The Shamba Raiders

Last updated February 14, 2024

The Shamba Raiders: Memories of a Game Warden was written by Bruce Kinloch. It is a non-fiction account of his experiences in Africa and was first published in 1972. It proved so successful that a revised edition came out in 1988, and then again in 2004.

The title refers to the marauding elephants destroying peasant crops, driven by heavy poaching pressure in wilderness areas, which formed the most urgent task for Kinloch.

That his book is still in demand is a source of pride to him and his wife, Elizabeth, who accompanied him frequently and typed up the notes of his original book. "It is a book that never dies, its contents are as relevant now as ever," she said.

The Shamba Raiders is an account of the struggle to preserve herds of game threatened by modern civilisation, poaching, war and the political and economic changes which have swept Africa in the middle of the last century. As the Chief Game Warden in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi, Kinloch walked the tight rope of retaining Africa's wildlife heritage while safeguarding crops and livelihood of the population, featuring ivory poachers and middlemen as well as uncaring and bigoted officials.

In particular, the book describes Kinloch's management of the Uganda Game and Fisheries Department during the introduction of the Protectorate's first National Parks, the introduction of Nile Perch to the upper Victoria Nile, and the creation of the College of African Wildlife Management.

Related Research Articles

Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers.

Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park, formerly Hluhluwe–Umfolozi Game Reserve, is the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa. It consists of 960 km² of hilly topography 280 kilometres (170 mi) north of Durban in central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is known for its rich wildlife and conservation efforts. Operated by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the park is the only state-run park in KwaZulu-Natal where each of the big five game animals can be found.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is a national park in Uganda.

Bruce Kinloch MC was a British army officer, wildlife conservation leader and author.

Acokanthera is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. It comprises 5 species and is generally restricted to Africa, although Acokanthera schimperi also occurs in Yemen. Its sap contains the deadly cardiotoxic glycoside ouabain. The sap is among the most commonly used in arrow poisons, including those used for poaching elephant.

Kidepo Valley National Park is a 1,442 square kilometres (557 sq mi) national park in the Karamoja region in northeast Uganda. Kidepo is rugged savannah, dominated by the 2,750 metres (9,020 ft) Mount Morungole and transected by the Kidepo and Narus rivers.

Wadelai was a boma at a narrow point on the Albert Nile in what is now northern Uganda. There were several shortlived colonial stations there, the first being the final chief station of Emin Pasha when Governor of Equatoria. Wadelai gives its name to a current Ugandan sub-county.

Mount Kadam, is near the east border of Karamoja, Uganda with Kenya and has an approximate elevation of 3,063 metres (10,049 ft). It is just north of Mount Elgon. It was first climbed by Sailesh Kadam, the mountain's namesake.

Damaliscus lunatus jimela is a subspecies of topi, and is usually just called a topi. It is a highly social and fast type of antelope found in the savannas, semi-deserts, and floodplains of sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Iain Douglas-HamiltonCBE is a Scottish zoologist from Oxford University and one of the world's foremost authorities on the African elephant. Douglas-Hamilton pioneered the first in-depth scientific study of elephant social behaviour in Tanzania's Lake Manyara National Park, aged 23. His work in the 1960s paved the way for much of today’s understanding of elephants and current conservation practices. During the 1970s he investigated the status of elephants throughout Africa and was the first to alert the world to the ivory poaching holocaust, bringing about the first global ivory trade ban in 1989. In 1993, Douglas-Hamilton founded Save the Elephants, which is dedicated to securing a future for elephants and their habitats. For his work on elephants he was awarded two of conservation's highest awards - the Order of the Golden Ark in 1988, the Order of the British Empire in 1992, and the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015. In 2010, he was named the recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, the world's leading award for animal conservation. In May 2012, Douglas-Hamilton spoke at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Ivory and Insecurity: The Global Implications of Poaching in Africa.

Major David Leslie William Sheldrick, MBE was a Kenyan farmer and park warden, in memory of whom the eponymous David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) was created by his widow, Daphne in Nairobi.

The Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve is a conservation area in the Karamoja subregion of northeastern Uganda. It is the second largest conservation protected area in Uganda.

The International Elephant Foundation (IEF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Formed by individuals and institutions, IEF is dedicated to the conservation of African and Asian elephants worldwide.

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is an international conservation organization dedicated to the preservation of Africa's wildlife and wild lands. AWF aims to protect the continent's wild lands as well as its wildlife and natural resources.

The maneless zebra is a subspecies of the plains zebra spread over the northern parts of eastern Africa. It ranges in northwestern Kenya to the Karamoja district of Uganda. It is also found in eastern South Sudan, east of the White Nile. It is the northernmost subspecies of the plains zebra. The last remaining substantial population is in Kidepo Valley National Park.

The Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State, also known as the London Convention of 1933, was an early agreement among colonial powers for the conservation of nature. As one of the first general conservation agreement in Africa, and the first to specifically protect a plant species, it has been called the Magna Carta of wildlife conservation and "the high point of institutionalised global nature protection before the Second World War".

The Uganda Game and Fisheries Department was the lead wildlife conservation agency of the Uganda Protectorate. It was merged into the Uganda Wildlife Authority in 1996.

Jim Justus Nyamu, of Nairobi, Kenya, is an elephant research scientist and activist against poaching and trade in ivory. Nyamu is the executive director at the Elephant Neighbors Center (ENC) and is leader of the movement, Ivory Belongs to Elephants. He has also held positions at the African Conservation Centre and Kenya Wildlife Service. The ENC is a grass-roots collaborative and participatory research organization focused on enhancing the capacity of communities living with wildlife to promote interlinkages between species and their habitats.

Peter C. "Pete" Pearson was an Australian-born game ranger, poacher, and professional hunter in East Africa.

Roy John Dugdale "Samaki" Salmon, (1888–1952) was a New Zealand-born game warden and elephant control officer in the Uganda Protectorate.

References

"Eyeball to eyeball with bull elephant," This is Herefordshire. Online Article ^{[ dead link ]}

Kinloch, Bruce (1972). The Shamba Raiders: memories of a game warden (2 ed.). Hampshire: Ashford. ISBN 9781852530358.

This article about a book on the environment is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.