Baraza

Dear everyone. You may have heard that Kenyans went to the polls in record numbers last Thursday 27th December to elect the president. It was the closest race in history and citizens went calmly with great discipline to vote, and with great patience - some had to wait for hours at polling stations. On Friday the results started coming in and it was clear that the favourite, the leader of the opposition, Mr. Raila Odinga was leading with a healthy margin. But temperatures began to rise when it became apparent that the counting process was deeply flawed in many places and the results were being held back, and … well… ‘cooked’ was the word that the electoral commissioner used to describe what was happening.

The final result was not announced until Saturday afternoon - when the public were already extremely agitated, and it was like pouring petrol on a flame - it ignited a furious citizenry. Many, including the leading member of the opposition refuse to accept that the president Mwai Kibaki actually won and claim that the results were rigged -in several (and I mean many) constituencies, the percentage of voters was well over 100%.
Despite this, the government held a hasty press conference for a few hand picked foreign press (government agency and foreign press - no local private stations) and then promptly banned all news coverage in the country. Desperate Kenyans were treated to an evening of  television coverage that comprised only ‘just for laughs’  a really bad canadian candid camera comedy show, instead of the usual news and programming. The president was hastily sworn in an hour later and the opposition were barred from making any press statements (even by phone!). This went  on throughout Sunday.

Today all live broadcasts have been banned - Kenyans are still in the dark and as a result have taken to the streets threatening a total breakdown of law and order (there are some scary videos on You tube). Most Kenyans are getting their news via the internet (blogs and news) and through cell phones. The international observers have expressed concern about what happened, the president is mum. Mr. Odinga tried to rally supporters in Nairobi today but was held back by police blocks, but he has asked Kenyans to attend a million person event in Uhuru Park (freedom gardens) in the city on the 3rd of January. The government has declared the rally illegal and the ‘president‘ has promised to deal with it ruthlessly.

I have been getting most of my news from a great blog Kenyan pundit written by an insightful Kenyan lawyer (female) who reminds us that she is biassed, totally biassed in her reporting, and her bias is against flawed election processes.

Due to the communication blackout rumours abound and are often the only source of information. It’s madness on the ground and over one hundred people have been killed - witnesses say by the police, who in turn say it’s rival political groups. Shops are being looted, buildings burned, and people are fighting. This is happening across the country. I’ve spoken to Richard Leakey, Dipesh, Will and Emmanuel and all are fine. But communications from Kenya are limited due to internet overloads.

It’s top of the news everywhere. For good news coverage go to France 24 and BBC. Dipesh sent this link to a You tube account in Kisumu, his home town.

As a Kenyan I feel  disgusted, ashamed and angry. I didn’t vote this year because I didn’t believe in the candidates, I (and  all Kenyans) did not expect, and are likely to reject, this abuse of process shown by the government. It’s a sad sad time for Kenya.

We’ll keep you updated and hope that the temperatures drop over coming days.

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I’m back from Botswana after a 3,5000 road trip and “NO”, I didn’t get lost in the Kalahari and resort to desperate versions of bush craft……

In fact, I’ve had a spectacularly exciting time, seen many amazing interesting creatures and this post is about one of those, so much to tell you all about the new upcoming blogs…over the next few days - rhino’s, wild dogs, lions, brown hyenas, elephants… and amazing places, the Okavango, impossible to pronounce parks, and the great Kalahari …

Todays’ post is about the incredible mopane worm - which is one of the Africa’s most strange and valuable insects.

I was hungry but I didn’t eat it - really!

I first met mopane worms years ago as crinkled up dried black sausages in Zimbabwe - they were being sold in little bags like popcorn on the streets. I turned my nose up at them and had no idea how important they were. Later I met some at the bottom of my bowl as I neared the end of my meal in an up-market South African restaurant! It was a delicious traditional dish until I noticed little legs, crunchy head and colourful spots along the side (why didn’t anyone tell me?)… I politely left this last spoonful to avoid a generous refill…. And hoped REALLY HARD that there was only one in my serving.

The mopane worm is actually not a worm at all, but a large colourful caterpillar which feeds on the mopane tree, Colophospermum mopane. These trees that are common in the northern border region of South Africa and the southern borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana and northwestern Namibia. The worm is locally known as as Mashonzha, Masonja or Amasonja. The adult stage of this caterpillar is a large and attractive Emperor moth (Family Saturnidae) but it’s the larva that’s worth millions.

