Life or Livelihood

What a narrow escape!

David, a 14 year old boy from Turkana shocked many with his story of how he survived the scare of a cobra by a whisker. Together with his other friends, David had been on a day to day routine of herding his father’s cattle.

The day went on well not until evening when David realised that some cattle were missing from his father’s herd. Knowing how valuable the animals were to the father and the entire family, David set out to search for the missing cattle.

His friend’s cautioned him about going back to the wilderness to look for the animals but he could not listen to the. “This is the source of our livelihood,” sighed David. David decided to leave the rest of the herd with his colleagues to take home.

The sun was already setting when the ordeal happened.  David went on and on but was not seeing the signs of finding the animals soon. It was already very dark and he could no longer see where he was going or coming from. He was not aware of what he could do. The animals are nowhere and he is also not sure where he was.

“I thought again and again on what to do but I had no idea”, says David. Immediately he remembered a story he was once told by his grandfather about the same grazing field. “My grandfather had narrated to us about this field. It was so easy for animals to disappear and once gone, it would be so hard to trace them,” I recall him say.

“Since it was late, I decided to remain where I was. Thoughts came to me but I did not know what to do,” he says with tears rolling down his cheek.

“I don’t recall what happened afterwards. I touched something very cold and then woke up. It was in the morning, the sun was up and I could hear birds sing,” he poses. The young boy can not recall exactly how possible it was. A big snake (a cobra according to his description) coiled down where he was standing. It slowly crawled away and disappeared into the thicket.

“I wanted to scream but I could not. It was like my whole body was frozen. I closed my eyes and run away not knowing where I was headed. All I wanted to avoid was the sight of what I saw.” He remarks.

David went away and on tracing his route home, came across the animals that had gone missing. What a sad turn of events to him. After surviving the scare of the snake, he finds the animals.

“I have never forgotten about what I saw and I don’t know whether I will even on my deathbed,” concluded David.

Lion Killer Turns Saviour!

Lion killer turns Saviour!

Born in the native Maasai Community in Kenya, Antony Kasanga grew up with wildlife as part and parcel of the ecosystem. As is expected in the Maasai rituals, a boy child has to ensue and kill a lion before being recognised as a man in the society.

When the season approaches for passage from boyhood to manhood in the Maasai community, lions are always at risk. I wonder what they could do if they would reckon the season fast approaching. However, this is never the case and young Maasai men on a yearly basis set out to go hunt the lions and the first to put his spear on the lion is always the hero.

Antony Kasanga after growing and seeing the lions killed developed an interest to save the lions from the killers; of whom he was once one.

Antony grew up in the southern part of Kenya and only attended secondary school up to 2003. After his secondary school, Antony developed the interest to save lions even more; he joined the Living with Lions project. Though he had interest in further education, the chance was not there for him until WildCRU accepted him and admitted him to one of their new course, International Wildlife Conservation Practice. With just the secondary education, Antony worked as a research assistant and an assistant director for Lion Guardian Program at Living with Lions organization; being part of Master of Science thesis of one student, Leela Hazzah who still runs the Lion Guardians to date.
 

Antony got scholarship to study at the Oxford University and this even opened his eyes to wildlife conservation more. “Attending the course has really enlightened me on how to carry out research. This is something I struggled with before. I have worked in wildlife issues before, but didn't get a chance to explore the scientific part. As such being part of the WildCRU has helped nurture my young mind to understand conservation through a scientific perspective,” says Antony.

Antony now works with Maasailand conservation Trust to save lions. This is something that is unheard of. Furthermore, Antony wants her sister to join him in the work of saving lions.

“One of the most important things to me was to make sure that my sister was still going to school while I was further studying conservation. Perhaps she will one day be able to follow in my footsteps to become a Maasai wildlife conservationist, which would be a great achievement, even more so because she is female. Maasai do not recognize any role played by women in society, and this why I want my younger sister to become one of the pioneers in a field dominated by men. “

Antony’s work is highly welcomed by the community and now he has rallied many Maasai men into wildlife conservation; especially the Big Five.

Antony now a renowned wildlife conservationist has proved that change begins with an individual.

He has trounced the odds of being just a Secondary School graduate and a Maasai Moran to become an expert in Lion conservation and a champion for saving Lions!