When I was making my preparations to come back to Benin I half-joked with Sarah that I would be back just in time for bush fires. Well, as it turned out I wasn’t wrong. Yesterday during the hottest time of the day, two groups of local men who hunt in large groups came through.
One group burned over a 100-acres of grassland next to our farm and because our fire break was so well done this year, someone kindly helped the fire across onto our land. However, after several years of living in heightened awareness to the unique sound of fire crackling and to the smell of smoke, I and an intern got there before the fire went too far into our farm.
The second group of hunters decided to go through the center of our farm, and although they did not start any fires, the animals and fences in their path took a literal beating. We’ve since registered a complaint with the proper authorities who’ve said that they will speak with the hunters.
Things have been better this past 18 months because so many people are very angry over the behaviour of the hunters, more like Mongol raiders really. So happily society here seems to be against this “tradition” and things may be changing for the better. We’ll see.
