Does the
outpouring of Western outrage over the poaching death of a lion
named Cecil demonstrate the same attitude that led Whites to plunder Black
Africa? Naming the lion after British imperialist Cecil Rhodes doesn't help.
The West Cooks Up 'Cecil the Lion Conspiracy' (The Herald, Zimbabwe)
Lured out of
the safety of a Zimbabwe game park to make him 'available' to an American
dentist looking for kicks, some Africans sense the poaching death of Cecil the
lion is being used by the West to dictate how they should live. For Zimbabwe's state-run
Herald, columnist TichZindoga criticizes Western wildlife advocates, not
only for depicting the lives of animals as more valuable that Africa's people,
but for their colonialist political motives. Zindoga
also highlights the namesake of Cecil the lion - notorious 18th century British
imperialist Cecil Rhodes, who did things to Blacks that today would have landed
him before the International Criminal Court on genocide charges.
By now the world is sufficiently saturated with and (presumably)
nauseated by news of the death of a lion called Cecil allegedly killed by a
tourist-hunter in Hwange three weeks ago. Suddenly -
boom! - at the beginning of this week, his death is
all over the news across main media houses. And boy, there is some deal of
mourning!
Here is how the CNN
eulogized the lion:
"Cecil the lion is dead, killed illegally in Zimbabwe,
authorities allege, by a foreign hunter or hunters who paid about $55,000 for
the privilege. He was lured out of a national park with food, shot with a
crossbow, tracked for 40 more than hours then finished off with a gun, said
Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation
Task Force."
We are also told, "Cecil is survived by about six
lionesses with whom he mated regularly - and about 24
cubs "
The Guardian tells
us that, "Cecil's death is a tragedy, not only because he was a symbol of
Zimbabwe "
The paper also explains that, "The incident, which
occurred earlier this month and has only just come to light, has caused outrage
in Zimbabwe, coming only days after the Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force [ZCTF] revealed that 23
elephant calves had been separated from their herds in Hwange
and exported to zoos in China and the United Arab Emirates."
Other Western media outlets like the BBC now believe it's
time to punish African countries for their "failure" to protect
wildlife, the punishment of which is administered with bans on trading in
wildlife species and the issuance of hunting licenses and permits.
So: "Conservationists and politicians have called on
the E.U. to ban the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters' trophies
from African countries that cannot prove their lion populations are
sustainable, following the killing of Zimbabwe's most famous lion by a European
hunter with a bow and arrow."
What's in a name?
One cannot escape the significance of the name of this wild
animal which Western capitals are mourning.
The
name belonged to arch imperialist and racist of Southern Africa, Cecil John Rhodes who
wanted to colonize the rest of Africa, particularly and specifically by
deploying fatal fire-power against natives.
It is part of the historical record that Cecil John Rhodes
wanted to exterminate the Blacks of Southern Africa just as Whites did in
America.
Why someone thought it a good idea to christen a lion after this
infamous plunderer and murderer who roamed Africa can only be a matter of
conjecture.
And it must be borne in mind that lions bearing the same Oxford
University research collars as the famed Cecil kill many poor villagers in Hwange and surrounding areas - but don't think us simplistic
to the point that we're obliged to call this poor lion an imperialist!
Now, though, the animal is being called "a symbol of
Zimbabwe"! Yet there are other interesting points to observe.
Cecil the lion is now talked of as if he were a person and family
man or whatever other terms are ascribed to human beings.
It's the same old trick that only yesterday was deployed
when 24 elephant calves were sold
off by Zimbabwe [to China] - part of an overpopulated segment of the
species - due to an inability to cope with demands that amount to over twice the
land's carrying capacity.
Once again, Western media is trying to portray Zimbabwe as
an outpost of lawlessness simply because a random criminal, which we
now hear is of American stock - has killed an animal in our country.
While it's never acceptable for such occurrences to happen, in
this case one begins to get a particular whiff of something smelly. Naturally,
the name Cecil is smelly to us Africans.
The hullabaloo over Cecil the lion stinks up the whole
episode, especially when it is used as an excuse, as a pretext, for preventing Zinbabwe from exploiting its God-given resources. We've
been down that road before, have we not?
The shadowy organization and its shadowy leader are not only
about animal activism. They have an all-too-political agenda: They oppose
Zimbabwe being peopled with Whites who used be big in the safari and
conservation business. They operated in the shadows, were accountable to no one
and would run private ventures from which they crew huge profits shopped off to
foreign banks. They operated global networks of wealthy Whites and Asians who
would fly into the country with private jets, kill game for trophies and spirit
themselves out of the country.
Their lairs were highly secure and operated on an apartheid
basis.
Most of these people are now gone or preparing to lose their
farms and conservancies to Black under land reform, including one called the Wildlife
Based Land
Reform Programme which may allow Blacks to lease
such farms for up to 25 years on a renewable basis.
Whites, particularly of Rhodesian stock, are the leading
victims. These or their friends are the same people who have been crying blue
murder across the White western media seeking to have wildlife sanctions imposed
on Zimbabwe. That is the reason they blather and whine about animals, giving
them human-like features to evoke sufficient pity and anger.
Sinister
But our Johnny Rodrigues is even
more sinister - and the sooner authorities get to the root of his mischief the
better.
In January 2013, he was actively campaigning to have
Zimbabwe denied the right to host the U.N. World Tourism Organization General
Assembly, which Zimbabwe successfully did despite Western pressure to deny
Zimbabwe this once in a lifetime opportunity and Zimbabwe's biggest marketing
tool.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Johnny Rodriguez made the same facile arguments about
Zimbabwe not complying with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) when in fact no such official complaint had come from the
responsible body.
Yet he insisted: "At the moment we're working to prevent
the UNWTO General Assembly from taking place in
Zimbabwe because it isn't meeting is obligations under the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)."
In between now and then, Rodriguez has been involved in
everything and anything to discredit Zimbabwe - including wading into the Manzou Farm saga when opposition parties sought to smear
the name of first lady Amai Grace Mugabe by
insinuating she was evicting villagers to pave the way for animals.
Apparently believing that the first lady was indeed on it,
he gave a pre-emptive statement to opposition mouthpiece Daily News saying, "I think it's wrong what they are doing,"
Rodriguez said.
"Mazowe is an agricultural
area and the wild animals will cause lots of problems for the villagers. I
think Mazowe should be reserved for agriculture
activity and not a game park. But we know that when you talk about the "Big Five [the African
lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and White/Black
rhinoceros.]" you're talking about big money We shouldn't put money ahead
of people," he said.
Last month Rodriguez tried to persuade hostile superpower the
United States against Zimbabwe to intervene ostensibly to save elephants.
He petitioned Secretary of State John Kerry. When the U.S. appeared
not to heed his petition, Rodriguez "filed a complaint in the District
Court of the District of Columbia asking for an order requiring the United
States to promptly respond to their petition to condemn and help prevent these
horrific round-ups of baby elephants," according to reports.
Clearly, Rodriguez' concerns are about more than conservation.
They are dark, sinister and deeply political.
It is in this light that we have to understand the hullabaloo
over Cecil the lion, which is just a stinking conspiracy.
The
name belonged to arch imperialist and racist of Southern Africa, 
