Africa: more Africans should blog on Wildlife and Environmental issues.......
As it is, very few Africans blog and
make their voices heard. For Africans who take up blogging, very, very few, if
any, write about wildlife and the environment. Africa, with the largest, most
diverse, most wonderful and most spectacular population of wildlife, has a
people who are least interested in it. Be it in: its oceans, its islands, its
plains, its jungles - Africa is abundant with wildlife. Plants and animals. Of
many species, of many shapes and of many sizes. One can not talk of
wildlife, without thinking of the environment. The environment that all
wildlife lives in and depends on. And so do we mankind. All living creatures,
all life forms are very dependent on the environment they live in. So why don't
African bloggers write about these most important of issues: wildlife and the
environment?
How many Kenyans know of the Rothschild’s giraffe or the importance of saving and protecting Mau Forest? How many Ugandans have seen a chimpanzee or take interest in the parrots that some times fly within Kampala? How many Rwandans have seen a gorilla or take interest in these amazing creatures? How many Tanzanians bother about the plight of flamingos in Lake Natron? How many East Africans think of protecting and saving the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria; a lake which has experienced the greatest mass extinction of vertebrates in modern times?
We in Africa, simply do not have the interest in wildlife and the natural environment that surrounds us.There are very, very few Africans who have a passion for our fellow creatures, be they animals or plants, the same way as one of the greatest environmentalist and conservationist the world has ever known, the late Wangari Maathai - had. We don't have to have that kind of passion; but we do need to take interest, to have interest. About two years ago Nanjala Nyabola asked: Why don't Africans make wildlife films? Of African bloggers - I, too, may ask a similar question: why don't they write about the environment and wildlife?
It is mainly lack of interest. Today, it is not surprising at all that most
people who live in Nairobi have never been to a game park or seen (in the wild)
an elephant or a lion or a cheetah or the many variety of game that live close
to the city or even within some fringe suburbs. Most have never been to Nairobi
National Park, which is so close to the city, that one can even walk to
it. The excuse is that, they have no time or have no financial means for
that.
How many Kenyans know of the Rothschild’s giraffe or the importance of saving and protecting Mau Forest? How many Ugandans have seen a chimpanzee or take interest in the parrots that some times fly within Kampala? How many Rwandans have seen a gorilla or take interest in these amazing creatures? How many Tanzanians bother about the plight of flamingos in Lake Natron? How many East Africans think of protecting and saving the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria; a lake which has experienced the greatest mass extinction of vertebrates in modern times?
We in Africa, simply do not have the interest in wildlife and the natural environment that surrounds us.There are very, very few Africans who have a passion for our fellow creatures, be they animals or plants, the same way as one of the greatest environmentalist and conservationist the world has ever known, the late Wangari Maathai - had. We don't have to have that kind of passion; but we do need to take interest, to have interest. About two years ago Nanjala Nyabola asked: Why don't Africans make wildlife films? Of African bloggers - I, too, may ask a similar question: why don't they write about the environment and wildlife?