I don’t think I’ve ever met an insect that is such an important source of cash and protein to many people – in fact, it is one of southern Africa’s economically important insects.

This dog wouldn’t eat it raw either - its gotta be cooked to bring out the flavour!

Traditionally, Mopane worms are collected, prepared, and consumed by local people in southern Africa. After harvesting the caterpillars which sit on trees, the guts are removed by squeezing (nice!).

The worms are then boiled and left for a day to dry out in the sun. Once dried they can be used at any time for cooking. They say that when cooked the worms are juicy and salty or if eaten dried have a dry, gritty texture and slightly meaty taste…. Caterpillar biltong…simply delicious! I know you’ll enjoy this recipe…

Mopane stew

Ingredients

1 cup of dried mopane worms
1 onion, chopped
2 green peppers, sliced
6 tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ litre water

Preparation

Wash the worms and boil them for 30 minutes. Drain, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about an hour.

Yummy!

Gritty but Healthy

These worms are comprised of 61% protein, 17% crude fat, and 10% minerals - a highly nutritious supplement to the diet of people indigenous to these regions.

I can’t help feeling sorry for them (the people and the works) but entomologists insist that a diet supplemented with edible bugs and worms could help Aids patients boost their nutrition levels, “For many it offers a cheap way to stay healthy. A nutritious diet for an Aids patient might cost over 1,000 rand (about 80 dollars) a month but if you live in an area where mopane are abundant, you could pick them off the trees yourself,” Dr. Toms said.

Ok, as a scientist I agree, science doesn’t lie…. but it still sounds disgusting to me. But, compared to some other critters, these worms are not as frightening.

Things you wouldn’t want to eat - or would you? Can you guess which of these bugs are also eaten frequently in Africa?

No doubt one of the biggest millipedes in the world -probably doesn’t bite but I wasn’t going to test it

Hairy! edible?

Tiny, not so scary looking … but are they munchable?

Really really crunchy…but can you eat them?

Save the mopane worm
The over-collection of these beautiful caterpillars for trade and the destruction of mopane woodlands is threatening the species and mopane worms are now rare or extinct in some areas where they were once common. In order to safeguard the next crop, it is vital to leave at least 10% of the worms to complete the life cycle by forming moths and laying eggs, thus ensuring the future of the species and the mopane industry. Droughts are another cause for devastating declines so climate change is going to be a big problem here.

Saving the mopane worm is going to be tough. You could just stop harvesting them but natural re-colonization is a slow process because the moths only live for two to three days and must complete their reproductive processes in this time – this leaves too little time for dispersal. The fat caterpillar can hardly move far at all. However, local people could assist natural dispersal by reduced harvesting in sensitive areas and managed re-introductions of larvae. That’s what Toms of the Transvaal museum is planning….

“The mopane worm is one of our most spectacular well known insects and was chosen as one of the BIG 12 African Insects for study at the Transvaal Museum” - Dr. Toms. Toms and his team are using this colourful worm as an icon in the teaching of indigenous knowledge, sustainable harvesting, conservation and food security.

In my next few post are about predators, people, and amazing places - the Okavango Delta and the Great Kalahari Desert.
I was knocked off my feet with it all - totally! I bet you can’t guess what she has been hunting ..

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I’ve been in South Africa for the past ten days talking to conservation organizations and planning a trip to visit some locations.

It’s nothing like my home, Kenya - for most young people living in Johannesburg, this is about as close to the wilderness as it gets.

On Sunday my son and I visited Soweto and went to two excellent museums, the Museum of Apartheid, Nelson Mandela’s home, and the Hector Peterson Museum. First, its not the adventure one expects, Soweto is not what it used to be, it has been cleaned up to the point that it now looks like a middle-rich suburb. The poor slums are still here, but they are simply not on the tourist route.

It says online that “The Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto commemorates the 566 people who died in the student uprising that followed the events of June 16, 1976. The museum is named for Hector Peterson, a 12-year-old boy who was the first person shot dead by police on that day, and is located near a memorial to his death”.

