Lessons from the killing of Cecil the lion – Mutumwa Mawere

By Mutumwa Mawere

What lessons, if any, do we learn from the killing of Cecil and the consequent global outcry over the act? This morning, I searched for Cecil the Lion on the internet and I got 126,000,000 results, confirming that in death, Cecil, a lion, that was hardly known in Zimbabwe, its country of birth and residency, has touched the lives of millions and in so doing put Zimbabwe in the mainstream of news.

Indeed, Cecil is trending in death while other lions in Zimbabwe that face the same fate will probably not receive the same global attention. Who was Cecil? It was a 13-year old male lion that lived in the Hwange National Park, in Zimbabwe. We are told that he was a major attraction at the park and, as such, had an economic value unlike other animals. Its other major claim to fame was that it was being studied and tracked not by any institute of higher learning in Zimbabwe but by the University of Oxford, where Cecil Rhodes, the man, studied.

On 1 July 2015, Cecil’s life ended at the hands of Walter Palmer, a 55-year old American recreational big-game hunter. In the hunting world, it is the case that animals have no rights as a monetary value has been placed on their lives. It is not clear whether Palmer had any constructive knowledge of the kind of international media attention and outrage that followed the death of this particular animal among conservationists, politicians and celebrities.

We now know from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (“ZTA”) that Cecil was a major factor in the tourism industry yet it does not appear that any insurance policy was taken to cover the risk of Cecil dying either out of natural or unnatural causes. According to the CEO of the ZTA, Zimbabwe’s tourism sector which, in his words, was booming had recorded a significant drop in arrivals in the Hwange Park where Cecil was being kept as a commercial tourism ambassador.

Zimbabwe, after more than 35 years of independence finds itself dependent on caging animals to boost its tourism industry. It is clear from the reports that Cecil’s life had an intrinsic economic value unlike many of Zimbabwe’s humans who find themselves unemployed and, therefore, lacking any transactional purpose. Although Zimbabwe’s humans are not in zoos or parks, they rarely attract the attention of the world when they exit from mother earth.

The crime that Palmer is alleged to have committed by killing Cecil may not have an equal in the world but in Zimbabwe, one has to factor the business angle to the life of Cecil and not necessarily to the lives of all wildlife animals in the country. It is significant that Cecil was named after Cecil Rhodes in a country that despises the name of the 19th century business and political actor who died in 1902 but whose name and association with Zimbabwe has refused to die.

Rhodes’ memory and statues built by people who chose to remember and honour him have given some of us, the living, work to do in attempting to erase the memory of the man from our collective memory, yet even the death of Cecil the Lion has demonstrated that the man in death has refused to be forgotten. We all know of the Rhodes University and the Scholarship at Oxford University, the same institution that was studying Cecil the Lion.

It is now common cause that Cecil and a lion believed to be his brother were noticed in Hwange National Park in 2008. It would appear that in death, Cecil was the best-known animal in Zimbabwe. Although a lion, it was identifiable by his black-fringed mane and a GPS tracking collar. Cecil is not the first lion to die that forms part of the subject of a study by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University. The study commenced in 1999 and Cecil’s movement had been followed since 2008.

It is recorded that of the 62 lions tagged during the study period, 34 have since died into obscurity yet the legacy of Cecil has confounded even Zimbabweans who had no idea that they were hosting a celebrity lion. It is now known that Cecil was popular with tourists because he was accustomed to humans; unlike other lions, he often allowed vehicles sometimes to be as close as 10 metres (33 ft) from him, making it easy for tourists and researchers to photograph and observe him.

Although the precise number of lions in Africa is not known, according to Wikipedia, it is estimated that there are between 25,000 and 30,000 lions alive in Africa. In addition, it is estimated that In 2013, 49 hunted lion carcasses were exported from Zimbabwe as trophies. We now learn that in June 2015, Palmer, reportedly paid US$50,000 to a professional hunter, Mr. Theo Bronkhorst, to assist him in adding Cecil to his trophies.

It would appear from the records that in order to deliver the promise of Cecil’s head, some mischief may have been part of the enterprise. Such mischief would appear to allegedly include luring Cecil out of the comfort zone of the Park where he was shot with an arrow followed by gunshots. Palmer, a visitor to Zimbabwe, was in possession of a hunting permit granted by the Zimbabwe government whose representatives now want him extradited on allegations that neither Bronkhorst nor the landowner, Honest Ndlovu, on whose property Cecil was believed to have been shot, had the appropriate permit for a lion.

