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New Vision (Kampala)
December 18, 2001
Gerald Tenywa
PROUD? The rhinos walked majestically and seemed to ignore the
large crowd -- They believed that rhino meat was bitter and if you
killed a rhino, bad luck would strike you THE drums beat and flutes
sang. Sweat rolled down the bodies of the dancers. Skinny women
wriggled their waists at the side of the towering men. They sang
in Luo to entertain a small crowd of conservationists. They had
gathered at a ceremony referred to as "Welcome the Rhinos back
to Uganda."
The two and a half-year white rhinos were the first rhinos to walk
on Ugandan soil in two decades. Rhino Fund Uganda, a charity organisation,
bought them from Solio Ranch in Kenya. This was under the first
phase of bringing back the rhinos to Uganda. Uganda used to have
both white and black rhinos which eventually became extinct. The
last white rhino was seen in 1982 in Murchison Falls National Park.
The last black one was seen in Kidepo in 1983. The two beasts, female
and male named Kabira and Sherino respectively walked majestically
on the patch of grass at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC).
They seemed to ignore the enchanted crowds. "The rhinos are
seen as a tribal symbol in Lango," Jovina Akaki told the crowd
just before he commissioned the rhino. Akaki said his tribemates
held the rhinos in high esteem and would never kill them. He therefore
reasoned that the rhinos would have higher chances of not being
poached if they were kept in Lango. "They believed that rhino
meat was bitter and that if you killed a rhino, bad luck would strike
the home," he added. However, the second phase to bring back
the black rhinos would be in the neighbourhood of Lango district.
Yvonne Verkaik, the coordinator of Rhino Fund Uganda, said an 80
square km piece of land in Nakasongola district had been acquired
to establish a rhino sanctuary. "The black rhinos would be
allowed to breed and later re-introduced into the wilderness,"
she said.
This would constitute the third and last phase of bringing the rhinos
back to Uganda, Verkaik said. Betty Kamya, executive director of
UWEC said they had contacted groups of people with an emotional
attachment to the rhinos. They included Buganda's Nkula clan, Busoga's
clans and the Langi who were dominantly represented. Rhinos are
globally endangered because of their valuable horns: They have two
horns; one longer than the other. Poachers export the horns to Asia
where they are used to make ceremonial dagger handles and traditional
medicine.
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