ZAMBIA LETTERS, 16

Luyando is not able to join us today. Bob from the Safari company picks us up at Tabonini. We drive along the Zambezi until we take a left turn. Then another left turn, driving below the arc of two enormous elephant tusks constructed in an artificial material. It signals royalty, Bob explains. 

Mukuni Big Five is an animal park featuring predators. There are no lions or leopards in the national park, it is too small and they would soon go throw all the other animals, but it is possible to see them here.

The place is neat and built on top of a height, providing a good view off the landscape. There are vultures in the treetops and we’re told that it is a sing of predators being nearby. The male staff is friendly and outgoing. The female staff is unfriendly to the point of hostile or at least arrogant. It is shown in the way the look at us, in their body language, in how they react a little more slowly then they are supposed to when we adress them, or in how they respond to our questions. 

I come to think of waiters and waitresses in Sweden. Two months ago I made a trip to Gothenburg to see my good friend Iggy Malmborgs performance ”Satan” at Folkteatern. After the show I was standing at the end of the bar and I wanted to order a drink. So I made a gesture to the bartender meaning that I wanted to make an order. She responded by pointing in a dominant manner to where she was standing, making me go over to her. 

Afterwards, I thought about the incident, because it would never happen in Norway. It made me remember other situations I have been in, all of them in Sweden, where bartenders and waiters take it upon themselves to educate, or put down, their customers. If you try to get the attention of a waiter with a gesture they might question the way you do it, even if you’re not being rude. Is there something in the Swedish culture that makes people think that it is shameful to serve, or to have a job which is about serving people? Waiters and waitresses initiate conflicts and power struggles with their customers. It is as if they have to prove themselves when they are doing their job. Maybe they would rather be doing something else. ”Don´t come here to my working place and tell me what to do, who do you think you are, ordering something from me, you should be grateful I am listening to you!” 

Maybe this is a sign of a sort of fatigue? I would be inclined to use the word alienation. In the military there is a saying: you salute the rank and not the man. Germans are very good at this mentality. They have an understanding for the need for different roles and positions. You perform your role, it is not shameful, and the next time you might have another. When you adapt this attitude, serving someone doesn’t mean you diminish yourself. You can find satisfaction also in minor tasks. It is a sustainable way to approach every day life, which always includes things you would rather not do. 

If you look down upon people whom you are taking care of, as a part of your job, or if you think you are better then they, if you dream about being somewhere else, than maybe you are at the wrong place in life. 

Maybe the energy this staff radiated has something to do with the whole set up of the park. Lions are kept in cages. Visitors are allowed to come and see them, for a very high fee. We can also choose to pay even more money to walk with the lions, outside of their cages. Perhaps there is something deeply wrong with the whole setup. The staff have to put up with it, and with themselves being a part of it, day after day. They are dealing with apex predators and the very wildness, the naturality, of their land; turning themselves and their wildlife into an attraction park. Much like a waiter who has to put up with drunk customers, every evening, seeing the spectacle for what it is. A waiter who has to come to terms with his lost dreams, imposed upon him by a dream factory, day efter day. 

Perhaps alienation breeds a form of self loathing. 

The lions were massive and impressive. They are kept until an age of three, when they are being prepared to be released back out. At that time they start to mature to a point where it isn’t safe to interact with them no more. Children are not allowed to walk with them. It triggers their hunting instincts. We could see this in one of them. A lioness rose up when Irpa approached the fence. The beast started to prepare to jump her. It was safe at all times, of course, but very intimidating. 

In the background another group of tourists were taken away for a walk together with a male and a female lion. 

The whole area is surrounded by electric wire, positioned a bit too high, slightly above head level. It is to keep the elephants away. If they see lions they will immediately charge them. 

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On our way back, Bob stopped for a while at a bend in the Zambezi river. It was where the water was streaming, so there was no danger of crocodiles. A short distance from the shore we could see ”The hippos island.” At night they come ashore to feed, and at that time the bend is a very dangerous place to be at. 

