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As the world approaches an evolutionary bifurcation point, a choice between destruction and change, can the ancient knowledge of Africa—Umlandu—and the shaman’s ability to “communicate” with animals help prevent species extinction, including our own human species? Do the white lions of Timbavati, as well as other animals, have something to teach us? If we change how we perceive “reality,” can we also change our headlong rush into environmental oblivion? 
 

In an effort to answer these questions our research and filmmaking team will journey to South Africa to meet with Vusumazulu Credo Mutwa, an elderly Zulu sanusi sangoma, or shaman. Known as a powerful seer, healer, and repository of African lore, Credo also holds knowledge about the white lions of Timbavati, animals whom he and many other tribal elders consider to be sacred.
 

After meeting with Credo at his healing center in Kuruman on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, we will travel eastward through the snow-topped Drakensburg mountains to Eshowe in KwaZulu, Natal.  Eshowe, which means “nice breeze,” is a small farming village famous for its healers, particularly its sangomas. Here we will work with Joel Dlamini, an herbalist or inyanga, and other healers, asking them what human beings have to learn from animals and how people can learn to “communicate” with other animals. 
 

Then we will drive north to Timbavati, the home of the white lions, where Linda Tucker founded the Global White Lion Protection Trust. Although the trust is an environmental conservation project that uses scientific methods to re-introduce the almost extinct white lion to its homeland, it was not science, but Linda’s personal inter-species relationship with the white lions (along with the guidance she received from Credo and other African healers), that led her to found the Trust. In addition, traditional healers like Credo, with their non-scientific and non-Western concepts of human-animal relationship, continue to further community conservation efforts among their own people at the local level as well. 
 

What is the meaning of the appearance of white lions in this particular place and time? Is it related to the appearance of white non-albino animals throughout the world? Many indigenous keepers of knowledge consider them variously to be messengers of change, warning, and hope. 
 

As the team investigates the meaning of the white lions, we will not attempt to determine what is “true” and what is “metaphor,” but instead will focus on being open to different ways of perceiving reality, what we call “perceptual diversity.” We will ask: Can different ways of perceiving reality allow us to co-evolve with the multitude of species that we as human beings are now destroying? Is there a way to avoid the human-caused Sixth Great Extinction that the planet is currently undergoing by changing our eco-psychological paradigm in terms of human-animal relationships?
 

For further information and copies of publications contact: Dr. Tara Lumpkin or Izilwane

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Email:     TaraLumpkin@gmail.com                                                Izilwane
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Website:    izilwane.org/projects                                                     El Prado, NM 87529