As I walked around this fantastic museum I was on the verge of tears at every stop. I felt engulfed in emotion, …and I feared that I was the only one experiencing it. The Museum had many visitors but I noticed that my son and I were the only African people of colour in the Museum, in fact, listening to accents, I suspect we may have been the only Africans there. At a certain point my 15 year old son stopped and returned to the car, I asked if he wasn’t interested in history, he said he was but that this history was depressing.

I asked our guide about the past, he just stared at us blankly, his responses without emotion. Robot like.

We went to Nelson Mandelas house. After the tour, I asked the lady guide, where she was when he was released. “I was here” she said and offered no more on how she felt, what she did on hearing he was out, nothing - despite prodding. Total self control, jealously guarded feelings. It was a public holiday on Monday, “Reconciliation day”. For most people it passed without more than a murmur. Studies show that the youth have no idea who Steve Biko was. I think I understand why it’s hard for South Africans to visit their own museums and remember the past, but how can we forget such great heroes?

Expression: Graffiti in Johannesburg illustrates just how talented and creative people here are - it’s one important way of expressing feelings.

South Africa has some of the most spectacular landscapes on the continent -yet not many of us Africans take time to enjoy them.

Every spring thousands of travelers flock to Namaqualand to witness the blooming of millions of flowers in one of the worlds most spectacular displays of diversity. It is ironic that as ecologists we celebrate biological diversity, as humans we have a strange fear of differences amongst ourselves. It makes me even more determined to set up projects in Southern African countries because I believe that wildlife is apolitical and it can lead to the conversations that bring peace.

Another amazing place -Augrabies Falls - it claims several lives each year - a terrifying but spectacular landscape

I’m often quizzed about my interest in wildlife – it’s just not something that my friends think that black Africans should do… well that’s a load of elephant dung. It was explained to me Africans left the bush, why was I returning? I adore the wilderness, as do many Africans. Nobody should be surprised that a black African is offering conservation solutions to other parts of Africa and indeed the world. Africa is a continent full of talent and colour and my thoughts are often interrupted with surprises. Like this below.

I came across this graffiti today - what it means is anyones guess…ideas about this one anyone?

By the end of January I hope to recruit over ten new projects for WildlifeDirect from southern Africa. My focus is a country in deep trouble, Zimbabwe. I can’t go there but I have made many contacts. I’ve looked at a series of amazing South African projects, contacted Namibia and Zambia and I’m also visiting Botswana. I’m looking forward to helping wildlife rescue centers, parks, community projects and conservation heroes in some of the most difficult parts of the continent. We will be helping species like wild dogs, hartebeest, leopards, endangered birds of prey, antelopes …and I’m hoping some marine life too. I’m especially excited about the smaller less known but highly endangered species – rabbits, hedgehogs and small cats. We tend to forget them.

South Africa has a thriving economy and wildlife conservation is fairly well taken care of except outside of parks. During a previous tour of South in August I was stunned by the road network – and the high speeds of vehicles. We did see some small animals – sadly, most were in the form of road kill. This is an issue that I think deserves great attention and I hope we can find an organization that is finding creative solutions for road crossings – like the Colobus Trust has done in Diani with colobus bridges for safe road crossings by these rare monkeys.

Well, I have to go pack my camping gear, for a long tour through Botswana. Look out for news from Okavango and some new human and animal friends.

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Hello everyone!

I thought I would do my colleague a favour and expose what a great writer he is to all our WildlifeDirect readers. Not just because he asked me to. He is the communications Manager here and has written a couple of the posts on this blog already. He writes a lot of articles for various local Kenyan Magazines like Wajibu and Awaaz.

So to celebrate Dipesh pabari’s creative genius with words, quite unlike my own, I thought I would give you all a little expose on his latest Pambazuka (Pan African online Journal) article featuring WildlifeDirect. I believe it is called the ‘Bush Bloggers’. A fitting title for all those hardy conservationists out there who are, as we call it here in Kenya ‘Bundu Bashing’. Another way of saying roughing it out in the wilderness.

Onto the article now…our dear ‘Atamato‘ blog, the smiling face of a Congolese ranger which graces our homepage from time to time, with his video posts, featuring panoramic views of the beautiful Ishango Park has been used as an example of how the life of one ranger was drastically changed and a National Park was able to function through the generous donations of our readers (give yourselves a pat on the back).

