A Burdened 21-year old

Ever since my successful relocation to Kenya around fifteen years ago, not a single day has passed that I have not had a visitor. They all come and go, different ages, sizes, races. Diversity is a beautiful thing I think, the differences make species a sort of rainbow. Apart the colours do not make sense but together, they put a beautiful display in the sky that forces all things on earth to stop and stare. With these visitors, there’s another thing that bounds them together, one that is rooted deep in their subconscious. It is what causes them to act the way they do, moving across this earth as though it belongs to them alone. The idea that bounds them together is this: Humanity can never be extinct. Perhaps in the short term, they are right, but if they keep living the way they’re living, eliminating all other species without a second thought, the consequences of their actions will eventually catch up to them.

“ Look at that sunset! Isn’t it magnificent?” These are the words that I am all too familiar with and act as my cue to go off on my own. The visitors are all the same, especially those who come visit me in the late afternoon. They look at me with those teary eyes, filled with regret, the realisation of the consequences of their actions setting in… or so it seems. The second the su begins its descent into the earth, their attention is diverted away from me and towards the setting sun who never fails to put on a magnificent show in the sky even on the rainiest of days. These humans it seems, only live for the moment, never giving even a single thought to the long-term consequences of anything that they do. Don’t get me wrong though, I love sunsets; but each sunset is a painful reminder that we are a day closer to the elimination of my species. A reminder of the burden placed on my mother and I, due to the actions of humanity, to ensure that our species is not wiped out. Is this the kind of burden a twenty-one year old is supposed to be carrying? Or, is this something that is unique to me?

I was born in the Czech Republic, 21 years ago, to loving parents. Everything about my life from birth until I was six years of age seemed like a celebration. Every day, the humans would come feed me, rub me down, and do a number of procedures on me to ensure I was healthy. It was soft living and I loved every minute of it. Every afternoon, there would be a lot of people coming to see me and my family. They’d stare at us, wave to get our attention and then feed us if we went close enough. A number would always back away when I run up to them, I guess they were scared. Perhaps they thought that I would hurt them, but I would never do that; especially when they have been nothing but kind to me. 

I loved to play. Every morning I’d wake up early just so I had enough time to play with my cousins before the humans came in. Our home wasn’t very big but we made the most of it. We’d go as far as the glass windows and then use our imagination to create a world of our own, where we were free to roam the land without limits and where we got to interact with humans. What a life that would be. One restless night, when I was around 5 years , I went to tell my mum of the imaginary world I had created. Her response to my imaginary world, completely shocked me. It was then that she decided to tell me the truth about who I really was. It was then, that everything changed in my life.

“ Mum, I can’t sleep. I keep imagining a world where there’s a lot more space to play, and there’s different things and people to see. A place far away and much bigger than this home we live in.”

Her face was grim, she took a deep sigh and then begun to speak. 

“ You may be thinking about Afrika. I’ve been thinking about it as well. For even though we have never been there before, we have ancestral ties to that place.”

“ Afrika? What is Afrika?” I asked, more shocked than fascinated that my mother had been having the same thoughts. 

“ Yes my dear. Afrika is a place, far away from here. Where the sun shines all year long, the food is good and never lacks. You can eat whenever you feel like it. Not like here where the humans decide when we should eat. A place where there’s a lot of space you can walk for your entire life and never reach the end. Where there are different people and animals.”

“ Why are we not there? I want to be in Afrika.” I exclaimed enthusiastically.

“ Your wish may come true sooner than you think, my dear. I’ve heard the humans talking. Their experiment is not working as they hoped it would. We are dying faster than we are growing. They believe taking us back to Afrika might be the miracle to keep us from completely disappearing.”

“ Disappearing?” I said quite scared. Sometimes, mother got lost in her words and forgot that she was speaking to me. “Where will we go?”

“ Perhaps it’s time for me to tell you the truth about your history. With the way things are going, it is better for you to know.

Long ago, our people used to live in Afrika. The land of abundance. There was a lot of space and everyone was free to move about. The only condition to this freedom is that they did not interfere with the freedom of the humans and other animals. An agreement had been signed by the leaders of all those who occupied the land and for years everyone did their best to keep their side of the agreement. Peace ruled the land and everyone was happy. Then suddenly things changed. It started with the humans. Some other human visited them and they changed their habits. They broke the agreement and begun terrorising us. There was a divide created between the animals and the humans. They begun killing us, for our skins, our teeth, our horns. Fortunately, we were stronger than them and with the permission from our leaders, we fought back. We killed them in their hundreds. There was blood everywhere, it was a sad scene but a line had been crossed.

Peace reigned for some years, then the humans came back, this time they came for our people. There was a rumour going round that we held the secret ingredient to the cure for all their diseases. We are strong, but they came with stronger weapons, suddenly our strength became our weakness. Parents were forced to leave their children who got trapped and children were forced to watch their parents get killed in cold blood. Every year, their weapons grew stronger which inevitable made us weak. Our numbers reduced greatly from thousands, they left us with less than one hundred in a few years. It was a disaster to our community. There was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide because our size always gave us away.

At the same time, a lot of other things were happening. Humans were putting up buying everywhere and carving out spaces for themselves alone, protecting them with electric poles to keep us out. Also, their hunger for more, caused them to turn on themselves. They began fighting and killing each other. Unfortunately for us, we were caught in the crossfire and suffered death, as a consequence of their actions.”

“ So what saved us, how did we end up here?” I asked, curious to know more.

“ There was a group of humans, they realised the severity of the situation; we were dying faster than we could give birth. These humans decided to act quickly to try save us. They thought that it was better to bring us here in this enclosed space, hoping that it would help us give birth. However, as you can see we have been dying because we have not adapted well. Now they are saying they want to take us back to Afrika, with the hope that we will be able to reproduce while there.

Now it’s really late, go off to sleep.”

I wandered off to my bed with the thoughts of Afrika occupying my mind and before I knew it, I drifted off to a deep sleep.

“ Oh wow! Look at that sunset! Quick let’s go take pictures before we miss it.” The voice of the day’s visitors brought me out of my thoughts. It was that time of the day again. Another sunset, another day closer to the elimination of my species from the face of the earth. 

I have lived in Kenya for fifteen years and it has simultaneously been the best and worst time of my life. I arrived in Kenya with my mum, grandfather and a friend. Unfortunately, over the years we lost my grandfather and our friend. The death of the former caused a huge uproar among the humans, a bit ironic though because it is their actions that have led us here. Adjusting to life in Afrika has been hard but it has definitely been much better than our previous home. There’s so much space, and different people and animals just live mother mentioned in her tales. I only wish that my cousins were here to enjoy it with me for the nights sometimes get lonely. I hear that the humans may have found a way to save us, but it is their last hope for there are no more males among us. I can only hope that this is not the end of us. 

How rude of me, to have given m entire life story without even introducing myself. My name is Fatu, I am one half of the remaining Northern White Rhinos currently under heavy surveillance at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. I really love it here, but I’m sure I’d have loved it more if it wasn’t for the extreme pressure placed on my mother and I to save our species. My life isn’t a fairytale, my life is humanity’s last hope to save our species from extinction.