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Abstract
The Zanzibar leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) is (was) a little-known subspecies endemic to Unguja island. Rapid population growth and the expansion of farming in the twentieth century destroyed leopard habitat and decimated their natural prey, bringing them into increasing conflict with people. Villagers explained the growing number of attacks on their children and livestock by supposing that the leopards responsible for them were owned by witches and sent by them to do harm. Following the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, localised efforts to act on this theory culminated in an island-wide leopard eradication and witch-finding campaign, supported by the government. By the 1990s state-subsidised hunting had brought the leopard to the brink of extinction, and most zoologists now presume it to be extinct. However, many islanders believe that leopard keepers are still active in rural Unguja and sightings of leopards continue to be reported. Beguiled by such narratives, visiting researchers and local conservationists have continued to pursue these elusive felids. In this paper we describe and analyse a series of unsuccessful “kept leopard chases”, including abortive calls by government officials for the capture and display of domesticated leopards. These quixotic efforts show no signs of abating, and the underlying conflicts of knowledge and practice remain unresolved, posing a challenge to the theory and practice of conservation not only in Zanzibar but also further afield.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to everyone who has helped us in our research, including all of our sources in Zanzibar, named and unnamed in the text. A version of this paper was presented at the VIII European Swahili Workshop (Contemporary Issues in Swahili Ethnography), University of Oxford, 19–21 September 2010. We are grateful to Iain Walker for providing us with this opportunity, to other participants in the workshop for their perceptive comments, and to our two anonymous JEAS reviewers for helping us to improve the paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
Notes
1. Woodroffe, Simon, and Rabinowitz, People and Wildlife.
2. For example Nowell and Jackson, Wild Cats; Inskip and Zimmermann, “Human-Felid Conflict.”
3. Knight, “Introduction.”
4. Berkes, “Community-based Conservation.”
5. For example, Sillitoe, “Ethnobiology and Applied Anthropology.”
6. Compare Agrawal, “Indigenous Knowledge.”
7. For example Burton, Zanzibar, 198.
8. Walsh and Goldman, “Updating the Inventory,” 4.
9. Mansfield-Aders, “Natural History of Zanzibar and Pemba,” 329.
10. Walsh and Goldman “Updating the Inventory,” 4.
11. Natural History Museum Archives, London, Pocock to Vaughan, 11 December 1929.
12. Pocock, “Leopards of Africa,” 563.
13. Walsh and Goldman, “Updating the Inventory,” 4–5.
14. Zanzibar National Archives, file AB4/434, “Destruction of Leopards”, 1922–48, and correspondence therein.
15. For details see Walsh and Goldman, “Killing the King.”
16. Zanzibar Protectorate, Wild Animals Protection (Amendment of Schedule) Order, 1950, Government Notice No. 29, 11 March 1950; Wild Animals Protection (Exception) Order, 1950, Government Notice No. 30, 11 March 1950.
17. Dobroruka, “Zur Verbreitung des ‘Sansibar-Leoparden’.”
18. Kingdon, East African Mammals, 351; also Island Africa, 45.
19. Swai, “Wildlife Conservation Status,” 19–20, 48, 52–53.
20. Swai, “Wildlife Conservation Status,” 53.
21. For example, Nowell and Jackson, Wild Cats, 27, Fig. 6.
22. Archer, Collins, and Brampton, “Report on a Visit,” 65.
23. Archer, Survey of Hunting Techniques, 2, 17.
24. Marshall, “Status of the Zanzibar Leopard”; Selkow, “Survey of Villager Perceptions”; Khamis, “Report on the Status.”
25. Goldman and Walsh, Leopard in Jeopardy.
26. Goldman and Walsh, Leopard in Jeopardy, iii–iv.
27. Stuart and Stuart, Preliminary Faunal Survey.
28. Goldman and Walsh, “Is the Zanzibar Leopard Extinct?”
29. Nahonyo et al., Biodiversity Inventory.
30. Mugo, Eastern Africa Coastal Forests, 16.
31. Goldman and Winther-Hansen, “First Photographs”; Siex, Protected Area Spatial Planning, 28.
32. This account is based on Goldman and Walsh, Leopard in Jeopardy, 5–15.
33. Ingrams, Zanzibar, 465–477; Goldman, “Comparative Study,” 349–357, 371–378; Arnold, “Wazee Wakijua Mambo.”
34. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft; Middleton and Winter, Witchcraft and Sorcery; Marwick, Witchcraft and Sorcery; Moore and Sanders, Magical Interpretations; Stewart and Strathern, Witchcraft.
35. Walsh and Goldman, “Killing the King.”
36. “Makamo avilaani vitendo vya uchawi,” Kweupe, 12 August 1967; see also Swai, “Wildlife Conservation Status,” 20; Archer, Survey of Hunting Techniques, 17.
37. Walsh and Goldman, “Killing the King.”
38. Shabani Imani Ali, interviewed by Helle Goldman, Pete, Zanzibar, 19 January 2003, and Ameir Mohammed, interviewed by Helle Goldman, Oslo, Norway, 29 May 2008.
