Workshops South Africa

NARNIA AND THE TRUE KING, ASLAN

by Linda Tucker

Like any good fairytale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an epic battle of good and evil. It is also a reworking of the Lion King theme, where the true king is usurped from his kingdom, by a power-hungry villains intent on taking over the world. In the Lion King, a wasteland results from the false monarch’s reign, whereas in CS Lewis version, a glacial landscape overtakes the land under the domination of the dreaded Snow Queen. The theme is one of the devastation of the beauty and balance of nature, when the true king of beasts is overthrown.

It’s a magical story, but like every good fairytale, the issues should be applied to everyday life for the true value of their lessons to be learnt. We live in a time of ecological fragility where the decisions of our power hungry politicians can determine the fate of the earth.

The Christ-like associations of the Lion King in the Narnia stories have made it popular with Church groups, where Aslan is prepared to offer himself in sacrifice – in a tear-jerking crucifixion scene – in order to save the children.

Is this simply an age-old archetypal message of true leadership and the restoration of law and order on earth, or does this story offer an urgent and direct application to current issues of our day?

I suspect the latter.

Having committed my life to the protection of the most magnificent beasts on earth, the White Lions of Timbavati, I’ve come to realize that conservation issues hold the key to humankinds survival.

South Africa is one of the last places on earth where real lions still roam. The fabled White Lions are unique to the Timbavati region of South Africa, and are mystical animals with magical powers, according to indigenous knowledge. Legend has it that the White Lions will appear at a time of ecological crisis on earth, when humankind is in urgent need of guardianship. Indigenous people believe that the White Lions are, indeed, such a guardian.

However, the sad truth is that the White Lions have been usurped from their Kingdom under false, mercenary pretences. They have been artificially removed from their endemic range, and held in captivity in hunting camps in South Africa, and zoos and circuses all over the globe. What does it mean to remove the apex predator from the natural ecosystem? In conservation terms, this represents the onset of critical imbalance of natural forces that has grave consequences.

In 2001, after ten years of research with indigenous elders, I published a book entitled Mystery of the White Lions. The book delivers into the public domain ancient knowledge about this legendary animals, and argues from a scientific and climatological point of view that

if humankind does not restore balance on earth, we might indeed be heading for the next ice age.

Again, there are chilling parallels with the Nania story, which is set in another time zone where an ice-age reigns perpetually on earth.

These are very real issues. We are indeed on the brink of ecological crisis on earth, with many species including most of the big cats on the verge of extinction, and we can but wonder what state of the earth our children will inherit.

In a context where all conservation issues are global issues, South Africa has been severely criticized for its brutal hunting policies, which survived the apartheid regime, and allow whole-scale injustices to be perpetrated against endangered animals, like the White Lions. Appallingly, these gross malpractices are still not prohibited by law. The term “Canned Lion Hunting” was coined in 1997, after the Cook Report discovered brutal activities taking place in the country, where wild and endangered animals were hand-reared in captivity to be trophy-hunted in cages. Since this initial expose, South Africa’s canned hunting industry has mushroomed, with wildlife killing camps now numbering an estimated 70 operations, according to a recent IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) investigation.

The danger of the Media hype surrounding a billion-dollar production like the Narnia trilogy is that the mass marketing and fan-fare can divert public attention from real issues of the day, rather than focusing us on solving them.

In the children’s story, everyone sheds a river of tears when the Christ-like lion is sacrificed to save the children. Aslan, the lion, is the Redeemer, he is the Guardian and Protector. There is no doubt that the cinema audiences get the message – but do they apply it to the real issues of our day?

In my work, daily, I am faced with the brutal reality of gross mismanagement of the earth’s last surviving precious resources.

In the real world, there is, in fact, a living lion called Aslan, a snow white lion who was held captive in canned hunting operation. In 2002, this magnificent creature was advertised as a hunting trophy on the internet for 165 000 USD.

To what purpose? A testimony to gross material gain and blind ignorance.

Fortunately, our organization had a part to play in preventing his murder, for the time-being…

Why should a magnificent White Lion, a highly endangered animal and a symbol of kingship and god presence in nature, be treated with such contempt in our civilized day and age? Have we gone mad?

This is an appeal to the public to enter into the raging hunting debates of our day – South Africa is in the process of drawing up its revised hunting policies at this very moment - and in this way we can all help to lay down the true laws of the future. These laws are based on Love and Respect for nature, not power, greed and dominion - as in the Snow Queen’s domain.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did not happen long ago in fairyland, it is happening right now in our day, and each and every one of us is part of the story.

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Linda Tucker is the founder of the Global White Lion Protection Trust in 2002, a non-profit organization established to protect the White Lions, and to preserve the indigenous knowledge systems which hold these animals sacred.

To purchase Linda Tucker’s book, Mystery of the White Lions, visit www.yourbooks.co.za
To assist in the protection of the White Lions in their endemic natural habitat, make a donation or become a member:
GLOBAL WHITE LION PROTECTION TRUST [IT 8575/02]
PO Box 85040, Emmarentia 2029, S.Africa
Tel /Fax: +011 4822977, Cel: 072 2500666, info@whitelions.org, www.whitelions.org