Aug. 24, 2015
Cecil The Lion:True Ambivalence
by THS Media Abygai Pena
“You come at us with stone, with spear, with arrow, with knife, with gun, poison, traps of every deviously horrific form your minds can imagine and your opposable thumbs can help you to build. You come at us with bulldozers and other heavy equipment, explosives, and dams, scalpels and drugs, electrodes, prods and prongs and probes, hammers and captive bolt pistols, whips and chains and indifference.”
This poem was written by Barry Kent MacKay titled “We Are The Others” whose main purpose was to pay homage though a poetry piece in memory of Cecil the Lion and other voiceless creatures who are poached and wrongfully hunted while on the verge of extinction. Cecil the Lion was a Southwest African lion who was held in captivity at Hwange National Park, but the reason Cecil was making headlines and ‘breaking’ social media with the #Cecilthelion was the wrongful poaching from American big game hunter Walter Palmer. Cecil's death included disturbing details, Palmer was said to have wounded Cecil with an arrow on July 1, 2015 and was later tracked and killed by the merciless hunter. Palmer reportedly skinned and decapitated Cecil leaving only his skeleton in the sanctuary. Palmer left Cecil for the vultures, and his death has made many of us think and made many of us pretend to think of the amassed cruelty of animals throughout the ages. Although lion hunting does have a rich history.
The Maasai tribe which remains prominent in Kenya and Tanzania has a long and tumultuous relationship with lion hunting. The act of lion hunting is a coming of age tradition, meanwhile our western ideologies sees shaving or learning to drive as the most common right of passage for the Massai tribe there is no greater test of manhood. The tradition is meant to prove the manhood of the young men of the tribe testing bravery and personal achievement as a hunter or provider for the tribe. In previous years the young men of the tribe would partake in solo hunting but now that the lion population is on the decline communal hunting is now more commonplace.
For the Maasai tribe lion hunting is a journey, warriors from the village meet early in the morning by a landmark and decide amongst themselves who will actually go on the hunt. Usually there is conflict between the older warriors called Ilmorijo and the younger warriors who are referred to as Ilbarnot. The conflicts stem from a deep seated power struggle between the younger and older warriors. After the younger warriors accept defeat and leave back to the village, the older warriors gather their weapons for the hunt. These weapons include a spear and shield whereas Palmer worked with a bow and arrow on an animal that was held in captivity. While the Maasai tribe hunts lions on open plains instead of highly vegetated areas which are more dangerous for the warriors. The warrior who is the first to spear the lion is bestowed upon him the highest honor. Traditionally, the remains of the lion are used accordingly; the meat is never eaten for it is believed to be sacred while the mane, tail and claws are the only parts of the lion actually used by the Maasai.This journey of the Maasai warrior lion hunt may seem like a bizarre foreign custom, but theses customs are founded upon time honored traditions by generations of Maasai warriors not by dentists from Minnesota trying to prove their virility by hunting big game.
For the Maasai Tribe the lion is a natural predator, a side of the story rarely shown. Goodwell Nzou: a doctoral student in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences attending Wake Forest University recently spoke out against the criticisms of lion hunting, being a native to the Maasai tribe gave Nzou interesting insight in his published New York Times Opinion Article titled “ In Zimbabwe, We Don’t Cry For Lions.” In this article Nzou speaks of the fear that actual Zimbabweans feel, when he heard about Cecil’s death on the news Nzou claims, “The village boy inside of me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.” Throughout the article Nzou describes his “cultural contradiction” in speaking of the danger he and his village have had to deal with when dealing with predators out in the wild life. Understandably so, the hunting of lions and other dangerous predators started as a way to protect themselves. They are not a trophy of prowess in the line of danger. Dentists from Minnesota seem to have more to prove.
This poem was written by Barry Kent MacKay titled “We Are The Others” whose main purpose was to pay homage though a poetry piece in memory of Cecil the Lion and other voiceless creatures who are poached and wrongfully hunted while on the verge of extinction. Cecil the Lion was a Southwest African lion who was held in captivity at Hwange National Park, but the reason Cecil was making headlines and ‘breaking’ social media with the #Cecilthelion was the wrongful poaching from American big game hunter Walter Palmer. Cecil's death included disturbing details, Palmer was said to have wounded Cecil with an arrow on July 1, 2015 and was later tracked and killed by the merciless hunter. Palmer reportedly skinned and decapitated Cecil leaving only his skeleton in the sanctuary. Palmer left Cecil for the vultures, and his death has made many of us think and made many of us pretend to think of the amassed cruelty of animals throughout the ages. Although lion hunting does have a rich history.
The Maasai tribe which remains prominent in Kenya and Tanzania has a long and tumultuous relationship with lion hunting. The act of lion hunting is a coming of age tradition, meanwhile our western ideologies sees shaving or learning to drive as the most common right of passage for the Massai tribe there is no greater test of manhood. The tradition is meant to prove the manhood of the young men of the tribe testing bravery and personal achievement as a hunter or provider for the tribe. In previous years the young men of the tribe would partake in solo hunting but now that the lion population is on the decline communal hunting is now more commonplace.
For the Maasai tribe lion hunting is a journey, warriors from the village meet early in the morning by a landmark and decide amongst themselves who will actually go on the hunt. Usually there is conflict between the older warriors called Ilmorijo and the younger warriors who are referred to as Ilbarnot. The conflicts stem from a deep seated power struggle between the younger and older warriors. After the younger warriors accept defeat and leave back to the village, the older warriors gather their weapons for the hunt. These weapons include a spear and shield whereas Palmer worked with a bow and arrow on an animal that was held in captivity. While the Maasai tribe hunts lions on open plains instead of highly vegetated areas which are more dangerous for the warriors. The warrior who is the first to spear the lion is bestowed upon him the highest honor. Traditionally, the remains of the lion are used accordingly; the meat is never eaten for it is believed to be sacred while the mane, tail and claws are the only parts of the lion actually used by the Maasai.This journey of the Maasai warrior lion hunt may seem like a bizarre foreign custom, but theses customs are founded upon time honored traditions by generations of Maasai warriors not by dentists from Minnesota trying to prove their virility by hunting big game.
For the Maasai Tribe the lion is a natural predator, a side of the story rarely shown. Goodwell Nzou: a doctoral student in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences attending Wake Forest University recently spoke out against the criticisms of lion hunting, being a native to the Maasai tribe gave Nzou interesting insight in his published New York Times Opinion Article titled “ In Zimbabwe, We Don’t Cry For Lions.” In this article Nzou speaks of the fear that actual Zimbabweans feel, when he heard about Cecil’s death on the news Nzou claims, “The village boy inside of me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.” Throughout the article Nzou describes his “cultural contradiction” in speaking of the danger he and his village have had to deal with when dealing with predators out in the wild life. Understandably so, the hunting of lions and other dangerous predators started as a way to protect themselves. They are not a trophy of prowess in the line of danger. Dentists from Minnesota seem to have more to prove.