Mufasa’s Ghost: Shakespearean revenge for #CecilTheLion
As soon as pictures of the majestic, dark-maned lion Cecil, a national treasure of Zimbabwe, caught our eyes, we were hooked.
We’ve all seen The Lion King, or at least have some part of it in our social consciousness. And here we are having to accept that Mufasa’s, I mean, Cecil’s, grace, his symbolic stature of all that is strong and beautiful in Africa, his innocence, was - in real life - taken by the bullet of an American dentist named Walter Palmer, for the price of about $50,000.
He killed the Lion King. Skinned him and beheaded him. For fun. And we’re mad.
After being lured out of the safety of his home in the Hawange National Park to his gruesome death, though, Cecil is finding his moment of justice.
As the Shakespearean tale, Hamlet, upon which the Lion King is based (as well as biblical tales before that), goes, we sought revenge. Out came the 21st century spears and daggers. Yesterday, #CecilTheLion was the top trend on Twitter; in 24 hours, it was used 670,000 times. Facebook, at least my Facebook feed, was deluged with posts of outrage. The dentist’s home and office and office website were targeted with messages of damning disapproval and Cecil memorials.
(Source: www.rt.com, “Cecil internet rage forces dentist lion killer to hide & close clinic”)
The moment was mostly a heartwarming show of indignity and anger, of compassion and connectedness with life and beauty, of moral protest against the slaying of that beauty. And, especially amongst Americans, a clear intent, it seemed, to separate ourselves from this one guy (people had other words to describe him) who did something we found to be pretty disgusting and creepy.
Even Nicky Hilton (Rothschild) weighed in, tweeting for Cecil, and all hunted animals:
Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides know they’re in the game. #CecilTheLion
— Nicky Rothschild (@NickyHilton) July 29, 2015
Unlike more politicized issues, it was something most of us could agree on was wrong without feeling guilty or complicit ourselves.
There are some, of course, who think caring about “a lion” when there are people dying is offensive. That’s hogwash. We are compassionate human beings. We care about a lot of things, and even their inter-connectivity. (And we put a lot of energy into many [human rights campaigns](www.blacklivesmatter.com) every day and will continue to do so…don’t forget about those.)
Beyond the fall of our strikingly perfect hero, the slaying of our protagonist, Cecil’s murder represents: the destruction of wildlife and our planet, the constant colonial[-esque] pillaging of African economies, a reminder of the connections between trophy hunting and related crimes of money laundering and drug trafficking, and between violence against animals and violence against people, especially women.
It’s not everyday that a wide spectrum of people across vast geography come together to oppose an act of violence. Instead of stomping out that compassion or merely letting it flounder away, maybe we can feed it with ways to channel the energy into lasting justice.
- Call on US authorities to respect the US-Zimbabwe extradition treaty
- Demand that lions be added to the US’ endangered species list
- Push the Justice Department to investigate bribery and other offenses for possible prosecution in the US, and to assist foreign proceedings (in Zimbabwe)
Yours truly offers her legal services, if they can assist in foreign or domestic proceedings. That’s what’s in my quiver. (See email below.)
I think Cecil’s words for Dr. Palmer would be:
(Source: www.1001moviequotes.com.)