AS PRETTY AS A SERPENT
By Emeka Ezekwe
Most of what we know about the lives and nature of animals,insects and reptiles in Africa depend mostly on our level of ignorance,knowledge,mythology,folklore,tales by the moonlight and oral tradition.Man,therefore may have been cohabiting with “strange”non human neighbors he barely understood .
Let me also confess that l was guilty of this prejudice and ignorance too,and treated most animals,insects or reptiles with suspicion and outright irritating hatred,until eventual exposure to their ways of life by digital satellite television programs cured me of most of my animosity and prejudices .Infact,l use to wonder aloud why Oyibo people waste their time ,energy and money trying to understand animals,l later realized that all my initial prejudices were based mostly on ignorance and clear lack of understanding of how the universe operates.Thanks to animal focused channels like Nageo wild,animal kingdom,etc.l have a better understanding of animals,insects and reptiles.For us to continue to maintain our ecosystem,we need these other non human creatures as much as they need us .
The universe as we know it ,is made up of other creatures cohabiting with humans and so was never originally made to be inhabited by man alone,every other creature on earth has same right to live and survive unmolested by man.Every creature in our world also has a function to perform in our ecosystem,most of our prejudices was even in some cases created by religion .
I have always been curious about snakes,it’s species and survival instincts .Most times our attitude towards snakes ,like most things we don’t understand in our world are mostly based on ignorance,snakes are harmless creatures when left alone ,they avoid humans the same way we avoid them,unfortunately,no human being is willing to trust a snake no matter how gentle or benign it claims to be.
A snakes venom might be dangerous,but a snake itself may not be “dangerous “ if it’s not provoked to release its venom,just as a car may not be dangerous until it’s driven recklessly and is involved in an accident
Snakes simply wants to be understood and left alone 😳
We are entering the dry season again ,please keep your surroundings clean 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Emeka Ezekwe
4/11/21