Meet the Black Mambas: South Africa's All-Female Force Taking on Poachers! (Documentary, 2022)

The Kruger National Park is an ambiguous symbol. It was founded in 1926 as an effort to create a national white identity by uniting South Africans of Dutch and English origin. Unlike the evils of apartheid, the existence of the park remains an unchallenged symbol of white predominance in South Africa. Powerful elites in the Global North as well as animal lovers worldwide still perceive the Parks‘ goals of nature conservation and animal protection as morally grounded and necessary.

3 million people living in mostly black communities at the borders of Greater Kruger have traditionally been excluded from the Park for political reasons. To them conservation remains an “old white man’s thing“. The current pandemic situation has intensifified already existing tensions on the fence lines.

In 2013, Craig Spencer used the momentum of the rhino poaching crisis to found the Black Mambas, an all-female anti-poaching unit. Nkateko, Qolile and Naledi seized this opportunity to change their lives, only to realize during their service for the Park that they are still constrained by a post-colonial power dynamics.

The documentary unravels their struggle with white supervisors, within the context of demanding families and lack of opportunity. Is the empowerment of the three young women by the program something with revolu- tionary force as they develop critical awareness? Or are they just making the best of things with the quiet irony of a deeper domestic power learned from their own mothers?

Is it true that, as long as the local communities do not profifit from the Parks‘ wildlife, they will continue feeling alienated from it; with the animals of South Africa remaining a part of the white identity? Or – as we hear from the poachers in this production - have the animals always belonged to the indigenous people of South Africa and always will?

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Chapters
▷ 0:00:00 - Intro
▷ 0:01:06 - Kruger National Park, South Africa
▷ 0:05:15 - Boundary Fence, Greater Kruger, Patrol
▷ 0:07:19 - Black Mambas Headquarter
▷ 0:08:09 - Phalaborwa: On the border of Kruger National Park
▷ 0:12:20 - Detecting Gun Shots, Craig Spencer
▷ 0:16:39 - Black Mambas Northern Base, Johan Grobler
▷ 0:17:36 - Nkateko
▷ 0:25:10 - Hluvukani: On the border of Kruger National Park
▷ 0:25:35 - Qolile
▷ 0:27:57 - H.E.S.C. Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center
▷ 0:31:48 - Black Mambas Headquarter
▷ 0:36:08 - Environmental Education Center, Opening Ceremony
▷ 0:38:25 - Black Mambas Northern Base
▷ 0:46:57 - Pangolin Poaching
▷ 1:04:02 - Black Mambas Headquarter
▷ 1:08:17 - Hluvukani: On the border of Kruger National Park
▷ 1:18:55 - Credits

#documentary #fulldocumentary #blackmambas #wildlifeconservation #antipoaching #womeninaction #krugernationalpark

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Original title: Black Mambas
A film by Lena Karbe
© 2022, Licensed by Autlook

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