13 Safaris, Maneaters And Poachers
The Last Colonial Game Wardens Tell their Stories
Reviewed byRolf D. Baldus

Why did young men in the middle of last century work take every effort to become game wardens? Remuneration was pathetic. They even had to buy their own Landrover. And when they arrived at their duty station they were not sure whether there was even a house waiting for them.

Before the last of the few who are still alive have also passed away, Ian Parker and Stan Bleazard – both Wardens before inde-pendence themselves – could convince a good couple of them to tell us a few of their best stories. We hear of the last lion in the Nairobi city centre, of the game scout who mistook Jomo Ken-yatta’s best cow for a hippo and shot it, of the biggest pair of tusks – 189 and 178 pounds – ever taken in Kenya and of many ex-travagant and exciting personalities. We hear tales of tragedy, farce, hardship, achievement, failure and laughter, of safaris to distant places and adventures with man-eating beasts. And we read a good number of hunting stories narrated by no-nonsense
professionals. They tell us from fights against poachers who
hunted elephants with poisoned arrows and whom they respected as daring hunters despite bitter war-fare. Perhaps it was one of the largest mistakes of these years some wardens contemplate today, to think that the wildlife could be protected against the people behind fences and with a fortress mentality.

Under-staffed, under-funded and mainly untrained amateurs, the game wardens fought against poachers and bureaucrats to establish a safe haven where man and animal could share the land. They wanted to keep the Africa of the great migrating herds, of the unlimited wilderness without game fences. It was an “impossible dream”, as the book title says – but none of the men regretted his effort when he had to leave his job at the time of independence.

“An Impossible Dream”, Ian Parker und Stan Bleazard, Ł14,99
Librario Publishing 2001, www.librario.com
ISBN:1-904440-20-7.