TEACH 'FISH MINERS' ABOUT THE ALLIGATOR

Fishermen are shrewd human beings too. Find us at our vocation, you will not be wrong to describe us as outliers. We can tell you the finest details about fishing, the movement of fish, birds, and animals in our locality. We can teach you a million things about the dos and don’ts of living amid water.

But two things; and two things only, always leave us muddled. We have failed to comprehend their occurrence.

Death in any form and the crocodile attack.

Death as discussed here, usually distress us in a way that the route to recovery has always been disastrous. I will not dwell on it in this post but will look at another enemy around us, the croc.

Look, we know its habitat is within our vicinity. We know that it reproduces and probably has its social fellowship by the banks we walk every day. We also know, somehow, that it’s dangerous to human life. But we equally do not know much about it.

Picture Credit: Shutterstock.com

How can that be? You ask.

Come along. Listen to these true stories.

When I was in the fourth Grade at Muwele primary school in Mpika district, there was a terrible croc attack on one of our seniors. It was a scorching October afternoon. Our seniors who reported to school in the morning had just been released as we got into classes.

 You could feel the heat as the sun’s rays descended on the iron roof. The classroom felt like inside a fiery incubator. We were getting roasted while others had a chance to go and swim in the Lukulu river, a pleasurable feat we all desired at that time.

We were in the middle of a lesson when one boy came breathless, knocked hastily, and excused himself to the teacher while trembling:

“Ba - Sir, Mwape…Kalefya…has just…been killed…and taken away by a… crocodile.”

“Oh no! a brilliant, fully grown up seventh grader gone Just like that!” The Teacher lamented hopelessly.

Around October, the Lukulu river used to have places that were shallow where we would joyfully show off our swimming skills. It was, normally, a fairly deep river, not less than three meters deep. It meandered around villages. There was a small lagoon at one end called Mpanda, and another near Kalando Kunda village, west of Muwele, named Katongo. It was believed these lagoons were infested with crocodiles, which usually lurked along the river and could be sighted oftentimes.

There were parts of Lukulu that were much deeper, inshilu. It was believed each inshilu was made up of several burrows (amatenga) dug by crocodiles.

Despite having all this knowledge, when Mwape was attacked, all the villagers never believed it was the predator that took his life. They, first, believed someone had played magic, ciisomo, an alleged practice where the killer mystically but conveniently uses an accident to kill his enemy. (do not ask me how this is done. I am equally blank. Just bear in mind that my kinsmen do not recognize anything termed coincidence. The word is meaningless in our vocabulary.)

The second version of Mwape’s death was that his killer had turned into a crocodile. This version was ‘proved’ as more credible when, three days later, Mwape’s corpse was found entangled in the grass, with only his abdomen and private parts missing.

A group of men argued that if the search party had acted quickly by looking into possible places where the Chisanguka (The man who can change paranormally into something else) had secreted his clothing, Mwape could not have died. According to my elders, the alligator was merely a ‘procurator.’ There must have been a human behind this death.

Before you label us primitive, think of Chiengi Chali, the lion that killed ninety 'natives' in Chiengi in 1909. History has it that villagers believed it was the chief that had reincarnated into a lion. Simply because the chief, on his sickbed, promised his subjects that he would come back from the dead, haunt his killers, and avenge his death. The people believed he had come back in form of a lion. And so, those that the lion killed were the chief’s enemies! (Howard Timmins in The Great North Road)

Many similar croc attack cases went unreported in Luapula province due to the remoteness of some places before the arrival of information technology.

However, as recent as November 2018, the villagers of Shinka village in Samfya murdered Changani Musenge on allegations that he had turned into a croc and killed a young girl, Bupe Lano, News Diggers reported. Samfya, a peri-urban area!

 So, it’s not only the swamp dwellers that entertain such beliefs after all.

These beliefs of men supernaturally transforming into things have been held for years. Governments have come and gone. No one has seriously attempted to address the issue. Specious accusing fingers continue to point at innocent men. No one has taken any serious interest in the underlying causes of such retrogressive theories. The people remain uneducated even on the scientifically proven characteristics and ferocity of these predators.

Most of the inhabitants of the swamps do not even know the basic facts about crocodiles such as:

•       Crocs multiply quickly as one croc can lay 10 to 60 eggs at a time. So, we have plenty of them within our water bodies.

•       Crocs are ambush predators that intelligently wait for their prey to come close and swiftly attack before the victim can think of any defensive means.

•      They have a very high sense of smell.

•     They can’t differentiate between man and animal when they are hungry. By the way, they can live without food for months.

• Crocs do not just attack Swamp dwellers in my village. They do so wherever they are found in the whole world.

The statistics by the Minister of Tourism and Arts, Hon. Ronald Chitotela, again as reported by News Diggers of 1^st October 2020, indicate that 53 people were attacked by crocodiles within Zambia between 2016 and 2019, resulting in 28 deaths.

From these and other records, one can deduce that there’s no such thing as human-sent crocodiles. We do not need a National Geographic documentary to come and educate our people that these predators feed on flesh, i.e., meat, fish, and birds. Neither should powers that be continue shedding crocodile tears for croc victims while enjoying cappuccino during non-life saving workshops.

 Please come teach us safety, just like copper miners. We are professional ‘fish miners’ too. Save our lives. Every life matters. 

Just Ruminating