#26

The National Association of educational broadcasters presents America's African

heritage recorded in Africa by Skip West 12 program

26 conserving wildlife in Africa. There

is Skip West.

We'll begin this program with a recording I made a few days ago at Victoria

Falls in Southern Rhodesia. One of Africa's most important

contributions to American life is the wild animals which populate our zoos and

perform in our circus. To get a look at some of those wild animals we're about to take off

on a plane trip over a wild country in the area surrounding Victoria

farms in Southern Rhodesia. This trip will not take us to the game reserves but

in the area beyond the game reserves well over wild uninhabited country which is

the stamping ground of huge herds of elephant

and many breeds of antelope we're going to make this trip in a biplane

appears to me to be a rather frail little craft for this kind of a hazardous trip.

But the pilot seems to be well qualified for the job and will no doubt bring us

back people in our party.

The motor is warming up now and we will soon be taking off. We'll continue the recording in a

moment when we start down the runway.

We're headed down the runway now the plane is beginning to lift and we're circling to the left

headed for a densely wooded area to the north of us. Our pilot says it will be over

a wild animal country in about 15 minutes.

As soon as we see something really interesting We'll tell you about.

This is one of the most exciting experiences I've had my travels through Africa. We seem to be

barely skimming the treetops as we pass over herds of zebra giraffe and

antelope whenever the pilot spots something interesting he banked the plane sharply to the

right or to the left and swoops down so that we can get a good look.

I've been so excited that I've almost forgotten that I'm supposed to be giving a description of what is

taking place.

Mr where we think in the giving the green I'm the mouth how high would you say were mine

the one we're flying over the river.

Laura looked at me like that we was wrong was texting or are we getting

out of the you know we get out of I believe.

What is the length of this flight.

Miles Levin just the

way the game is going and how many miles I mean

the I see are developed over there by that waterhole

over the right.

Just going over the very dense bush so you have to

be very quickly your pictures

as in view of the six you get out of them. What's

that over there about water or looks to me like a

lot of this to the level of as you're a couple is evil except for the

view hymns above the law rigs the.

And that was the recording we made of our flight over the wild animal country of Southern Rhodesia

and experience such as that makes us realize the importance of the conservation of wildlife in

the continent of Africa.

Not just so that a few fortunate people can have the opportunity of seeing lions and elephants in their native

habitat but more important so that both children and grownups back home can

have the pleasure of seeing these wild animals in the zoos and circuses throughout America.

The other day I had an interesting visit with a member of the Wildlife Conservation Board in

Pretoria who referred to the fact that one of the biggest threats to wildlife in Africa

is the poaching by native Africans not just to get animals for food but to

use parts of those animals for what they call medicine. Many Africans still

believe for example that to eat the flesh of a lion will give them courage. They think that

they give a boy a beating with the tail of the sesame the fastest of all the

envelopes will cure him of stealing. They make love potions from such

things is the ear of an elephant or the skin of a baboons. This magic potion is

supposed to get them a girlfriend or help to make an indifferent girlfriend

fall in love with them. This phase of the conservation of wildlife came to my mind

the other day when I stopped in a native medicine shop in Johannesburg

where these potions are sold. The manager of the shop let me up a narrow

stairway to an attic room which was filled with the strangest collection of articles I

have ever seen. Elephant ears dried up baboons snake skins tails of

lions row upon row of small bottles filled with crocodile fat sea

water and other strange concoctions which are guaranteed to drive away

evil spirits protect you from your enemy or heal all manner of diseases.

It is the native belief in the potency of these so-called medicines which is one of the

problems facing those who are concerned about the conservation of the

wildlife of Africa. The subject of Africa's wildlife is deserving of

much more consideration than we've been able to get today.

But we've almost reached the end of this radio series and I'd like to take just a

minute or two for a brief summary of the programs we have presented.

The subject of Africa's contribution to 20th century America has been the theme of the

twenty six radio programs I've recorded during my four months trip through Africa.

And I feel as if we have hardly scratched the surface of this fascinating

subject. In developing our thesis we have talked about a rubber from Liberia

cocoa from gun medicines from the Belgian Congo. Such is the route

Wulfhere route which is being used in the treatment of heart disease and mental

illness.

We learned how much the health and well-being of our children is dependent upon Africa. When

we discovered that many thousands of monkeys from Africa have been used in the development

of the polio vaccine we learned how for many years the monkey's nervous system

was the only tissue outside of the human body in which polio virus would grow and

live. Medical authorities believe that without the monkey we probably

would not have been able to develop the polio vaccine and thousands of those

monkeys came from Africa. We realize how much we owe to Africa when we

are aware of the fact that many American children who are alive and well today

would be crippled for life had it not been for the valuable contribution

Africa has made to medical science. In addition to our

report on medicines from Africa we told the story of the

palm oil and other parts of the Congo which is used in the

making of steel.

Report on the many ways in which in American

industry.

WHAT WHAT

WHAT WHAT

WHAT.

What what what.

We discussed the use of radio activated in the treatment of cancer and its many

other industrial use.

And we have Dowd into the romantic story of the fabulous goldmines of

South Africa.

It's rather difficult in two minutes time to try to point out any general impressions which have come to me

from this experience. Among other things it has been most interesting to visit

cities in the heart of Africa which are just as modern as our American cities

with air conditioned supermarkets swimming pools tennis courts paved streets and

every modern convenience. It's been a revelation to as we traveled into the

bush country not more than an hour's ride from some of these modern cities to find

people living as primitive a life as the wild Indians of early America

with no automobiles no radios no electric lights where the throbbing drum takes the

place of the telephone the telegraph and even the daily newspaper

where you meet on the road native hunters with spears and bows and arrows struggling for their

existence like their grandfathers did a hundred years ago.

One of the things I like to recall is the courage of the men who scaled

those towering palm trees 60 or more feet in height knowing that

poisonous snakes may be lurking among the branches and

we remember the gold miners working 10000 feet below the surface of the earth

on their hands and knees in a tunnel no more than three feet high. Risking

their lives to get for us the precious yellow goat for our wedding rings and our

jewelry saying that these men are lacking in education as most of them

are saying that you must treat them like children. But don't say they have no

courage. They have the kind of courage which commands our deepest

respect.

This has been programmed 26 of Americas African heritage.

These programs featured recordings made by world traveler skip Westfall on a recent trip to

Africa. The series was made possible by a grant and aid to radio station w o

Iowa State College from the Educational Television and Radio Center

production was under the direction of Norman B Clary. This is Reg easy speaking for the

National Association of educational broadcasters.