Dorsey Shares How When it Comes to Saving African Wildlife, All Conservation is Local in Forbes

May 17, 2022

“At night, we are prisoners in our huts,” said an elderly Zambian woman who served as chief of a village of some 100 souls. “We cannot go outside…the lions are waiting for us.”

I was there five years ago to film a series that highlighted the ongoing struggle between people and wildlife, a story most in the West have ignored as they pontificate over the best way to save Africa’s cast of charismatic megafauna, with little to no regard to the fate of the continent’s people. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is there is no path to a sustainable future for the continent’s wildlife unless Africans have a seat at the table.

Most of the villagers we interviewed had harrowing tales to tell, one woman telling of her daughter who was chased out of her hut by lions that then ran her down as she tried to escape to another shelter. Several men from the village used torches to chase the cats off the woman’s half-consumed body, resting only 75 yards from the village. Crocodiles and hippos, too, had taken members of the village as if scenes straight out of Ghost and the Darkness. Wild animals haunt communities across Africa, so an increasing number of so-called African wildlife experts are coming to grips with the fact that most indigenous people are focused on their own survival first rather than any concerns for animals with whom they struggle daily in the food chain.

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