Manners Tusks: a Postscript

“What is truth?” – Pontius Pilate, John 18:38

I received several calls and emails from readers regarding the 3-part Manners Tusks series (May, June and July, 2020 editions). Some wanted to know what else I’d been keeping silent about for the past 25 years. Well, magazine space limitations always restrict what can be included; I wrote only what applied to the Wally Johnson tusks that appeared in the photo Dr Henk Rall sent us, which Harry Manners had passed off as those of his alleged ‘Monarch of Murripa’ bull in his book, Kambaku.

However, this was not the only such deception Harry pulled off. In his book Kambaku (page 40 in the 1980 edition; page 115 in Rowland Ward’s 1997 edition) is a photo of Harry with an elephant skull, large tusks still intact, roped upright to a tree. In the 1980 edition his caption is “Impressive ivory (see page 69)”

– a direct quotation from his text on page 69 describing a bull he’d shot with tusks weighing 57.6kg and 58.9kg (127lbs and 130lbs). In the RW 1987 edition, the same photo is captioned “Impressive ivory which, when weighed later, scaled 127 and 130lbs” – weights that are respectively identical to those described in the same hunting anecdote.

However, the skull in this photo is completely devoid of traces of flesh or blood – not even dried flesh or blood. The bone is clean, dried out, and bleached white by the sun. Long before this photo was taken, the ants had cleaned it of all remaining vestiges of flesh. Moreover, only a skull that has been lying exposed to the elements for quite some time is as dry and whitely bleached as that one. What professional ivory hunter would shoot a bull with such big ivory and then leave it exposed in the veld for so long before returning to draw the tusks? When I first read this book, long before I met Harry, I suspected that he’d simply chanced upon this skull in some remote area, and invented his anecdote around it.

Then, in 1996, Harry’s first wife, Anne, gave us the photo you see here (which appeared in Magnum’s July 2020 edition) depicting her with a collection of tusks on the veranda of their Lourenço Marques home. The two outermost tusks are very impressive. Anne told us (and I have a note in her handwriting to this effect) that Harry did not shoot the elephant bearing these tusks; he had found its bones and the skull with tusks intact at a waterhole, and simply drawn the tusks.

Now, if you look closely at Anne’s photo, you’ll see that the tusk on the far right is the same one as the righthand tusk in the photo of Harry with the skull (i.e. the elephant’s left tusk). The one in Harry’s photo looks shorter, but remember, a section of it is hidden within the skull’s maxilla. If the tusk in Harry’s photo were drawn and its base placed on the ground at the same angle as the one in Anne’s photo, its curvature and shape would be the same.

But here is the clincher: look closely at the dark striations which run longitudinally up the right-hand tusk from where it exits the maxilla. Two striations are more prominent than the others, running parallel roughly three inches apart, up to and just beyond the rope on which Harry’s hand is resting. Those very same striations appear on the right-hand tusk in Anne’s photo. Harry passed off this pick-up as that of a bull he’d stalked and shot, describing the hunt in graphic detail. He relied on his readers being largely inexperienced or unobservant.

And, it seems, Harry even took it one further. It appears he told wellknown professional hunter and author, Tony Sanchez-ariño, that these tusks were actually those of his ‘Monarch of Murripa’. In 2016, Tony wrote a fascinating book titled Africa’s Greatest Tuskers (Safari Press, California) in which he tells of Harry’s alleged 185 and 183lb tusks, then standing at No 4 in Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game (now permanently expunged from the record book due to Magnum’s recent disclosure). On page 256 of Tony’s book, is a photo of Harry Manners standing on the veranda of their home in Lourenço Marques in the very same position as Anne is standing in her photo shown here, and showing the very same display of tusks. The photo has either been taken from closer up or has been enlarged and cropped, for only half of the right-hand outermost tusk is visible. However, all the other tusks in the arrangement make it obvious that this is the very same scene – clearly, Anne and Harry photographed each other on this same occasion.

In Tony’s photo, the tusk on the far right has the identical two prominent dark striations in exactly the same position as they appear in the other two photos. And, other than having now discarded his bush-jacket, Harry is wearing the very same pith helmet, jodhpurs and leather leggings as in the photo of him in the veld with the dried out skull, and his face appears exactly the same – he had apparently just got home from that safari, and off-loaded the tusks from his vehicle onto the veranda for photos. The photo is captioned, “Harry Manners displays his collection of impressive ivory, with his world record tusks on the outside, Mozambique, early 1950s.” Tony Sanchez could only have got the photo and this information from Harry himself.

I must emphasize that none of this in any way detracts from Harry’s skill and experience as a hunter. Two very experienced hunters who attested to this personally were Harry’s colleague, Leo Kröger, and Harry’s rival, Fred Everett who wrote for Magnum under the pseudonym ‘Ra da Phiri’. Harry’s first wife, Anne, also told me of Harry’s renowned hunting skill and prowess – 50 years after their divorce – though she had every reason not to praise him. The fact that Harry was economical with the truth when striving to write a saleable book, and later when trying to sustain the reputation he’d created for himself, is disappointing, yes, but it doesn’t make him any less a hunter. ‘Pondoro’ Taylor was guilty of similar deceptions. The man has yet to be born who has no weaknesses along with his strengths.