South Africa's Black Mambas became the world's first all-female anti-poaching unit by replacing guns with education and community trust. Their unarmed approach has protected rhinos for 10 years while proving women can lead conservation from the front lines.
Bobby lover. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Music] There's a reason why our project doesn't use guns. When it comes to bullets, you're going to kill someone. And I don't want to go home to an angry child or an angry widow from the same community where I come from. I don't want my kids or my grandkids to not know the rhino. This is one thing that pushed me to come here because I wanted to be someone. I wanted to bring change into the community that I come from and bring awareness and open the roads for the next generation. The Black Mama's Project is a unique project because with the first female antiporting unit, I never thought of myself being a ranger. We've broke the chain that women cannot be rangers. The black members are unarmed and for the past 10 years, none of the black mambas has been killed by porches. The reason I choose to come here is because I've realized that uh it's all about giving back to the community and as women we are the mothers of the earth. [Music] [Music] The black members are the first ever all female anti- poaching unit in South Africa. They are the heroes in our local community um because of the work that they do. [Music] When I was doing my high school, I was in grade eight and then I've learned that um people are killing the rhinos. At first when I was in primary, I thought they make them sleep and then they cut the horn. Then when I was doing my grade 8 in high school, I've realized that they should to kill. And from there, I joined the equit lab. [Music] That bit of knowledge that I've gained made me want to become someone who can protect the iconic animals. It was not even of me becoming a ranger. But then after my metric, my parents didn't have money for me to f my studies and my colleague whom we went to the same school together told me about the post of the black mambas where they want women to work as rangers. I've used a little bit information that I gained while I was in my high school at the Bavati Foundation and I applied and here is where I am. They're doing an incredible work um just by um taking young ladies from our local communities and train them to be the future and the face of conservation. Heat up. I grew up in a village where we were told that the women can never be a ranger and we breaking that chain and it's it's a success because now we have so many rangers all over the world. So that means that the message that we are spreading is going straight to the people that we need that that needs to receive the message. So that's why we have the bush baby project. You got to answer that. [Music] One day I was involved in an incident of being chased by poorers and I survived and I wanted to quit. But my mom motivated me after seeing the the passion that I have, the love that I have for nature. She motivated me to come back to work. You don't need to have PhD to become a ranger. Passion, love for animals. Just be yourself. Be brave enough to go out there and stand up, raise your voice for the animals. And as a women, you know, we empowering each other. [Music] We're trying to use the road of education to stop rhino poaching. And also we cherish life. Being a ranger is not about being inside a game reserve. It's also about going to the community protect the community. [Music] They are actually contributing so much um into conservation. everyone within our community or even in our country or the entire world, we need to give them as much as possible support because um what they're doing is it's it's very very good in trying to fight against um poaching um without using um violence um and their main focus is on teaching young South Africans environmental studies and to choose the right path which is to stop poaching. [Music] My dear life, [Music] where are you? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat up here. So people have seen how important it is for women to stand up for themselves and also to become a ranger and they want to do that because we didn't allow people to undermine us and we wanted to show everyone that we as women can do this and we have proved ourself. [Music] Oh, [Music] [Applause] [Music] I I am in the mid layer of the animals and the porches and for the past 10 years I'm still here protecting the iconic animals. For me being a black mamba it's uh I feel grateful and I feel I feel like I'm a hero for being a black mamba. Heat. Heat. using words. I cannot express how much it feels to me being a a women in this industry. [Music] My name is Leam Cavea. I am the black member supervisor. Yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo again.