brooke's editorial

Green Bananas

Every year the editorial I write just after the Safari Club International convention is both the happiest and the hardest to write. It’s always a joy to revisit with my favourite friends in the African hunting industry, like PHs John Sharp, Nassos Roussos, Mark Kyriacou, and the Pasanisi clan, along with Arctic outfitters Fred and Martin Webb and Alaskan Joe Klutch, IPHA president Eduardo de Araoz of Spain, and Terry and Glad Pierson from New Zealand. There are also artists like Kobus Möller and Eric Forlee whose careers I’ve watched grow over time, and the beautiful and brilliant jewellery maker, Madleine Kay, booksellers Ellen and Jim Enzler of Trophy Room Books, as well as taxidermist Mike Boyce of Animal Artistry whose latest bronze animalier sculptures took my breath away.

We’ve been hugging each other through good times and bad for more than 20 years now, and the simple fact that we have all endured is testimony to our strength – and madness – in persisting in an industry whose opportunities are slowly being eroded. Lion is closed again in Botswana and it looks like leopard there is closing; some ‘conservationists’ are targeting mountain nyala, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to transport sporting guns to our hunting grounds. Yet there we all were again this year.

The ‘convention season’ allows the several thousand African safari aficionados to mingle, and gives us the chance to meet many of our subscribers personally and get their feedback about ASG. I hope you enjoyed rubbing shoulders with publisher Richard Lendrum, and our bright team of Birgit, Tanya, Cathy and Craig. Your enthusiasm for our magazine is infectious, and we thank you for your support.

But the convention is also a magnet for the year’s inevitable sad, bad news that this year was exceptionally unexpected. Only a few days after Christmas, South African PH, taxidermist and outfitter Rico Bouwer was killed in a freak accident while fighting an electrical fire at his 20-unit resort in Mozambique. Rico, a force of nature, was greatly appreciated by his family, colleagues and clients and will always be missed.

Rico and PH Johnny Vivier were very good friends, so it is with especial condolences that we reach out to Johnny who, nine days later, also lost his head tracker of 18 years, Elliott Kubai. Elliott was killed – not by elephant or buffalo – but with his father when they were both struck by lightning. Many of us are familiar with Elliott’s smile and sturdy presence from the photos in Johnny’s brochure and safari booth. All of us in the safari industry depend on trackers and gunbearers, who face danger from big game in front of them and hunting clients behind them, for the success of the hunt. In this issue, Joe Coogan reminds us of the important role of these fine men, many of whom are unforgettable characters in our safari memories.

The most shocking news, though, was the loss of PH Rolf Rohwer, who died suddenly and too young at 65, during the SCI convention – far from the danger he faced with an enraged Cape buffalo that gored him in Tanzania in 2006, but close to his wife, Carole, who is always a warm and inviting presence at the conventions. Rolf was an outspoken charismatic ‘old-school’ PH who would rather lose a safari booking than hunt elephant over a waterhole at night with lights to produce success.

If any of our readers have hunted with these men, please honour them by telling the tales that they no longer can in the pages of ASG. So that they live on not only in our hearts, we are posting the stories Rolf and Rico wrote for ASG on our website: www.africansportinggazette.com.

Is there a moral to these losses? I’m not sure. Except ‘Green Bananas.’ For years an older hunter had been coming by Roussos’s booth at SCI, promising to book a safari for mountain nyala. When he came by this year, he asked:
“Any openings for nyala in 2008?”
“Nope,” said Nassos. “My quota for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 is filled.”
“Heck, I don’t even buy green bananas!” he said and walked away, knowing that this dream species would never hang in his trophy room.

The time to hunt with your favourite PH in Africa is now!
Meanwhile, Hamba kahle, boys, rest in peace.

Brooke