The Zambian woman, who was arrested in Ethiopia for being in possession of three bracelets made of Ivory almost a fortnight ago, has been released after the Ethiopian authorities fined her US$263, which is about K1, 460 or 5,000 birr, the Ethiopian money.
The woman, identified as Esther Namakuba Muyangana, was arrested at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa on 1st January 2014 when she was travelling to Zambia from Miami in the United States of America.
Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) Public Relations Officer Mwila Muliyunda confirmed the fining of Muyangana in a statement to ZANIS today.
Muyangana was arrested by Ethiopian authorities because she did not have a permit for the ivory bracelets as required under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES to which Ethiopia and Zambia are party.
The convention prohibits commercial trade of ivory and ivory products.
Ms. Muliyunda has called on members of the public who are in possession of elephant tasks, rhino horns and other wildlife products to declare them to ZAWA head office in Chilanga and acquire certificate of ownership to avoid arrests.
Ivory bracelets are traditionally worn in Zambia mostly by tribes in the Western part of the country.
ZANIS
And the dumb customs officials in the US didn’t pick up on this…apparently they had to take her to a local jewelry store just to remove them.
Good work, keep it up Ethiopian Customs!!
three innocent bracelets on an innocent lozi hand!! Ethiopians customs are just stu.pid and backward!!! there was no need for US customs to do anything, that lady lives in USA and lives with bracelets every day in the USA
She should know better those bracelets are illegal, prohibited and encourage poaching of elephants. Where has she been all along has she been living under a rock?
@jayjay
that Lady lives in the USA with those bracelets not under rock like you!! She is well educated and confortable thats why she paid those hungary ethiopians ka 263 dollars
Bo Ndobo that’s besides the point whether she is welloff anywhere else she would have been locked up.
FYI I’m no stranger to the western part of our country.
Bo jay jay
`anywhere else she would have been locked up`.. where anywhere else??.. i live with one bracelet on my wrist myself in sverige, real ivory from great grandfather, i NEVER take it off.. i have flown to zambia several times via Berlin germany , Istanbul turkey, london, Nairobi kenya and jo`burg south africa,,, never been questioned whatsoever.
so ethiopia is just backward
Its not all countries that subscribe to CITES in the manner of Ethiopia so dont be quick to sneer at Muyangana. South Africa Zambia China Zimbabwe etc do allow ivory to be worn.
I personally know her, she is not the cleverest person even in her family
She is as dumb as an oyster
She thinks with her makeup
Grow up Esther
#nosympathy
Thanks
But our Lozi brothers and sisters always wear those bracelets as part of a cultural heritage.. I think this is a small misunderstanding of culture, and she should try and appeal it. Its not like elephant numbers get depleted from our Lozi brothers and sisters wearing ivory bracelets, if it were the case, we would not have any elephants left.
Ivory bracelets belong to elephants just like lions and leopards belong in the wild and not stuffed in some rich trophy hunters lounge or on someone’s head. In fact we should get rid of those stuffed lions in the National Assembly.
@ Ba Jay Jay,
Am with you 100% on this matter, @ Bo Ndobo, get to see how Real innocent Animals are slaughtered by greedy men, then you will understand why this is a crime. Our Animals are being wiped out by foreigners helped with our own Local hungry people. Well done Ethiopian authorities, our traditions make us so ignorant, Government should step up as well on such matters!
mina li nja tuwe!! those bracelets are traditionally hers she is not smuglling,, she is lozi without any trace of stealing DNA in her and does not need a permit,,
Bo kezeli, next do use that st.upid ethiopia route go via kenya or South africa to miami
We have to enforce this rule strictly. ..what next your daughter will want new Ivory bracelets then your granddaughter. ..We need to enlightened our people about the damage this is doing and move with the times.
Wake up!!
Its sad reading! Stripping her cultural identity…! Shame on the Ethopian customs.
Today the Bemba tribalist called Mushota is convieniently claiming that it knows a Lozi family when all along it has been telling all and sundry that it does not associate or befriend Lozis because it finds them strange and unZambian! As for the so called Jay Jay any mention of the term Lozi always brings out the demons in him!
Only a tribalist thinks in tribal terms, the reason I wouldn’t even tell a small minded blogger like you where I am from even if I was from Western Province.
