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“NJOBVU, NDAKUSOWA – Elephant, I miss you”

“Long ago, great giants lived here. They were magnificent creatures.  But…we killed them all……”

Born Free’s long term partners the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust have just released this innovative new film, “Elephant, I Miss You”, this film talk’s about the memory of a man who saw and elephant for the first and only time as a little boy, and follows the impact that poaching elephants to extinction had on his community over the next 60 years. 

The aim is to promote elephant protection and the importance of Malawi’s natural heritage amongst a large cross section of society. With the support of local musician Lawi and his grandfather, as well Born Free’s Global Friends Programme, AAP, the Tusk Trust and film maker Julian Braatvedt, this film is set to reach over 15,000 people in the next three months alone.

Kate Moore from the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust remind us the view of the natives and public in general about wild life, and how little by little we bring them to the edge of extinction, “it is the stories of damaged crops and trampled people that are most salient for communities here in Malawi.  ‘Nyama’ is the Chichewa word used for both ‘meat’ and ‘animal’, and ‘chirombo’, which means pest, is often used to describe wild animals. The prevailing cultural belief is that they are God-given resources that will never run out”. 

This film has also just been featured on both National Geographic’s “A Voice for Elephants” blog as well as national television in Malawi.

To help initiatives like this please support our Global Friends Programme.