Anglican Archbishop Dr. Jackson Ole Sapit calls for a ban on donkey trade
Posted by JUDITH DORA AKOLO on 01 December 2022 2:10 PM CAT
Anglican Archbishop Dr. Jackson Ole Sapit calls for a ban on donkey trade
By Judith Akolo
The Anglican Church of Kenya, Archbishop of the Right Reverend Dr. Jackson Ole Sapit who spoke at the Pan African Donkey Conference, called for an end to trade in donkeys saying that the donkey was never meant for trade, but as a mode of transport to aid humanity.
Noting that the origin of the donkey is in Africa in Ethiopia and Somalia, Dr. Ole Sapit said that the trade and practice of eating donkey meat is alien to Africa because the donkey was never meant for food in Africa.
“Man was given a special mandate to have dominion and as a steward in the garden and not to deplete God’s creation but to make them thrive,” said Archbishop Ole Sapit and added, “donkeys now in Africa and the future depend on what we as human beings are going to do about them, they are entirely in our hands, we have capacity to destroy and extinct them but we also have the capacity to preserve them and protect them for posterity.”
Noting that the donkey’s home is Africa having been first domesticated in Ethiopia and present day Somalia as an animal to aid humankind, the Primate said that the donkey is key to Africa’s rural economy as it is mostly used in transportation goods to the markets for trade, “it helps human beings in times of distress, when they are running away from calamities including drought, by carrying the luggage through difficult terrains.”
At the meeting held at Kisenga Conference Center in Dar es Salaam, the Archbishop said that the donkey has been a fundamental part of the economy of humankind right from creation “of humanity, in the economy of the world and even today our rural economy depends on the donkey,” said Dr. Ole Sapit and added, “the donkey to rural Maasailand was used to draw water and take it home, to carry wares to the market as well as carry building materials for the construction of dwelling places.”
Dr. Ole Sapit said that introduction of a market for slaughtering donkeys in Africa, is foreign to the African culture, “it is not part of us, we were not given the donkey to eat as we were given other animals to use as food,” he said, and added, “we were given the donkey to aid humankind how then can we afford to extinct the only animal whose purpose is to aid us”? he wondered.
