On arecent trip to the Galana river in Tsavo East, I had the great honor of meeting probably the last remaining Liangulu ace hunter made famous by books such as "The Elephant People".



Abadiba (spelling) is now in his mid 70's and still in the safari business as a guide for Galdessa camp. It was a total pleasure spending a few hours with Abadiba and chatting with him. Though his eyes look tired, he was still physically very fit and is often accompaning tourist on walks.

A few highlights from our conversation:
- According to him, all the other "ace hunters" of his tribe have passed on
- The Liangulu no longer hunt but now farm pineapples on their village lands
- 2 of his sons work in the same camp as he as waiters/mess attendants
- According to him, Galo Galo was considered the best hunter amongst them.
- I asked him what he though of Bill Woodley; if he was a good or bad man (Woodley arrested and imprisoned Abadiba twice!) and his reply was "He must be a good man as he taught us how to work for the white man". His use of simple words to describe how appreciative he was for having been taught how to work for the safari industry was humbling.
- Some of the PHs he remembers having worked with are Soren Lindstrom, Cottar, Tony Archer, Ian Craig and others I don't recal at the moment.
- He still get's called by the Rhino Camp near Galdessa to assist them in tracking rhino on their walks. He claims that if he finds a good rhino track, he will find that rhino within 2 hours!
- I asked him if he would be willing to work for a hunting company again and he said of course! Though I am afraid he is too old for any gunbearer job other than tracking. Plus I would hate to drag him away from his beloved Tsavo at this stage of his life.
- He considers the buffalo to be the most dangerous DG animal.
- He explained how they did not hunt lion as Liangulu hunters because they believed that as lions are hunters too, they "worked" together in the bush - They would regularly feed off fresh lion kills and lions fed off abandoned Liangulu elephant kills!

He went on to recount several stories about hunting and guiding tourists. Had he been 10 years younger, I would have brought him back with me in the car! On leaving to continue my trip, I told him that the entire hunting fraternity wished him well and respected him. He didn't reply just nodded his head proudly!

Thanks Mitch - I especially like this one:

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
He explained how they did not hunt lion as Liangulu hunters because they believed that as lions are hunters too, they "worked" together in the bush - They would regularly feed off fresh lion kills and lions fed off abandoned Liangulu elephant kills!

He actually said that when they encountered a lion in the bush on a kill, they would talk to him and ask him to share his kill. Inevitably, the lion would retreat to a bush and they would move in, cut a few strips of meat and then walk away allowing the lion to return and feed.

I wonder how great some of the famous "great white hunters" would be without guys like this. What great stories they could tell. Has anybody interviewed the veteran trackers and written down their stories?
Thanks for sharing.

Wetdog, you and I wondered the same thing. The stories I bet that gent and others of his ilk could tell...

Thanks for sharing; that's neat stuff.

What a pleasure it must have been to meet and talk with such a fine old hunter.

I found it very interesting that he ranks the Cape buffalo as the most dangerous DG animal - as most do not.

His judgment must be based on hard experience.

Most considerate that you passed on our thanks.

Thanks for the human touch. This site really rocks!

the kids look thrilled