Satao - RIP 30 May 2014

Pic:  Tsavo Trust

© 2017

A hush has descended over the savannah

    Satao has fallen,

        He is no more,

and the wild birds’ song

     as they flip flap along,

          mourning Him,

but He can’t hear their call

He died by a poisoned arrow

    hissing through the crisp winter air

and He crashed to his knees,

    amidst the sorrowful trees

        wintering, leafless and bare

A shadow dimmed the skies

     as the light left his gentle eyes

whilst his killers circled round

       knives in hand,

and there’s a stain on our soul

     from the blood-soaked ground

where His dear face was butchered,

         and a curse on the land

Pic:  Tsavo Trust

Satao, it’s dusk,

   the moon is growing…

are You out there?

     were You able to journey into the Night?

or are you trapped,

     weeping for those left behind?

or maybe You’re one of the twinkling golden lights

        that I lift my eyes to

when it all just seems too dark on the ground?

What was it for? 

    a trinket, no more

       You lost your life to satisfy some fool’s greed,

oh Spirit – this heartbreak is too much to bear

     Satao – come get me – I’d rather weep with You out there,

   Somewhere,

     You must be looking down on Africa

           and praying with the Angels for us 
in this hell that we’ve allowed,

      from the vision of light and love,

how we’ve sunk

    to such darkness defies belief,

             like a thief

the shadows drain the joy from the sun,

if only humans would realise we are all One

     and feel with their hearts instead of think with their brains,

oh Satao – how much longer will this agony carry on…

     until all the trees, the animals are dead and gone?

Christine Jordaan 11 July 2014
© 2017

Slave Ape

When the rising moon calls to his soul

      he cannot answer,

he cannot follow Her shadow’s path weaving through the magic of twilit trees

   as She glides so lightly through the sky,

perhaps he catches a glimpse of Her against the smog and city pollution

     through a dirty window as Night slowly creeps by

He is trapped in this cage until his keeper comes tomorrow,

when he is wheeled out for his part in the show,

      degraded to being dressed as a human and playing drums,

and the idiot crowd laughs and thinks this is good,

    and that this is fun

He cannot express his urge to swing or call,

and instead of tree bark he has cold steel,

    he cannot feel the gentle breeze rocking him to sleep in a branch,

just the city’s noisy stories makes up the sadness of his real

  

His very nature eats away at him,

    because you cannot trap the wind as it dances through the trees

and you cannot cage a wild creature that is meant to be free

He cannot BE his truth,

so he bashes his head against the bars in frustration,

    until that pain somehow eases something in his screaming heart

When the eagle calls so far away in his Africa - it echoes in his soul

though he cannot see it’s shadow flicker against the clouds,

   he feels it, as he feels the trees falling,

forests being felled for man’s greed,

    his heart is crying out because they are one,

and our souls are dying

because we do not want to know

    that we too are all one.

The trees are our roots and our lungs

    and he is our brother

He MUST return to his Africa - we cannot leave him there

enslaved, and one day, to die alone

so far, so very far, from home

Christine Jordaan

May 2014

Trapped

African leaders – please call for DNA testing of the #slaveapes currently in China, Armenia, amongst other countries.  And then ask CITES to invoke Article VIII to bring them home!!  

© 2017

Research here

Trapped

© 2017

He is a wild spirit
      trapped in someone else’s idea for his life

Imagine his despair of life in a cage,
the pure frustration of wanting to swing free in trees
and interact with his own kind,
feel another furry body,
      touch another wild mind

 

   Feel his fear of the beatings
when he hasn’t learnt to play his role correctly,
          as designated by Mankind the Civilised,
in this degrading parody of entertainment,
dressed in an absurd guise of our shameful society,
        served up to the mindless crowd
that either do not know or simply do not care,
         that once he lived in a forest and was happy there

And when the hordes leave
at the end of the day,
the lights dim,
       and the music fades away,
he is led back to the empty silence
    where time tick tocks away

What passes through his mind
in the long hours before its show time again?
  does he remember the warmth of the African sunlight
       and the veil of the soft forest rain?
where do his thoughts dwell while outside the city falls asleep?
  if I could peep into his cage at night
would I see this ape weep?

I wonder if his forest is still there
or are his trees now tables in some smart city house
do they hold an echo of the birdsong they once carried
      or the magic of the dreaming moonlight?

He was free,
      wild-born
but here he sits a million miles away
    caged,
 alone,
     and forlorn
staring out through the bars
    of man’s domination over Nature

and there is something in his eyes
that reaches across the divide of space and form
it whispers to my heart
     in utter despair and rage
and I recognise the panic of living and dying
trapped inside this cage

Please world, He must be bought home to Africa!!

© 2017

Stop the trafficking!  Slave Ape

Send the #slaveapes home to Africa!

