Today, just few days after we commemorated the International Women’s Day, we wish to applaud the courage of the Chavuma woman who fought off a crocodile after it pounced on her 14-year old daughter while fishing on the banks of the Zambezi River.
Prisca Kaumba, 36, of Chief Ndungu’s area, according to North Western commissioner of Police, Hudson Namachila, struggled with the reptile after it grabbed her daughter, Judith, until it gave up.
Indeed, as people say, a mother’s love is the most powerful force on earth. The moment a child is born, the mother’s protective instinct is also born. Only a woman existed, but the mother never did.
There’s no feeling, no emotion in the world more beautiful than a mother’s unconditional love and care for her children. Of all the gifts that life has to offer, a loving mother is the greatest of them all.
Motherhood isn’t about giving birth to children or raising them alone, its indeed being a part of their children’s life.
They represent their children just as much as their children represent them.
A mother’s journey is an emotional, almost selfless one. Yes, like others, she too has her own desires, aspiration and fears but she is able and capable of abandoning or sacrificing all of these for the sake of her children.
Seeing her children safe, and happy is what matters most to a mother.
Through Prisca’s courageous act and selflessness, we wish to applaud all other women who today are struggling, or going through various dangers and hardships just to ensure that their children are safe and happy.
We also wish to reiterate our call to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to ensure they regularly undertake the cropping of wild animals.
The attacks on human beings by crocodiles, especially along the Zambezi River banks, is something that has become persistent and in places where the wildlife officers operate.
In the Chavuma incident, like in other reported cases on crocodiles’ attacks, the reptile had regularly been sported in the area where the incident happened, and the officials were well-aware and yet nothing was done about it.
The question is, why should we always wait until a death has occurred, someone has been maimed or seriously injured before we could do anything about it.
Like we have stated before, the role of wildlife officers is not to just protect or safeguard wildlife but the lives of human being too, and in fact the priority should be given to the latter.
The human, animal conflict is a long
