Gidang’ucheda” is Musa’s traditional name which means “fighter”. According to him he was born during the time when the Barbaig were fighting a war from which their livestock were stolen by other tribes so they were fighting to bring back their stolen livestock. Musa is working at “Zone D –Mwira” since 2016, which is his second stint with the project since he joined the project back in 2013 and worked for a while before he stopped and re-joined the team again last year. Musa is 30 years old and his married with one wife and two children. Like other Barbaig warriors he used to hunt lions before becoming an LD. “Spearing and killing lions was where my happiness came,” said Musa. He had grown up seeing his brothers and other warriors conducting traditional lion hunts and he had been told that if he wanted to be a real warrior he should do so and if he fails then they will regard him as a girl and not a really warrior.

He killed one lion and an elephant and also he speared three lions and uncountable elephants. “My first lion I killed was a very scary incident where my brother was attacked by a lion while hunting and everyone ran away and felt very sorry for my beloved brother.” He made a difficult decision by rescuing his brother alone and he managed to kill a lion while his brother was badly injured then he took his brother to the witch doctor for treatment. “We sold three cows to cover the medical cost and no one from the member of our community had helped us, a thing which made to think twice about traditional lion hunt. What is the point of disturbing the lions at their territory?” he thought to himself.  “Even though I killed that lion and the community promised me to reward me with livestock but those promises were still pending until I decided to join the RCP team,” said Musa.

“My fellow warrior were very upset when I told them that now I am against traditional lion killings and said I became a bad warrior but I used my influence and ability to educate them about the importance of having RCP project in the community and why we are conserving lions. Some of them understood but the rest seems to be afraid and scared as they believed that the number of lions are going to be increased hence more attacks. But we hope we can protect our community and resources.”