                                      Photo credit:  Shigzeo

Research - Karl Ammann

Call to Action: PROJECT TO END GREAT APE SLAVERY - PEGAS

Photo credit:  Karl Ammann

Beautiful people….

I was honoured recently to be contacted by Karl Ammann (www.karlammann.com), a wildlife warrior of note (named Hero of the Environment, and SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year).  He asked me to help raise awareness of the plight of the #slaveapes  as he had seen the world roaring out for our beloved lions.   Together with Dr Dan Stiles (danstiles.org), Nick Cockayne (http://www.apeactionafrica.org/index) and a specialised team they have created PEGAS.

And so world - I am afraid I need some more tears from you, I’m so sorry.   

After the lion march, I seriously wondered if I had any more tears left in my heart or had I cried them all out…  I worried that I had become one of those hard people you see that just don’t cry anymore…  but I’m afraid my heart has been broken again…  actually as I sit here now I wonder at what point one’s heart says “enough pain, stop beating”….   

Until we get to that point, however, we just have to carry on one battle at a time in our war for our beloved animals… whether they’re dressed in fur or scales or feathers…  whether they have four legs or no legs, whether they roar or croak…  we love them all, and we will never stop fighting for them.  To sink into despair is to abandon the animals in hell, and so somehow we have to soldier on with all our tears and heartbreak.

So! We have wept together for the fallen gentle giants – the elephants, victims of the heart-breaking poaching crisis.  We have roared out for those waiting to die – the lions in the horrific canned hunting industry, and all those slaughtered in the killing machine of trophy hunting.

Now I need you to cry with me for the slave apes.

I need your tears to break hearts wide open again so that we can fix this.

I ask you to close your eyes and still your minds…

feel a hot steaming jungle around you,

the sweat stinging your eyes ,

vines itching and scratching at your legs,

a cacophony of birds chirping and whistling out their own glorious songs,

let your heart sense a family of playful chimps …   

and then a heavier presence of the big apes,

    just an ordinary day in the sunlit forest…

until a baby elephant runs squealing through a clearing,

  birds squawk in a panic up to the canopy,

   and utter chaos erupts,

harsh voices shouting,

gunfire, blood, and death.

     Whole families murdered - shot, or hacked to death,

 whilst trying to defend their babies,

infant apes shoved into rough canvas sacks for their journey through Hell…

  many die en route to the transit cities,  packed in between other illicit products, they suffocate, starve to death, or their little throats dry up whilst calling for help which never arrives…

   a journey through hell….

        to slavery…

  to a life behind bars…

 a life sentence for a crime which they have never committed…

We cannot do anything about those that have died, except cry for them and try to learn lessons from their deaths to stop further suffering…

But we can help those still enslaved far, far away from their native sunlight…

   who must have just one prayer in their little hearts…   

“Please, Bring Us Home”

World – shall we do it… shall we do our absolute best to get CITES to send them home to Africa?

And to stop all trafficking of our beloved wild animals?  

   

Karl, Dan, Nick, and their dedicated team will call on CITES for justice.  

Please join me in supporting them by raising awareness, and through activism in cyberspace and the physical world.

We need to end Ape Slavery!! 

Animals are not ours to rip from their families and send off to zoos, safari parks, and private collections for human entertainment. 

So together let us now tackle the horror of the #slaveapes and by raising awareness of this evil… we will bring to the world’s attention what we activists all know – Captivity Kills.  

There should be NO trade in animals.  Animals should have the right to live out their lives according to their own destinies and have fair access to the natural resources they require to do so.  We are occupying this planet as brutal dictators consuming all – we have literally waged war on all other species – and it’s time to STOP!  

Wildlife trade is horrific and unacceptable... their broken, beaten little bodies... their souls and hearts just waiting for us to realise that we are all one...  that they feel pain as we do... hunger and thirst as we do...  cold, frightened, and lonely as we do...  just imagine their utter bewilderment at being stolen away... from the sounds and smells of the forests to the pollution of the city... 

We have taken everything from them - their families, their freedom... and we're destroying their habitat.

Our planet is dying... we're losing our animals... our souls...  lets take a stand!  Make THIS the generation that woke up in time and made it right... opened our hearts to a better vision... a kinder, gentler world where all life is held as sacred.  And this culture of greed dedicated to a God of Things and Money... reborn into a culture of love.

Please world – help us bring the #slaveapes home to where they belong – appropriate sanctuaries in Africa – if their own countries cannot shelter them – there are willing ones.  

Karl and Dan have the problem clearly outlined and solutions ready to offer… but they need us to add our voice to theirs to show CITES that the world is outraged and this needs to be fixed, NOW!

So - let’s get cracking, rescue the #slaveapes, and stop the trafficking – let us END APE SLAVERY!!

The official campaign website will be up and running shortly.  

