by Mike Arnold - Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Above: Chief Thozo’s nephew, right, accepts the author’s donated reedbuck as the chief’s children await the evening celebration.
Fastodo smiled broadly, placing his left hand on his chest while extending his right hand and grasping my own in a warm, firm shake. In my experience, the friendly greeting was typical of the Sena villagers living in the Zambeze Delta Safaris hunting concession in Mozambique known as Coutada 11. On this occasion, the greeting was in response to a gift for an upcoming celebration. The gift, a reedbuck ram, lay in the back of my professional hunter (PH) Bredger Thomason’s Land Cruiser.
An aspect of the NRA and this NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum much appreciated by so many of us is the emphasis on hunters’ service to local communities. Whether training youth in gun safety, thereby exposing them to the passion of shooting and hunting, or helping to feed people with the meat taken during hunts, the NRA helps its members practice the art of service. I write this as someone raised by a dad passionate about shooting and hunting, and who was a lifelong member of the NRA. My dad transferred his love for the shooting sports and a desire to share the meat from hunted animals to his sons. His testimony to my brother and me was that the NRA acted as one of his mentors in shooting, hunting and sharing.
I found out about the opportunity to provide meat for the Sena celebration on the first day of a third visit to Coutada 11. Our PH asked if I wanted to hunt a reedbuck ram for Chief Thozo’s family and friends. I was delighted with the chance to do so. Chief Thozo is the head of the Sena community, and on our previous two safaris he met with us multiple times for interviews during which we collected material for a book and hunting magazine and website articles. Chief Thozo always treated us kindly, discussing whatever topics on which we needed information. His availability and willingness to help largely rested upon his relationship with the owners and staff of Zambeze Delta Safaris, a bond built partially from trust in a program ensuring the sufficient provision of meat for all the villagers. This program relied not on cattle, sheep or any other domesticated animal, but on the game harvested by visiting international hunters such as myself.
Our reedbuck hunt began with a predawn start, after a very early breakfast, providing the opportunity of reaching the floodplain hunting area just after dawn. Encountering reedbucks is never a problem in this hunting concession, with the animals numbering in the thousands (if not tens of thousands). Finding a mature, non-trophy-class ram, however, required a more difficult and also enjoyable hunt. Younger males were in abundance, as were what most would classify as large, trophy-class rams. In fact, my wife, Frances, ever mindful of our budget, kept pointing out that we were after a “meat” ram each time I thought about pursuing one of the larger males.
As it happened, our search for the perfect animal required a painstaking stalk, covering more than a mile and ending at 11:30 a.m. Our tracker, Vasco, and Bredger used the palmetto islands lining the edge of the floodplain to take us within 156 yards of the chosen ram. Bredger slowly set up my 4 Stable Sticks shooting rest. I laid the Ruger American in .300 Winchester Magnum, borrowed from Bredger, across the rest, leaning into the butt while settling the crosshairs on the reedbuck’s shoulder. Coming down from the recoil, the riflescope’s view was empty of reedbuck. I turned to Bredger and asked the obvious: “Did I hit him?” His grin was answer enough, but he added, “Dropped to the shot.”
Arriving at the downed ram, I was impressed with the skill of my PH and tracker for not only getting their hunter close enough for an ethical shot, but also for choosing an ideal animal. The ram was never going to develop into a wall-hanger, but he was fully mature, with tips of horns beginning to wear down from age and use. He was also a big-bodied animal, guaranteeing a maximum amount of meat for the chief and his guests. As I posed for a photo with the animal, I couldn’t help but smile broadly as I contemplated the provision of much-needed meat for our Sena friends.
When hunting whitetail on the leases to which I belong, before loading an animal, I field-dress it near my truck. For an animal taken for the Sena villagers, this would be a mistake, and breach of protocol; to leave any organs behind, including the liver, kidneys and heart as well as the stomach, would be a waste of coveted meat. Many non-hunters, and not just a few hunters, from first-world countries are ignorant of the incredible value placed on any source of protein by those who have known hunger and even starvation. Instead of recognizing the incredible value of every scrap of meat for protein-limited populations, we often turn up our noses at what those from developing countries consider food windfalls.
After our photo session, Bredger and Vasco quickly loaded the ram into the Land Cruiser and we headed toward the Sena village, and the chief’s home. As described, our welcome by the chief’s nephew was warm. Fastodo unloaded the ram, and we met and spent time photographing children and young adults while waiting for Chief Thozo. All the extended family members took the opportunity to inspect the reedbuck laying in the shade of an outbuilding near the chief’s house.
It was only 10 minutes or so before Chief Thozo arrived. After shaking hands and inspecting the ram, he explained through Fastodo’s translation that the celebration would not have been possible without our present. We asked Fastodo to tell his uncle that it was an honor to provide the gift from our hunt. Our answer was sincere because PH, tracker and visitor all understood the special role of hunters in providing food for others. That provision has the same inestimable value whether for homeless shelters in the United States or for a Sena celebration in rural Mozambique.
Editor’s Note
This article underscoring the role of hunters and hunting comes on the heels of the NRA’s second consecutive National Wild Game Meat Donation Month (NWGMDM) celebration last November.
The month-long initiative recognizes the hunters across America who donate millions of pounds of nutritious game meat to their local Hunters for the Hungry (HFH) programs each year. The inaugural celebration in 2023 drew support from hunter-backed groups and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, who declared November Wild Game Meat Donation Month in the Cowboy State. As news of this worthy initiative spreads, nine U.S. governors representing Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming joined the NRA in observing NWGMDM in 2024, proclaiming November Wild Game Meat Donation Month in their respective states.