“Take the case of Atama-to Madrandele, a park warden who, in 2005, started working at the Ishango, sub-station of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He carried out his work in almost complete physical and financial isolation. In February 2007, Atamato began to blog on WildlifeDirect about his work. Through this blog he was able to raise some funds to help pay for patrol rations and equipment, as well as salary supplements for his five underpaid rangers (the official pay for a Congolese ranger is about three US dollars per month). From August this year, Ishango has become a fully functional park station, thanks to the donations received through his blog. His men are now fed and have enough fuel to be able to carry out regular patrols.”

Dipesh even managed to include a few quotes from Richard Leakey and feature them in the article. Here is a sneak preview…

“After spending many years struggling to improve wildlife conservation in Kenya, I decided to start WildlifeDirect to solve a very real problem in Africa, the lack of adequate funds to protect our wildlife heritage. Persuading individual donors to give support was not easy because most people are unaware of what is going on in conservation until there is a crisis. I needed to find another way to raise awareness and funds on a continuous basis.”

What more can I say except it is a really good and informative read about blogging and the effect it has on conservation and wordly issues in general.

So you going to read it now??? Off course you are…

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/44859

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We have been very curious about the arrival of the Taiping 4 Gorillas back to their homeland in Cameroon. The International Fund For Animal Welfare have been instrumental right from the beginning and thanks to all the effort and their supporters, the Taiping 4 have arrived safely in Cameroon. You can read all about it on the IFAW blog.The blog reports that there was a huge wlecome: “The airport tarmac became the scene of an emotional welcome-back party, scores of media reporters, government officials and onlookers including traditional Cameroon dances and gorilla impersonators proudly welcomed their gorillas back home.”

Their final destination will be at the Limbe Wildlife Centre where I am sure we will be receiving regular updates about these 4 orphaned gorillas who have practically travelled right around the world!

On the other end of the continent is another hugely successful finding. Saving Snakes released confirmation of a newly identified Spitting Cobra. The bigger news is that this is the largest cobra spitting cobra known to man and it’s found mostly around the coastal areas of East Africa! We were as excited as the press. Less then 24 hours after WildlifeDirect put out a press release, it had been picked up by every major media house and Royjan Taylor’s (Director of Saving Snakes) phone would not stop ringing!

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Give me some of your food please…. Ele babies at the Daphne Sheldrick’s elephant rehabilitation center in Nairobi

Elephants really are extraordinary animals. I have a particular personal passion for them and have spent many years fighting to protect them by keeping the ivory trade off the agenda. I have a personal problem with anyone who says that elephants deserve to die for their teeth to be made into trinkets for selfish people. Ivory is only useful for elephants.

How could anyone every shoot an elephant I wonder? They are so like people, individually unique, funny, playful and naughty. They are such amazing animals that they have inspired some of the worlds most famous cartoons (eg Dumbo, Barbar - remember Colonel Hathi in Jungle book?),

Elephants have also created some of the most committed conservationists -Our three new elephant blogs will attest to this. They are interesting, complex and highly emotional beings. We have so much to learn about elephants in Kenya through Joyce Poole and Petter Granli’s blog on elephant communication,

Yirmed Demeke’s blog on Ethiopian jumbo’s, and the Andrea Turkalo’s 17 year project on forest elephants in a forest clearing in the Central African Republic. I hope you enjoy and support these new blogs as much as I do.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of renewing my wild spirit at the Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary - this is an amazing sanctuary for raising baby elephants and eventually taking them back to the wild. You simply must visit their website and read the individual monthly diaries of all the baby elephants.

This photo is Shimba, she was orphaned after her trunkless mother was translocated - she lost most of her trunk due to snares in the Shimba Hills, and didn’t survive the translocation. Shimba, only 6 weeks old, was rescued and now lives with a family of baby elephants on whom she depends for comfort and elephant love.

These older babies are soon to go back to the wild in a slow release programme in Kenyas largest National Park, Tsavo East. For now they enjoy Daphne Sheldricks back yard and visitors are free to see them every day from 10 am to 11.30 am.

A recent study suggests that elephants can ’sniff you out’ and tell what tribe you are. Shocking isn’t it! If I had a nose that long I wonder if anyone would believe anything I said! The study reveals that while you might love elephants - the love may not be returned if you have a certain whiff…..

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