Book Review: Elephant Dawn by Sharon Pincott

Source: Book Review: Elephant Dawn by Sharon Pincott – Africa Geographic 22 August 2016

Every now and then a book comes along that breaks through the wallpaper of my own life and delivers its message intravenously. Elephant Dawn by Sharon Pincott did that for me – an intense read, inspiring and moving.

Sharon Pincott made the life-changing decision in 2001 to forgo her jet-setting job and comfortable Australian home to make a difference in the world. Having sold her possessions, and later her home, in order to fund this project, she arrived in Zimbabwe during a tumultuous time in this country’s history – to spend time with a herd of elephants that in 1990 was granted protection under President Mugabe’s decree.

These wild elephants roam over a large unfenced area that includes the magnificent Hwange National Park and the adjacent Hwange Estate. The presidential protection turned out to be a paper tiger, and to this day the elephants face the same threats that elephants face all over Africa – primarily poachers and trophy hunters – exacerbated and fuelled by Mugabe’s controversial and destructive land reform programme.

This book chronicles Pincott’s roller-coaster journey, and follows the lives of several of the matriarchs that she got to know.

Elephant Dawn is available at selected bookshops throughout South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Print editions can be ordered online here while the Kindle edition is available on amazon.com (print available in November 2016). Elephant Dawn is published in South Africa by Jacana Media.