A Chipinge man wrestled a lioness with his bare hands and survived to tell the tale. Berty Chigwe (20) and two other family members were h...
A Chipinge man wrestled a lioness with his bare hands and
survived to tell the tale. Berty Chigwe (20) and two other family members were
harvesting cotton when two lions pounced. They had escaped from the Save Valley
Conservancy.
Chigwe sustained serious injuries while his nephew Muzi
Chikowo was bruised all over his body. His other nephew, Sam Chikowo (10), escaped unharmed
after outpacing a sprinting lion and finding refuge in a tree.
“My two nephews Muzi, Sam and l woke up early Tuesday
morning to harvest cotton in our fields. We then heard people shouting from a
distance that they had spotted two lions coming from Save River heading towards
our direction.
“We ignored them and continued with our work. After about
20 minutes, two lions emerged from a nearby cotton field and started roaring. A
lioness charged towards me. Fear gripped my nephew, Muzi, who ran and jumped
onto my back. Everything happened in a flash. I remember seeing Sam running
away with another lion in hot pursuit,” he said.
“I wrestled with the lioness that had jumped on us. When we
fell down, the lioness mauled my left thigh. I was badly injured and blood
oozed from the injury. I remained determined to survive and continued wrestling
with it. I tried to grab its mouth, but failed.
“I was also mauled on my right hand and it dragged me
towards the direction where Sam had ran towards. I continued crying for help as
I was staring death in the face.
“As that was happening, Muzi managed to escape and ran to
notify other villagers. They swiftly reacted and came to my rescue, armed with
hoes, iron bars and drums. When they started beating the drums, this scared the
lioness. lt dropped me and ran away into the wilderness,” Chigwe told the
Manica Post.
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