Hunting and wildlife preservation in colonial Africa

Abstract

At the beginning of the XX century, with the scientific discoveries of the etiologic agents and vectors of certain tropical diseases, some measures of sanitation in colonial Africa were implemented as indiscriminate cull of wild animals. In 1910, a killing that occurred in the German Oriental Africa, (current Tanzania) initiated an intense debate about the protection of wild life. In the following decades, other killings happened in colonies or British protectorates in Africa. From mid 20th. century, many regions in Portuguese Oriental Africa (current Mozambique) were zones of action for the Combat Mission to Tripanossomiase (MCT) and their hunting brigades. However the indiscriminate cull of wild animals, was the target of criticism from some veterinarian doctors that worked from MCT. Some amateur hunters also participated in this debate about the killings. Some defenders of the sport hunting were protagonists of a series of preservationist actions. This incipient
preservationism was not anti-colonial, but served to orientate the first projects of preservation parks and natural reserves in Africa.