Zimbabwe Seven

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 19 2008 | By: zimbabwe7

Dear Readers and Friends of Zimbabwe

Today is yet another sore day, in Zimbabwe’s history.  I received the below photos of Twiza a giraffe who had been part of a family for the past 11.5 years and of her son who only reached the age of six months old.  Both giraffes were barbarically snared, killed and left to rot.  There is nothing that prepares you for the sight of a loved member of your family, strangled, dead and rotting.  I sat and stared at these photos trying to think of words which I could email to Theresa and try and ease her pain.  But if the truth be told - there are no words at the time of death.  There are even fewer words when that life has been brutally taken and when no justice is likely.

Zimbabwe is my beloved home.  The land where I grew up and the country from which I proudly take my nationality.  Today I cry - I cry for a land that now is awash with the blood of her animals.  Her land is burnt black and provides no food. For families who have been broken apart from distance and for all those who have to live with the visions of loss, such as Twiza.

Theresa, my thoughts are with you and I cry together with you and your family.  Twiza may you and your son, rest in peace.

Twiza was in the Lowveld, an area of Zimbabwe where I first learnt about the bush and the wonders of the wildlife that roamed freely in it.  In just my lifetime those images have already become something of the past.  What man can do in just 8 years is terrifying - the big question is “can we reverse the damage that has been done over these past 8 years!?”

TWIZA MY DEAR FRIEND OF 11.5 YEARS, STILL AS TAME AND FRIENDLY AS FROM THE TIME WE FED HER AS A SMALL CALF. SNARED 18TH OCTOBER 2008

THE TWO BOTTOM PHOTOS ARE OF HER 2 AND A HALF YEAR OLD SON, SNARED 2 DAYS EARLIER. THE WIRE IS ALL OUR EX TELEPHONE COPPER CABLES, THERE IS NOT A TELEPHONE LINE STANDING, ALL WIRE HAS BEEN AND IS BEING USED FOR SNARES.