By Joy Adjei

In the words of Colette, ‘it’s crazy how a lot of animals look alike and act alike but are nothing alike.’  Today at Reserve de Bandia we saw a bird helping clean a buffalo and antelope.  We watched two different species, totally different from each other, helping each other out.  At that moment, I became sad because I thought of the fact that humans are supposed to be superior to other mammals but we can’t even get along because of perceived differences of skin color, age and views on things.

This is just supposed to be an encouraging word to open your minds – think about this question WHY?  And think about everything.  If a bird can direct a blind wild pig, then I as a black woman should be able to walk down the street without being abused or shot because of my skin color or sex/gender.

You guys are probably thinking I am making too much out of this or wondering how I move from the topic of animals to abuse and racism.  But take some time and you’ll see it’s not that hard.

There is more to life than hatred and not trusting each other – we can do more.  Weirdly I got this from driving around and just simply seeing a buffalo peacefully accepting a bird living off its back.

The examples I’ve seen of people and animals helping each other here in Senegal makes me think that we as a people can definitely do without hardships created by ourselves.  If we are supposed to be the ‘most superior,’ we must learn to act as well as our animal friends.