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Newspaper Columns ~ Financial
Gazette

Human Beings Are No Better Than
Animals.
The concept of superiority
complex arose from the belief
that those with sharp analytical
skills or remarkable creative
capacity are better than the
mediocrity.
The same notion has applied to
the cunning humans in relation
to other animals. The idea that
humans can communicate through
talking, body language and
writing does not make them
superior to other animals.
Let us admit that we have not
reached that level where we can
unravel the mysteries of
indecipherable communion between
other animals within the animal
kingdom.
Although scientists and
philosophers think that animals
occupy a lower status in the
animal kingdom, the "instinct
theory" offers scant
illumination on the intricate
behaviour we witness within the
animal experience.
Human beings through their moral
weakness have taken it upon
themselves to enslave animals
through draught power and worse
they have committed their
intestines as the burial grounds
for the animals they slaughter.
For them they have been given
"dominion" over all things on
planet earth, so the feeling or
opinion of the animal matters
not.
Such dictatorship and savagery
is often supported by "divine
scriptures" that have been
schemed, written and turned into
holy Writs by man himself to
justify his "murderous acts" at
the abattoir.
While this may arouse
intellectual curiosity in many,
the reality is that animals,
like humans, have emotions,
feelings, expectations and
spiritual consciousness.
I have observed the behaviour of
female crocodiles after eggs
hatch their offspring. You may
call it "instinct" but it is
"reasoning".
The female crocodile opens her
mouth wide and the baby
crocodiles line up on the bottom
of the mouth and in this case
she knows what pressure to apply
between her jaws as she
transports them to a safer
place.
I have also watched dogs in
intimate moments. Believe me,
many humans are lousy lovers.
When a bulldog gets the
opportunity, he means business.
Dogs love food just like humans
in the same manner. Pavlov's
observations suffice. What
confirms to me that animals have
spiritual consciousness is that
when you kill a cow when other
cows watch, they normally
converge on the scene of the
crime and weep. The occasion is
often spectacular but sad.
More so, in complex African
societies, the traditionalists
can transfer an exorcised demon
to an animal, which implies that
animals have a capacity to
accommodate a spirit. But
animals have emotions and
feelings of resentment too. They
know when they are loved and
when things are falling apart.
Several years ago an alien
bulldog found way into my
father's yard.
The roaming dog was scavenging
for food in the trash can
outside my father's house.
I shouted "pfutseki" at the dog
in an attempt to scare it away.
My bellowing was so loud that
the enclosures in the
neighbourhood conspired to send
back my voice in diminishing
copies. But the dog remained
undeterred. In fact it tried to
pounce on me. And on the
instruction of adrenaline, I
picked a piece of brick, which
at the mercy of reflex action, I
accelerated in the dog's
direction.
The impact was intolerable and
the dog took to vanishing. But I
ran into the same dog two months
later in another neighbourhood
just a few minutes from my
father's house.
Believe me, dogs have a sharp
memory and remarkable
recognition ability. The dog had
never given attention to several
passers-by, but it dawned on him
that I was his erstwhile enemy.
The bulldog advanced in my
direction with a clear intent.
Vengeance!
But for me the situation was a
whistle in the dark. I threw
glances around me within a split
of a second and in no time my
hand was equipped with a large
stone. Thank God, the bulldog
took enough caution to note the
potential weapon that I clasped
in my right hand.
The dog paused as if in a moment
of reflection, I guess it
weighed options and the
opportunity cost to avert
confrontation became the natural
choice.
The bulldog took to its paws
without creating a scene.
Although human beings theorise,
philosophise and take a lot of
effort to justify the decimation
of animals for the delicious
dinners and barbecues, they do
not appreciate it when they
become the targets of someone's
barbecue.
When a man confronts a hungry
lion in the bush that is when
you can tell the whole story.
That feeling of resentment to
become a lion's "New York
strips" or "hamburger" is the
same for the cow that screams at
the abattoir.
But since the world is operating
under human dictatorship, the
feeling of the goat or the
chicken matter not.
Human beings are the "super
animals" and can go on a hunting
spree and kill elephants
willy-nilly.
Probably until the philosophy
that holds one animal superior
and another inferior is finally
and permanently discredited,
there shall always be chaos.
Gwinyai Dziwa
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