Man-eating lions are anti-colonial ‘heroes’
African museum seeks to repatriate predators it says were the ‘first resistance against British colonialism’
THEY have been hailed symbolically as the first resistance fighters against British colonialism in Kenya, having struck fear into the hearts of those building the empire’s infrastructure.
But for nearly a century, the remains of the man-eating lions that terrorised rail workers building a line through the country have been displayed thousands of miles from their native land.
Now it has emerged that the Tsavo lions, which were stuffed and kept as trophies after finally being shot, could be returned to Africa under plans for a new museum of cultural heritage.
The museum is lobbying the UN to force the Chicago Field Museum to give up the lions, whose record of picking off rural rail workers from their tents became the stuff of legend and inspired a number of Hollywood films.
The director of the National Museums of Kenya told The Sunday Telegraph that the lions were “extremely important” for the forthcoming Museum of Heroism, as they were considered examples of some of the “first resistance” against British colonialism.
Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia said: “They are heroes because they were protecting their territory against the penetration of Africa by foreigners.”
The lions’ story began in 1898, when two maneless males went on a ninemonth killing spree along an eight-mile stretch of Tsavo park, in what was then British East Africa. The lions preyed on Indian labourers constructing part of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway line.
The pair devoured more than 30 men before being shot by Lt Col John Henry Patterson. The British colonel kept the pair as trophy rugs before selling them to the Chicago Field Museum in 1925 for $5,000 and a promise that it would hire his son, Bryan, who became a respected paleontologist. There, the lions were restored and are still on display. Their legend spawned a number of films, including the Oscar-winning The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Val Kilmer as Lt Col Patterson and Michael Douglas as a professional hunter.
There has been one previous attempt to persuade the Field Museum to return the lions, during the Obama ma administration. This time, Dr Kibunjia ibunjia is hoping to win international tional support by invoking the Unesco convention on the illicit licit trade of cultural property, rty, which Kenya is in the prorocess of signing.
The Museum of Heroism ism is set to open in December, ber, around the 58th 5 anniversary of Kenyan independence, and will feature other resista ance heroes such as the Mau Ma Mau rebels who fought the white settlers and the Bri
British Army.
The Mau Mau were labe labelled terrorists by the colo colonial authorities, but in 2003 the fighters were granted legal recognition by the Kenyan government.
“From that moment, the government decided it would set up a heroes’ corner,” said Dr Kibunjia. “But instead of just doing an exhibit on Mau Mau veterans, it decided to celebrate everyone who had done magnificent deeds for Kenya but wasn’t properly recognised.”
The museum is now in the process of beginning talks over the lions’ return.
The Chicago Field Museum, known to be reluctant to give up one of its most famous exhibits, said it had acquired the lions legitimately.
Kenyan authorities argued that the usual case for not returning colonial artefacts held in western museums for fear of being damaged or lost did not apply since they would be displayed and curated in a specially built museum.
In addition, they said, the tide of history was with them.
“We are in an era where cultural artefacts are being returned from colonial countries, so we hope that Kenya can use this momentum,” said Dr Kibunjia.
“Of course, these things take time. But Ethiopia got its obelisk back.”