Why Africans don't give a fuck whether Rhinos live or die

As an environmentalists that happen to be African I've noticed the unease with which members from my family and friends greet headline news that involve the killing of the rhinos which have been gracing our television and newspapers.

It is a sad situation, one that every South African should be ashamed of as we are the stewards of the plant and animal kingdom.

Yet, I can't shake off the disdain (who-the-fuck-cares) attitude I pick from mainly African people. Let's face it, the overwhelming majority of protesters at gatherings that highlight the plight of the rhino are white.

Thousands of Marikana miners gathered for a mass meeting to air their grievances on Aug. 17, the day after the massacre. Their employer, Lonmin, the world’s third largest supplier of platinum, employs 28,000 workers, most at the Marikana mine.

There was a surge in the Rhino killings in South Africa around the same time when the
miners were striking for a living wage. Seeing one picture of Africans in solidarity for higher wages and another of white people protesting for the government to do more to protect the Rhinos in the same newspaper reminded me of Thabo Mbeki's two nations divided speech in 1998.

A more black and white picture you will not get than seeing how these two scenarios played itself out in the media.

Save-the-Rhino protest at Parliament in Cape Town

Rhinos and other members of the big five are housed in private game reserves, wild farms and national parks which is financially inaccessible to the majority of South Africans.

These wild animals roam free on land that Africans can only dream of, land which was dispossessed from them.

I realised that it is a little to much to ask of the dispossesses who many have not been compensated for their loss of land to now have to fight for the rhino to live and thrive on the land they once called their own for the benefit of the world's elite. Lets face it, accessing these wild farms for hunting or viewing purposes are for the rich.

Maslow's hierachy of needs

Even if all Africans were in a position to selfactualise I believe that their apathy towards the well being of the Rhino and other wildlife would still exist.

I find myself extremely fortunate to have experienced the wildlife because of my job, however for the majority of Africans it makes little sense to go view wild animals roaming the plains of Africa for a couple of days only to go home to poverty.

This land and the wild that roam on it are viewed as not belonging to Africans so why should they care when rhinos or any other exotic animal gets slaughtered.

Africans can't financially access the 'joy' that these animals give to tourists so why should they now go crazy when these animals get slaughtered.

The relationship between the natural environment and the people of Africa is that of mutual respect. Humans and animal lived in symbiosis for prior to colonization which brought with it the capitalistic system  that saw animals as commodities.

I am of the opinion that we need to re-awaken the relationship between animal and humans that prevailed pre-colonial era otherwise the wild animals like the Rhino will be wiped out in a couple of years.