Bob confessed to be a bird lover and he talked about the differents species of birds, telling us which ones are monogamous and which ones aren´t. He also spoke for a long time about the human relationship to elephants. According to him Zambia only has a small elephant population. In Zimbabwe and Botswana they have many more and in these countries people live side by side with the beasts in a much more peaceful manner. 

Zambians have started to lose their understanding of the animals. 

”We need to educate people how to live together with them, and why they are important. Here, people throw stones after them and try to scare them off with loud noises, that is why we have so many accidents and deaths due to elephant attacks. It is not as if they don’t give a warning before they attack. You can tell when they lower their heads and shake their ears back and forth, this beast is telling you he needs some more space.”

”During dry seasons, when the food is scarce, they will come into populated areas and feed off peoples gardens and their farms. Elephants have very good memory. They remember where to go and look for food. I was over there ten years ago, there was food there. Then they will show it to their young ones.”

The relationship between elephants and lions is one of conflicts. Elephants will give birth at a dry, preferably sandy, area, where they are able to throw sand over the their newly born. This takes away some of their smell, as lions can smell blood from miles away. 

”We need a governmental agency which informs and educates people on these animals. In ten years we have doubled our human population here in Zambia. In 50 years we will have tripled it. So we need to establish proper reservations right now, before it is too late. They were here first, it is we who have to move, according to their needs.”

Poaching is a serious issue. Only two months ago two of the rhinos in the national park were killed.

I come to think of something Victor told me, back at LuCAC. He had a friend, a fellow artist, who moved to Livingstone in order to start a Safari company. Victor questioned it. ”You’re an artist!” But his friend just loved animals and felt he needed to work with them. During a tour one of the elephants began to prepare to charge a tourist who was with him. Victors friend wanted to distract the elephant and started to wave and shout, in order to get his attention. He didn´t see that another, young male, also came charging in from behind. It threw him into the air and trampled him. His corpse was badly mauled and his body was cremated. All of Livingstone came to his funeral. 

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18/06/2025

The bus to Lusaka is cancelled. We are crammed into a minibus together with the other passengers and arrive at Lusaka busstation two hours later than predicted. 2100. The place is pitch black at this time in the evening, except for the occasional bus light. People are everywhere, banging the windows on the bus as it drives in, shouting in local languages, making demanding and even angry faces to us and everyone else. 

We are let off the bus and I move to the rear trunk in order to fetch our luggage. Hanna remains inside with Irpa so that she doesn’t have to face the stress on the outside. People are trying to hustle me from many directions simultaneously. They want to lay their hands on my luggage, probably to put me in a taxi of their choice, and to squeeze me on money for their assistance. But it could also be that they would just run off with the things. The atmosphere is quite hostile and many of them are visibly stoned and drunk. But there are also considerate people in the crowd. One of them tells me to wait patiently for the driver. Another shows up with a long stick, or a whip, and he runs it into the face of one of the hustlers, making him back off. It is very difficult for me to distinguish between the staff who works with the bus companies and nasty people whop are trying to take advantage of me because they all dress nearly the same way. But I decide to wait it out and to take one thing at a time. 

When Irpa and Hanna exits the bus a man suddenly appears out of nowhere, runs up to Irpa and yells into her face, for no other reason but to frighten her. He walks of, laughing loudly, and I let it go because I am loaded with luggage and standing a bit off, to the side. Hanna is in a better position to confront him and she tells him off. Even so, we have to get out of here. 

On the way out, as we walk through the gates, another man walks up and dives into Irpas face, but this time I am prepared to interfere. 

We manage to call a Yango and to get a ride of our choice. 

This place is pretty much the same way also at day time. It is an area where you will get harassed and where there is a big chance someone will grab something from you and run off with it. 

As you drive through you will be courted by people selling things, walking between the car lines. If you open the window they might throw in a hand and snatch something. People who arrive on this road are not always aware of this problem, since many of them come from other towns, arriving into Lusaka.