Notwithstanding, Bronkhorst has asserted that: “We had obtained the permit for bow hunting; we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council.” Both Bronkhorst and Ndlovu have been arrested by Zimbabwean police on allegations of assisting Palmer in the murder of Cecil. Palmer took his trophy with him to the USA and, at the material time, he maintains that he had no knowledge that Cecil was an extraordinary animal not subject to the same treatment that other animals are subjected to by hunters.

Cecil, in death, would appear to have energised forces determined to regulate the animal kingdom. The face of Cecil the lion was projected on the Empire State building over the weekend – just one of the protest action movements sparked by act of killing Cecil, the revolutionary. Cecil is the only lion that has refused to die because it carried an identity like a prisoner; his image along with 160 other images of endangered species was projected onto the side of the world famous building.

The idea behind showcasing Cecil, the lion celebrity on the Empire State Building was designed to raise awareness about the plight not of Zimbabwe’s endangered humans but of animals – the first in its kind led by a dead lion. All that means is that one doesn’t have to be alive or human to cause a change in how humans think and act.

The facts and circumstances that took place in economically troubled Zimbabwe where the loss of Cecil is only seen in monetary terms has positioned Cecil has the prime animal martyr in the trophy hunting world. The aftermath of Cecil’s death has put under the spotlight the practice of trophy hunting. This is a business model that allows wealthy individuals to lose money that in turn impacts positively the lives of people in developing countries who, in many post-colonial Africans states like Zimbabwe, find themselves with no other source of income than to capitalise on the hunting business to generate the much needed foreign currency.

It is not accidental that Cecil – the much photographed poster boy of Zimbabwe – was skinned and broken into pieces with the carcases left for vultures but the head shipped to the USA as confirmation of the exit of Cecil from the world of the living. The world is not at one with the Zimbabwean state actors as the message from Zimbabwe is that trophy hunting has economic merit and Cecil ought to have been treated with special favour as it was a generator of foreign currency and, therefore, the tourists who visited Zimbabwe solely to see Cecil in its man-made sanctuary will no longer lose their hard earned funds in the territory of Zimbabwe. Ultimately, the conservation of animals must be seen in a broader perspective in which the killing of animals for either human sustenance or game produces the same outcome, the reduction of animals that humans have historically played no part in creating.

Like humans, the exit of animals from the earth must also be subject to the same principles that inform the theological thinking that life on earth is temporary. Even Cecil had to die at some time. However, it is the manner that he died that seems to have sparked the outrage and not the fact of death. Even the trophy holder seems to have been unaware of the economic and emotional value of Cecil.

Cecil had to fall because the money involved was too tempting to the professional hunter and the landowner involved. The business side of trophy hunting cannot be understated simply because of the demise of Cecil, for only fools would seek to limit the trade without applying their minds on the economic realities in countries like Zimbabwe.

Independence promised a better life for all but, regrettably, it has produced nightmares for the living humans who benefit from the elimination of animals as part of strategies to deliver the promise of a better life. There is no difference between the consequences of trophy hunting and the selling of big game to other countries like China.

There are people who hold the view that hunting has a causal relationship with conservation. Instead of culling animals, it is argued that trophy hunting achieves the same objective as conservation, with the exception of this special lion, Cecil. The quality doctrine necessarily places Cecil as just another lion and any alternative logic would create a new dispensation where some animals are more important than others. It is humans who chose Cecil to be special and not the creator.

Should all animals be subject to the same rules? It is a question that must be honestly be addressed lest the death of Cecil is used opportunistically not to advance the rights of all animals but the few that are chosen by humans and not fellow animals that operate in the wildlife where there are no rules as we have seen lions eliminating humans without attracting the same reaction that Cecil has generated.

Africa’s inventory of big game has been declining due to the actions of hunters and poachers because it is in Africa that the economic value of life, not only for animals but humans, has been reduced as part of the experience of independence that has seen many humans choosing to exclude themselves from the countries of birth to another promising destinations. Unfortunately, animals located in man-made prisons have no choice but to work on their dash in the knowledge that death is an inevitability.

Even if trophy hunting was to be stopped, it is not clear what the impact of the ban would imply in practical terms especially when regard is had that trophy hunting attracts the attention of the wealthy who often have their own private transport means. Zimbabwe with a population of about 13 million has seem 126 million people energised into action because of the manner in which Cecil exited the world. But what is amazing is that the majority with knowledge and concerned about the exit of Cecil are located outside the borders of the country. Cecil’s importance in death in Zimbabwe is betrayed by its name.

Whereas some people are concerned about Cecil the man, others have used the very name to give a lion an identity that has found traction with the world. Can you imagine if Cecil had another name? It is not difficult to imagine, is it?