IVORY

Emma is a veterinarian from Toronto. She came to Africa for the World Cup and decided to do some volunteer work and research while she was here. One day I decided to tag along with her on a visit to the Department of Environment and Tourism. The guy in charge of the branch in Tsumkwe is this rugged dude named Drieze. What a character. He’s a tall and confident, broad-shouldered guy, who wore khaki shorts that were almost too short, and hiking boots that came up to just below his calves. With his army green jacket, scruffy face, dirty blonde hair, and tan skin, he was like a Crocodile Dundee of the Kalahari. A day at the office for him may involve such a task as taking down a ravaging elephant that has just rampaged a village. He had some stories to tell and I felt like he had Discovery Channel written all over him. After hanging out in his office for a bit he took us out back to this green shed where they kept their ivory. The outside of the shed was lined with the skulls from animals that had died of natural causes, and locked up inside they kept the elephant tusks. There weren’t very many at the time, I guess they had just emptied it out, but apparently it gets waist high. And considering the ivory goes for 2,000 American dollars per kilogram, that shed can become quite a treasure chest. White gold! I picked up one of the tusks, it was a heavy 78.5 pounds, and it wasn’t even that big. In the back corner of the shed – you can see it in the picture - I noticed that there was a toilet built into the concrete. Apparently the Department of Environment and Tourism has the authority to practice a little bit of law enforcement when it comes to poaching, and the ivory shed used to act as a holding cell for those that broke the law. I’m not going to go into detail about the torture tactics that he said they used, but let’s just say that it re-enforced my image of him as the Kalahari Dundee. I was too scared to take a picture of him. Just kidding, but not really…