39. Khamis, “Report on the Status,” 6.
40. Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, The Forest Resources Management and Conservation Act no. 10 of 1996. The approximately 90 vertebrate and 13 invertebrate species in Appendix 1 “are to be totally protected year round and … are to be accorded the highest conservation action and work priority.”
41. Agrawal, “Dismantling the Divide.”
42. Abdy, “Witchcraft”, 237–238; Ingrams, Zanzibar, 471; Pakenham, Mammals, 49.
43. The Mudir was an administrative officer who presided over a number of Shehas and their territories.
44. Letter from Geoffrey D. Wilkinson to Martin Walsh, 4 August 2004.
45. Natural History Museum, Tring, Manuscript Collection of Richard Hercules Wingfield Pakenham (1906–1993), natural history notebook X, entry dated 25 July 1948.
46. Swai, “Wildlife Conservation Status,” 20.
47. Swai, “Wildlife Conservation Status,”, 52.
48. Conversation with Martin Walsh, Iringa, 23 May 2001.
49. The following is based primarily on Josza's published account of these events (Palmer, Verrückt Nach Dieser Welt, 35–38) and a telephone conversation and email exchange with Helle Goldman on 6 and 8 March 2005 respectively.
50. Palmer, Verrückt Nach Dieser Welt, 38. This English translation from the German text was kindly drafted by Winfried Dallmann in Tromsø, and has only been slightly amended. The allusion to metamorphosis may be based on a misunderstanding, and Josza admitted to Helle Goldman that he had difficulty in interpreting what was said. It is more likely that he was told about the leopard-like behaviour (including growling and barking) that is said to be exhibited by people who have come into contact with leopards and/or angered their keepers.
51. Conversation with Martin Walsh and others, Zanzibar, 15 June 1995. Walsh has heard similar stories in south-west and south-central Tanzania.
52. Marshall, “Status of the Zanzibar Leopard,” 11–12.
53. See Goldman and Walsh, Leopard in Jeopardy.
54. Selkow, “Survey of Villager Perceptions,” 6, 12.
55. Selkow, “Survey of Villager Perceptions,” 6, 26.
56. Khamis, “Report on the Status,” 4.
57. Khamis, “Report on the Status,” 4, 6–7.
58. Thabit Kombo, interviewed by Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 5 April 2002.
59. Derek Finnie, interviewed by Martin Walsh, Ngome Kongwe, Zanzibar, 6 April 2002.
60. Another JCBCP staff member who had been involved in this case later told Walsh that local “experts” had viewed the skin and rejected a Zanzibar provenance. It was also known to have been brought to Maruhubi by businessmen in need of cash. Ali Ali Mwinyi, interviewed by Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 8 April 2002.
61. Ali Ali Mwinyi, who features more than once in this paper, worked as a research assistant on our 1996 study.
62. Ali Ali Mwinyi, interviewed by Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 5 April 2002.
63. Ramadhani Khamis Suleiman (“Mcheju”), interviewed by Martin Walsh, Jozani Visitors’ Centre, Zanzibar, 7 April 2002.
64. Ali Ali Mwinyi, interviewed by Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 8 April 2002. Our interest in locating this leopard material derived in part from the possibility of using it for genetic analysis.
65. Jarahani Mcha Mkanga and Khatibu Zuberi Khatibu, interviewed by Helle Goldman on a visit to Wangwani, Jozani Forest, Zanzibar, 11 January 2003.
66. Field Data Collection Form, “Wangwani mangroves”, dated 19 August 2001.
67. Sheha Idrissa Hamdan, meeting with Helle Goldman, Zanzibar Town, 23 January 2003.
68. Selkow, “Survey of Villager Perceptions,” 12. This is the English version of a question that was translated into Swahili by his interpreter.
69. Selkow, “Survey of Villager Perceptions,” 12. This is the English version of a question that was translated into Swahili by his interpreter, p. 20.
70. This conversation took place at Vuga, Zanzibar, 23 January 2003.
71. Goldman and Walsh, Leopard in Jeopardy.
72. Mwantanga Ame, “Serikali Iko Tayari Kununua Chui,” Zanzibar Leo, April 13, 2003. Our translation from the Swahili original.
73. Emails from Mohammed D. Babu to Martin Walsh, Helle Goldman, Adam Gray, Andrew Gray and others, dated 8 July 2011. The film proposal, entitled “The Ghost Leopard of Zanzibar”, named Walsh as a participant. The film was not made and the proposal has since been removed from the web.
74. Ali Ali Mwinyi, in discussion with Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 20 July 2011.
75. Msellem Abdalla Abdalla, in conversation with Martin Walsh, Pongwe, Zanzibar, 19 January 2012.
76. Msellem Abdalla Abdalla, in conversation with Martin Walsh, Pongwe, Zanzibar, 4 August 2012.
77. Ali Ali Mwinyi, in discussion with Martin Walsh, Maruhubi, Zanzibar, 30 July 2012.
78. For example Abrahams, Witchcraft; Moore and Sanders, Magical Interpretations.
79. For example, Turner, “Reality of Spirits”; Willis, Some Spirits Heal.
80. Compare Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft.
81. Agrawal, “Dismantling the Divide,” 293.
82. See, for example, Berkes, “Community-based Conservation”; Cooke and Kothari, Participation; Escobar, “After Nature.”