the animals to the appropriate officials, ranging from the local councillor to the parks employees.
What must have surprised the residents and many other people was that no sooner were the simian and the reptile killed than law enforcement agents moved in to arrest those suspected or believed to have killed the two creatures which are protected by some laws enacted by a white parliament long before this country fell under the control of the indigenous people.
There is something very much unZimbabwean about the law that it is unlawful to kill a monkey. Let alone a snake, and a python is a snake. Zimbabwean culture does not protect snakes, baboons, monkeys, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, lions, leopards and any other wild carnivorous beasts for obvious reasons.
Our traditions and culture used to say that wild female vegetable-feeding ruminants should not be killed during their breeding season. In Kalanga-Shona culture hunting was not allowed during the month called “Mapembwe”, because duikers (mhembwe ) were breeding during that month hence the name “mapembwe”.
That general custom applied as well to other wild ruminants such as steenboks, impala, reedbucks, kudus, and other antelope species. Male animals of the same species could be killed any time of the year. This conservation measure was more or less abandoned as the Kalanga-Shona communities evolved from the hunting, fishing, gathering mode of food procurement to the agricultural mode.
The animals became a menace to the people’s fields. Other animals such as porcupines, rabbits and elephants were hunted whenever and wherever, so were crocodiles. Although we did not have an alphabet and our laws were thus not written down, they were passed down orally from generation to generation. And were religiously observed. Our traditional and customary laws were meant to promote and protect the welfare of the community. That was their primary objective.
We cannot say, however, that the white settler regime’s conservation pertaining to either wildlife or land was aimed at bettering the black people’s lives.
A typical example of such laws is the one that says it is unlawful for anyone to kill a python or a monkey even when that beast gets into my residential area and steals my mangoes, bananas or whatever else as the unmourned Emakhandeni monkey did.
The python reportedly invaded a fowl-run and helped itself to some chickens before it was clobbered and stoned to death.
In Bantu custom and practice, a snake is a snake whatever its type and however, it kills its victims or prey, whether it is by a poisonous bite, or by means of constriction as is the case with the pythons. It just has to be killed unless it is either in a zoo, a properly protected park or in an inaccessible hill, kopje or very huge, tall tree.
My considered opinion is that the days when some Bantu communities used to practise animism are long gone, to say nothing about those who used to believe that the spirits of their dead ancestors return in the form of such creatures as praying mantis, green mambas, pythons or crocodiles.
However, I stand to be corrected on that aspect of Zimbabwe’s cultural beliefs.
To go back to our country’s laws that protect wild animals, reptiles and trees against people, one would have thought that the laws should empower people to protect themselves against reptiles, carnivores, fruit and grain-eating wild animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and ecologically dangerous plants.
Is it possible to justify the protection of a wild monkey that eats people’s bananas, mangoes and mulberries, or a hungry wild python that swallows hens and, in some cases, even dogs and people?
The purpose of any law is primarily to promote and protect the social, economic, political and cultural interests of human beings. A law that does not allow me to kill a menacing wild python or a thieving monkey or baboon, whether it is domestically or wild, is utterly inconsiderate and must be abolished.
That brings us to the role of our Members of Parliament first and foremost. It also brings us to that played by local government councillors.
Our MPs do not seem to be taking their responsibilities seriously at all. Nothing has been said publicly by the MP or MPs of the areas where the thieving monkey was killed or that of where the python swallowed hens before it was killed.
Apart from the cultural aspects of the two incidents, there is the economic side of those two incidents. Poverty reduction measures include the production of food by each family. The old laws defeat this poverty reduction policy. The objective cannot be achieved if some of the people’s food is eaten by wild beasts, such as monkeys and pythons protected by outdated laws.
This applies also to the Umguza District recent story about some stray cattle that were sold for peanuts at some auction there. The area’s MP should have been heard and seen protesting vigorously against that obviously strange occurrence.
Councillors have the responsibility to craft by-laws to promote and protect the welfare of their respective wards. The culture of the people should be considered whenever such by-laws are being made. That should apply to laws passed by parliament as well.
Meanwhile, the country’s by-laws and national laws that cut across the grain of Zimbabwe’s culture should be done away with as they have been overtaken by our political developments.
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or through email — [email protected]
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