In the meantime, please visit us on:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/620448181376736

and sign and share this petition:

 https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/John_Scanlon_CITES_Secretariat_End_Great_Ape_Slavery/

Thankyou!!!!  

Lots of love as always,

Christine

A Vision.. A March...

Global March for Lions 
Today, somewhere,
another roar has been silenced
by bullet or deadly bow
and a betrayed spirit departed
to wherever the Wild Ones go

Today, somewhere,
an executioner
has hung up his weapon of death,
boasted his tale of a bloody kill
and his victim’s last agonising breath

Today, somewhere,
another heart has broken
and bitter, despairing tears wept
and a plea to the Sacred poured out to the night
drifting up to the angels where wishes are kept

In springtime last year I had a vision
that the King Stag was standing
on a lonely high peak
so faithfully
in the mist of the magic
so patiently ,
hurting, with the tragic,
waiting for us to grow into our Heroes

and in our thousands we gathered before Him
and knelt in a fervent prayer
that the Light would descend down to Earth
and live in every mind here

With a thousand sighs of the wind
and in a beat of the Earth’s wise heart
the tears of outraged Love
are carving out a new path

The hands of the heroes have reached
across the cultures,
the colours,
the divide,
to fight the horror,
the twisted,
the sick,
of the lions bred to die

Christine Jordaan, 2014

© 2017

ELEVEN

Your life

Dear One

was not ours to take

you had your own destiny

your own path to follow

and now, this human,

operating through pure Evil,

has stolen your tomorrow

ELEVEN times he pulled the trigger

how could he do it?

watch you fall

and carry on shooting

what is broken in his heart?

tearing your body apart

to fill some sick need of his

ELEVEN times he made the choice to kill you

decided you must die

I cannot even begin

to try and fathom why

I must bow my head in shame

before your spirit and the rest of your kind

utter shame,

and disgust with my own

I must beg you for forgiveness

and more kindness than you

and all the animals are shown

I must try to find words

to voice this wrong

to break the good people’s hearts

so they can feel your pain

and stop looking away

so they can hear the cries

rising up from the Earth

from the beasts we are murdering

and torturing

for pleasure and fun

for food

for wear

for testing

for status

for foul medicines

and from selfish destruction of your homes

they must feel the horror of your days

spent in agony and fear

 your hearts, spirits, and bodies long since broken

and your faith and trust in us shattered

  

RIP

all the unsung victims of Mankind the Dictator,

currently occupying Earth as a brutal tyrant!

Canned Lion

I am with you

   in your cage

      lying on the cold cement floor

wondering what the hell it is all for

  staring out through the bars

      seeing the sunlight

 but not feeling the warmth inside

  soul weighted down

    by another’s will

       for our lives

Image credit: CACH

never to live as we should have

   never roaming wild as we would have

so much inside to be

desperately need to roar out

     to cry

       FREE

 

until it’s the end

   disorientated

     drugged

tossed out into a pretend-wild

    we wait

cannot escape

       until a shot shatters our body

            and we split

  I lie gasping

       hands over eyes

but I will never forget

   the heartbreak

in the angels’ cries

for there was no pride

in the way that you died

no great feat of courage

or show of intellect

or inspiration to create

just a coward with a gun

and an emptiness inside

who needed to feel big

and so decided your fate

to satisfy some twisted thrill

of watching you lie in agony

until you were still

no drumroll marked your passing

   just a solemn tree stood witness with me

         to your murder

and the sad moment your life force left form

     as your blood seeped into the Earth

your magnificent spirit

    was gone

   and society doesn’t even know

what it has lost

and as I kneel

because something needs to be said

     a horrible dread

falls over me

  part of me has died with you

part of the human psyche is lost

    at a terrible, unreal cost

all the wilderness dying

   silent, unheard victims

      of Man

  

someone as awe-inspiring  as you

     so pure

       so true

          to the original vision of Earth

deserves a song

   somehow I can’t,

it’s too deep

this horror, this tragedy

   this wrong,

nothing gets past the lump in my throat

       but as the tears roll down my cheeks 

the stars peep out and cry with me

at this waste of your glory

by whose authority do they write your death into law?

is man higher than God who gave you life?

how dare they decide

what your purpose is for

and keep your spirit in chains

til they decree you should die??

Man – the ultimate dictator occupying Earth

the Destroyer

should hang his head in shame!

Addressing the EXCO of the Amakhosi, February, 2014

First Global March for Lions, 2014, Durban
With Hon. Narend Singh, MP & Chief Whip, and Adv. Anthony Mitchell, Inkatha Freedom Party

Second meeting for the Lions with His Excellency, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 2015

Myself and Xolanie Khumalo taking the message to KwaMashu township, Durban, 2015

2nd Global March for Lions, 2015, Durban, senior IFP, and Brian Connell

 by Christine Jordaan, 2014
© 2017