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When Hyena Laughs, The Joke's on You

[ Posted On: 2006-10-28 ]

You have probably read of the bizarre reports emanating from Ethiopia about lions and hyenas fighting it out every night in the semi- desert near the ancient walled city of Harar. The Ethiopian News Agency reported that the fighting was "ferocious" and had left six lions and 35 hyenas dead. Kemal Bedri of the Harar State Agricultural Bureau speculated that there was "some unknown vendetta" in progress here.

In most cultures, the lion is the "king" of the beasts - majestic and powerful, popular with adults and children both. The hyena is a much less popular creature. In African folklore, it is presented as ugly, clumsy, treacherous, greedy, deceitful, cruel, stupid, cowardly and generally despicable, especially compared with the lion whose leftovers it prefers to feed on. There are three types of hyena: the spotted, or "laughing" hyena, the striped hyena and the smaller brown hyena.

The hyena was confirmed as the animal kingdom's number-one public relations disaster by Walt Disney's The Lion King, in which the baddies were a clan of hyenas led by one called Shenzi. Shenzi is a Kiswahili word whose closest English translation is "worthless bastard". It doesn't help that the hyena has a disproportionately large head and that its front and rear legs are of different lengths, so it always looks as if it were running uphill.

That its yelps can sound like human laughter unsettles people even more; and because it scavenges for food, it is said that a hyena that comes across someone immobilised by illness or injury will rip at their flesh without bothering to kill them first. The hyena's unpopularity even extends to the animal kingdom, as none of the bigger predators seems to have a taste for its meat. And if there are people who have tasted hyena meat, they don't go around talking about it.

It is widely believed that, relative to its weight, the hyena has the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. An oft-heard assertion is that a hyena can bite through the femur bone of an elephant. Many believe a hyena can jump on you suddenly, bite off your entire hand with one bite and flee before you can raise the other hand to shield yourself from its attack. Since a rotting wildebeest constitutes an a la carte meal for a clan of hyenas, common wisdom has it that the hyena has a "filthy" germ-ridden mouth and its bite is therefore extremely infectious.

I happen to believe the hyena is a much-maligned animal. When I told one friend this, his comment was: "Trust a Gikuyu to love hyenas!" Among Kenya's various ethnic groups, the negative qualities attributed to hyenas are often also attributed to Gikuyus, especially the penchant for greed, deceitfulness and treachery.

Even though its proper Kiswahili name is fisi, the hyena is also popularly known as nyangau. This is a far more derogatory term and it is often used by political leaders to abuse each other. Calling a Kenyan politician a nyangau is inviting sudden physical violence. The nyangau is the lowest form of the Kenyan political animal.

In actual fact, besides the fact that together with the vulture the hyena makes up the African savannah's most efficient garbage disposal system, it is also an extremely clever hunter. It is a highly focused creature without the pretensions of the more popular lion or leopard. Also, unlike lions in particular, female hyenas suffer a lot less discrimination from their menfolk. Hyenas commonly feed three at a time when they have made a kill, and the females are not chased away by the males.

To me, the hyena's most admirable quality is its will to survive. The cowardice for which it is derided makes it a calculating creature that chooses its enemies carefully and has an extreme aversion to risk. Its negative qualities are an important part of its versatility and durability. The hyena does not have a coat of fur that would make an attractive carpet; it doesn't have teeth made of a valuable material; its ugly face means few hunters would mount it on their walls; it doesn't have a luxurious mane, succulent meat or pretty horns.

Have you heard a nyangau laugh? It's a laugh that says quite plainly: "I may look like a sucker, baby, but the real sucker is you".

Published - April 26 - May 5 1999

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

John Githongo is a director of the African Strategic Research Institute. E-mail: asri[at]africaonline.co.ke

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