AFRICAT & THE ‘MEETING-TREE‘! BY TANJA BIERHOF, VISITING ASSISTANT TO AFRICAT NORTH Early one morning Tanja & Bardo (visiting assistant to AfriCat) joined Tammy Hoth-Hanssen of AfriCat North on a trip into the Ehirovipuka Conservancy; our mission – to meet with the Onguta and Orongurru commmunities regarding the development of their tented Junior School and a new nocturnal, livestock protection kraal. Onguta Village lies approx. 10 km from the Hobatere border with the farming area adjoining the Veterinary fence, which forms the northern and western boundaries of the Hobatere Concession area. Just at the junction to the main road, in the trees, the Chestnut Weavers are still busy and flying around their nests. These nesting birds are a good sign for rain and everybody is looking forward and hoping for the wet season. After picking up GERMAN, one of AfriCat’s Lion Guardians, we follow the rocky & dusty road to Onguta in the ‚Kaokoveld‘ region. The scenery is beautiful, with red-sandy roads, the green of the Mopane-trees and sometimes the violet flowers of Mundelea sericia. At Onguta, about 25 people come together in the shadow under the „Meeting -Tree“. Traditional leaders with hats and sticks, teachers and Herero women, all beautifully dressed in colourful, traditional clothes. They bring chairs, boxes or sit on the soil to take part in the meeting. The meeting starts with a prayer, everybody is silent and it is an amazing moment for us. Tammy gives an introduction about AfriCat and the Human-Wildlife-Conflict, emphasizing how important it is for the farmers to understand and find a solution to live together with wildlife. She understands, as well, the farmers‘ predicament and points out that AfriCat protects not only the lions but also the farmers & their livestock. After about an hour, Traditional headman Fanuel Ndjiva, promises that the community has accepted the necessity of lion conservation as part of the Conservancy agreement and as a result of previous meetings with AfriCat and that he will personally ensure that the famers & herdsmen commit to the AfriCat Livestock Protection programme.They are going to use the nocturnal kraals and in case of a ‚lion warning‘, they will bring their cattle into safety and make use of other areas for grazing. Once Headman Ndjiva had committed, discussions move to the plans to build a new Junior School (at present, 53 pupils attend in 2 large tents as classrooms, one for Grades 1+2 the other for Grades 3+4 ); it is decided that Phase 1 will include two classrooms, four toilets, (two for girls & two for boys) and one storeroom. The teachers offer to use the same classrooms during the afternoons for the pre-School group; the community also offered to make their own bricks. Together with Tammy they plan for the future: „We want to Educate our children to protect lions and other wildlife“. The Project hopes to start in 2014, with a school for 50 to 80 pupils. The long-term plan is to enlarge the school up to 150 pupils, with another classroom, one more teacher, a playground, a communitiy hall, a boarding house and teachers‘ accommodation. The children come from the surrounding area and during the January 2014 intake a number of children were turned away due to lack of space in the‚ classrooms‘ and no place to stay. Travelling approx. 20 kms further south, we reach the Orongurru community where the second get-together takes place under the „Meeting- Tree“. This time the discussion is about a nocturnal kraal for approximately 600 cattle. Again, Headman Fanuel promises that the farmers will make use of the kraals and will not hunt or kill the lions; he gives his word, that no one will poison, trap or shoot lions. The women told us that they are frightened of the lions - for their lives, their children and livestock but everybody committed to the programme. Therafter, AfriCat and the farmers moved from the ‚ MeetingTree‘ to the existing bush-kraal; it was decided to enlarge this kraal to 50m x 70 metres in size and 2m in height. It was an amazing and very interesting day for us, to get involved with the local people who are living here in the wilderness and have to deal with the Human-Wildlife-Conflict. It gives us an different insight into a local village - we saw the houses, the kids in the ‚tented‘ school, and we learned allot about their traditional way of holding a meeting. After a long drive back everybody is satisfied about the results of the day and at the junction from the main road to the Blyerus Farm, the Chestnut Weavers are still nesting!
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 11:17:08 +0000
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