Mistaken Identity

Cattle rustling is one of the biggest headaches that local peasant farmers face.

In Zambia, this crime now attracts a minimum of seven years imprisonment, with hard labour.

The cattle rustlers usually strike at night when the cattle is kept in kraals or sometimes taken away after attacking the herdsmen.

Some criminals have been caught red handed, and have received the wrath of the owners, which in some incidents has resulted in the deaths of the culprits at the hands of "instant justice" mobs.

In some communities of Africa, cattle is form of wealth, which is comparable to that of millionaires in Western societies. A man's status would be determined by how many herds of cattle one has and not necessarily how much money he has in the Bank.

Cattle has been used as a means for payment for various services rendered, which include dowry settlement and payment for being treated of an ailment by a witchdoctor.

With the development of the countries from a traditional to urban setting, cattle has become an input in the Butchery industry found in urban areas.

The cattle slaughtered in the Butchers are either purchased from commercial ranches, or from the traditional herdsmen found in rural areas.

Due to increased population in urban areas, the demand for cattle has outstripped the supply.

This has resulted in some criminal elements taking advantage of the situation, by involving themselves in cattle rustling. In some instances as many as thirty herds of cattle would be stolen in a single theft.

This new development has resulted in cattle owners to take some drastic measures to stop this scourge.

One of the methods is for one man armed with a shot gun to spend a night in the cattle kraal to wade off any would be attackers.

Alternatively, the cattle herd would be kept very near the village, this however, is not often done due to the strong stench of the dung of the animals.

After taking these measures, the number of incidents reduced drastically. The rustlers had to go to out flung areas where they were not known.

In one of their missions, a group of five rustlers travelled a very long distance deep into the bush to look for cattle.

After crossings a number of isolated grassy plains they were informed that across one stream there were some "cattle", which apparently was just roaming about, without herdsmen.

They got a shock of their lives when the "herd of cattle" they were told about turned out to be wild buffalo.

The men had not seen buffalo before. As they approached the animals they realised that the cattle was not what they had seen before.

The animals were not amused to be disturbed by the men.

They charged at them and in the process two of the men were impaled to death by the sharp horns of the male buffalo. Three others managed to escape by climbing up a tall tree.

The story of the men's death spread very widely across the neighbourhood. Castle rustling activities in the area were thwarted for sometime.