THERE was a time when the seasons marked the passing of the year, with a few special days, high days and holidays as we used to call them, in between to break it up. Now it would seem that every other day is a special day to be marked, but not necessarily celebrated. Tomorrow, Friday October 4, is World Habitat Day, and I’m sure you know what needs to be done. Last week was an easier one, Heritage Day, or, as some would prefer, National Braai Day – what needed to be done then was fairly obvious (we tried, but it was so windy that lighting a fire anywhere near a wooden house seemed unnecessary folly so we had to declare it National Fry Day). Then just two days before that was World Rhino Day.
One of the horror statistics that came out of that was that no fewer than 688 rhinos have so far been poached in South Africa this year, that’s more than in the whole of 2012. At the same time, I’ve heard that there are now nearly a hundred organisations purporting to collect funds for the anti-poaching campaign, so be careful to whom you make your donations.
There is one place where an investment could be most useful, however, so read on. On my desk has landed a book by that quintessential conservationist, Clive Walker, and his son, Anton, who is, if both Clive and Anton will excuse the expression, a chip off the old block. It’s The Rhino Keepers, the story of Clive’s personal and virtually lifelong connection to the conservation of the world’s rhinos, and of course Anton’s somewhat shorter but equally valuable contribution as well.
Everyone knows Clive Walker, he really does seem to have been involved forever. I first interviewed Clive for radio 30 years ago and we have been friends, and in many ways colleagues, ever since. This book, however, is not about Clive the ‘personality’ but the Walkers’ fight to save the rhino from annihilation. Clive’s first contact with rhinos proper was back in 1956 in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia of course, and then moves on to East Africa, India and Nepal and back to Africa.
It is a thrilling tale of struggle against greed and ignorance – the greed of those who would take advantage of the illegal trade in rhino horn and the ignorance of those who have used it for thousands of years, totally pointlessly, as an element in traditional medicine. The Walkers actually trace this factor back to the original handbook on Chinese medicine dating from 4,800 years ago – so, the idea has been around a long time and is not going to change any time soon.
The book really is a history of the war to save the rhino and specifically the involvement of people like Clive and Anton Walker. It makes fascinating reading, including the final chapter reviewing the possibilities for the future of the rhino. Get it, it’s good, The Rhino Keepers, Clive and Anton Walker, published by Jacana, and available on order at Ramsgate Stationers. Cheers!
