Black Mamba 'Guardian Angels' by Pieter Hugo for Vogue Italia January 2021
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Black Mamba 'Guardian Angels' by Pieter Hugo for Vogue Italia January 2021
The women of the Black Mamba Anti-poaching Unit are the rangers who watch over the animals of the Balule Nature Reserve, in the Greater Kruger Area, South Africa. The area is fenceless, to aid the movement of animals throughout the majestic terrain. Women featured in these images (but not necessarily the videos) Yenzekile Mathebula 28 years old, Nocry Mzimba 26, Qolile Mathebula 26, Naledi Malungane 19, Tsakane Nxumalo 25.
Vogue Italia interviews Craig Spencer of Transfrontier Africa NPC (a non-profit company that manages protected areas) and that protects the borders of the reserve, 62,000 hectares. South African photographer Pieter Hugo is behind the lens for ‘Guardian Angels’ with styling by Raphael Hirsch.
At a time when wildlife rangers often have their own arsenal of high-powered weapons and the latest GPS technology available, the most results-driven projects in animal conservation involve the women. Recent deaths in the Congo’s Virunga National Park have seriously raised concerns that the militarization of rangers has put them at odds with local communities.
Initially the Black Mamba weren’t armed but increasingly, the women not only carry major weaponry but they survive military training that turns them into an elite fighting force. The women rangers aren’t the brain child of some pacifist NGO. They are nurtured by nearly-famous, anti-terrorism sharpshooters in some cases, like Australian Damien Mander,
What remains different about the women rangers Black Mambas in South Africa, the Akashinga in Zimbabwe, or Faye Cuevas’ Team Lioness in Kenya is that the women often have young children, have deep ties into local communities, have reverence for nature, and have a fearless determination to create a good life for their children, their siblings and the entire community.
“There’s a saying in Africa, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’,” Mander says. “We’re seeing increasing evidence that empowering women is one of the greatest forces of change in the world today.”
The Black Mamba have earned the Champions of the Earth Award, the United Nations highest environmental honor.
