Bruce Ndlovu [email protected]
FOR nearly an hour, Notice Moyo believed his bicycle was the only thing standing between him and certain death.
It was 1993 and Moyo had just knocked off work at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). It was a Friday afternoon, and he was cycling home, looking forward to a restful weekend with his family.
He had chosen a route that passed near Antelope Park in Gweru, hoping to cut down on the distance between Dabuka Railway Station and Marshalling Yard and his home in Mkoba.
Unknown to him, however, a lion had escaped from the game park and was resting under the shade of a marula tree. As Moyo cycled past, he was about to disturb the sleeping beast.
“I used to live in Mkoba 5, and there was a graded path from the NRZ that passed near the game park. It was a Friday, and I was eager to get home because I knew I would spend the next day resting. In those days, we used to ride bicycles to and from work at Dabuka. What I didn’t know was that a lion had escaped from the game park and was on the prowl.
“I had just passed a marula tree when I noticed an animal resting under its shade. I immediately jumped off my bicycle. My mouth went dry, and I started looking around, wondering where I could run to,” Moyo recalled in an interview with Sunday Life.
What followed was a terrifying ordeal that left Moyo hospitalised and on sick leave for six months. For nearly an hour, he faced off against the lion, using his bicycle as a shield and his only means of defence.
“My bicycle saved me. It was what I used to fight the lion off. I believe that without it, the animal would have mauled me. Using the bicycle, I managed to fend off the attack and buy myself some time,” he said.
Moyo said his first instinct was to find a way out, but he knew that running would only make him an easier target.
“When I looked at the lion, it did not lock eyes with me. Instead, it looked aside. I looked around, wondering where I could run to. There were two trees behind me, and I wondered whether I should ditch the bicycle and make a run for it. I decided against it because I knew it would easily run me down if I ran.
“I decided I would back out towards the trees together with my bicycle. While I was backing out, it started charging and, when it got to me, it sank its teeth into my hand and shoulder.”
With the lion repeatedly charging, Moyo fought back with whatever he had while desperately calling for help.
“I was trying to fight it off. At the same time, I was screaming as loudly as I could, hoping someone would hear me and come to my rescue.
“I was now using the bicycle to fight it off. It kept charging at me. I had lost my bell, and it had torn off one of my wheels. Whenever it came at me, I used the bicycle to fend it off. It continued stalking me as time slipped away. I knew that if the sun went down, I wouldn’t make it home.”
His desperate cries eventually attracted the attention of people from the game park, who were also searching for the escaped lion. One of them came across Moyo under attack but, rather than intervene, ran away.
“I was relieved to see him, but instead of coming to help me, he ran off. Unknown to me, he had gone to call the owners of the game park. Before long, they arrived in two cars.
The intervention that followed was as extraordinary as the attack itself. The game park owner, Andrew Conolly, and his wife approached the lion with large pieces of meat, seemingly confident that they could distract the animal.
“They parked behind the lion and the owner’s wife was the one who got out of the car and approached it. She was saying some things that I could not hear. When the lion heard her, it turned around and started approaching her.
“In my mind, I was thinking that this woman was going to be torn to shreds. Instead, the lion lifted its foot and started playing with her. That’s when her husband gave her the meat, which she threw on the ground near the lion. It jumped towards it and they ran back to the car before driving towards me.
“They came, lifted me up and that’s when the owner said, ‘Mr Railways, the lion is going to eat you.’”
Moyo was rushed to hospital for treatment. His injuries kept him away from work for six months, although he continued receiving his salary.
However, his ordeal was far from the end of the lion’s violent encounters with humans. Just a week after attacking Moyo, the same animal turned on Conolly, the game park owner, tearing off his arm and even, according to Moyo, consuming the watch on his wrist.
Despite the attack, Conolly is reputed as one of lions’ greatest advocates and founder of Alert, a lion conservation and research group.
“Some people would give an arm and a leg to save the lion,” Conolly, once quipped to NBC News correspondent James Cannon Boyce. “I am half-way there.”
For Moyo, there was nothing to laugh about concerning the ordeal.
“They eventually came and put down the lion, while the owner was sent to South Africa for treatment. We used to call him Njelele, and whenever we met, he would tell me that I had strong muthi because he had not been as lucky as I was,” Moyo said.
Although he survived the physical attack, its psychological effects lingered long after his wounds had healed.
“I used to have a lot of nightmares after the attack. I would wake up in cold sweats because I would dream that the lion was attacking me again. I would even tear off the sheets in my sleep. Even now,
I get shivers when I think about it.
“After they killed the lion, I was given some of its body fat to help lessen my fear of it. I believe that is what helped calm me down.”
The experience also changed his daily routine permanently. The shortcut that had once made his journey home easier was no longer an option.
“I never used that same path to or from work ever again,” he said.
