"Our Great Elder Namib"
Published in the Namib Times, 28 March 2013.
By Marcia Stanton
Once upon a time, our Great silent Elder Namib lived; she
was older than the rest- 55 million years old in fact. She was a remarkable
caretaker and was the guardian of the world’s most magical animals that were
different from any other animals in the whole world. You could see right
through some while others blended in with the earth so you couldn’t see them at
all. There were big ones and tiny ones- some lived in a little bush that held
water in its leaves; others made dens under the sand. The tiniest most
colourful plants lived all over the surface while 2,000 year-old plants had the
best view in the desert. Birds came from all around the world to visit this
special Elder because they loved her and they entrusted her to care for their
young.
The ocean’s fog provided clean drinking water and there was
plenty of food. The light of the sun and the moon illuminated the breathtaking
scenery by day and by night and the wind brought with it the warmth and the
cold. There must have been billions of stars in the sky at night! Oh what a
beautiful Elder, our Great Namib.
Humans became good friends of the Great Elder and found
shelter in her desert. The children spent countless hours playing with her.
Humans loved her dearly and were thankful for her gifts, but one day a new
group of humans arrived that started hurting her, our quiet sensitive Great
Elder. They poisoned, bullied and beat her up in the interest of money and fun,
until one day she had scars all over her body, scars that even the moon could
see at night. No one place was left unscarred.
Some humans were nice and tried to protect her, but they got
bullied too. Other humans knew our Great
Elder was suffering, but they thought it was better to befriend the bullies and
ignore what they were doing to her. This gave the bullies even more strength to
destroy our Great Elder. The human children were heartbroken and they hated to
see their friend suffer. Although they
feared they were too small and insignificant in the eyes of the adult humans,
they tried to protect the Great Elder anyway.
When the bullies threw garbage on her, the children picked it up. They
cried vast tears each night for their Great Elder and prayed that she would no
longer have to face such abuse.
While the children were crying, the bullies continued. They
even started poisoning all the water and food. They killed the magical plants
and enchanting animal friends, including the babies! These animals fought to
stay alive until one day they gave up. They
could not survive the constant torment from the bullies, and they disappeared
forever. Our Great Elder Namib and all her friends died that day. This is how it came to be that we lost the
world’s oldest desert.
Beautiful and poetic. Thank you, Marcia. I hope many people will take the time to read this. If your soul does not cringe with sadness and shiver with the need to stop this before it is too late when reading this - you probably have lost it long ago.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Imke. I'm glad that it touched you. I wrote this a few years ago and it saddens me to see this story coming more and more true by the day. Indeed I sensed an infinite scream in the Namib- I heard the countless voices that are not being listened to by the majority. I hope that what I heard can make an impact and make people wake up before it's too late. Thanks for your care, support and efforts!
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