The Ethiopian authorities were justified by their actions. The world has seen elephants and rhinos savagely killed for their ivory, thus displaying human greed. This woman would have been arrested in the UK or any other country who have strong views about animal rights. Try and wear a fur coat and walk down the street…you are a goner! Before you travel make sure you are not in possession of items which are deemed illegal in other countries. Forget about tradition, rules are rules, end of!
Tigress the world has also seen millions of cows, millions of chickens killed for your so-called man’s greed. In Africa we used to eat these elephants and there was no train smash until those who have no elephants in their continent entered ours. if they could leave us alone with our wildlife we would still have plenty of it around
Which UK? There are animal rights campaigners alright. But there is no law that bans the wearing of fur coats. British traditionalists are still hunting foxes despite the animal rights campaigners! Goner? Only in your imaginary UK. Stop making up your own facts!
Who cares after all she is not a zambian , she is from Barotseland
I remember being about 8 years old while a very elderly Scottish woman described how elephants roamed the valleys freely on what was later named Copperbelt. She experienced the mass killing of animals that went on in order for the mining towns to exist. Cultural identity by white ivory bracelet was not a criminal offence until recent years when culling has been replaced by panic preservation not because of traditional practices going back hundreds of years but by the greed that is poaching. If I had bracelets on me from the day I was born then I will be buried with one. License is not the issue. We can get those. Demonising culture is the new ‘black’. Copper bracelets are great for blood circulation but wait for clever clogs to convince you gold sprayed plastic is more civilised…
I could not have said it better than that. Thanks!
@Ndobo. Tuhela likang’i ni linja zesa utwisisi ze tezi moya wa muna. Jay jay u nja.
ZWD should have more facts about the situation before all bloggers start showing their ignorance on foreign affairs. Politicians and especially the government of the day must embrace regional integration by enhancing bilateral talks at all levels not only with selected countries like malawi, zimbabwe etc. We can benefit more by doing business with Angola and increase that friendship like we have with malawi. Angola sees no olive branch extended from Zambia when they can see us importing oil from the mid east when they have rich abundant oil within our doorsteps. Zambia is an interset for people from Malawi, Tanzania, Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe, which makes it a world class region not different from the USA in terms of gene pooling. Politicians be innovative and inventive for the region
Do your research and you find out why we dont import from neighbouring Angola? Here is a tip for you Angolan crude is not as easy to refine as middle eastern crude oil you need a whole new refinery….now you tell us is that cost effective?
@Goody I think your points are valid. INFACT IMPORTING OIL frm our neighber it will CHEAPER thn any where elsr. POLITICIANS for sure be innovative.
@ Ndobo,
Try to understand true meaning (and not according to Kabimba) of the “RULE OF LAW”. Well done customs.
A tribal remark with jealous.
Spot on!!
I just hate immigration at Bole airport,too arrogant for that dirty country,the airport is the only nice place they brag about but with dirty toilets,its not like she was hiding the damn things,they also need to appreciate our culture,Zulus roam around the World in Animal skin and nobody has ever said a word.The all know JayZ Musholozi will tell them off.
As if your country is any better!!
I am confused,so if an elephant dies naturally and I use it’s Ivory to make bracelets,have I become a poacher?In other words we are saying elephants must not die and will never die?Educate me people.
It’s really a mystery that billions of dollars are spent to protect the rhino, elephants and yet a millions of pregnant women and children dies due to poor access to health facilities!
If just a quarter of the energy and efforts being put in protecting the black rhino was diverted to fighting malnutrition,more lives would have been saved.
CITES need to solve your stated problem. Thats similar to Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana and Namibia’s argument that they be allowed to trade in elephant tusks because they now have overpopulation of these animals. CITES has refused to allow them to do so obviously because other continents dont have elephants
How do prove it died naturally?
I hope the stu.pid Ethiopians will put the $263 in a special account to be used when the next famine strikes. There are 30 times more elephants in Barotseland where that woman comes from than in the entire Ethiopia. Ethiopians are just criminals all bent on raising money from travellers. You would think she killed an Ethiopian elephant! Arseholes!
Just follow the rule of law simple as that or risk your precious item being destroyed like the lady in the article.
Can you imagine the audacity of these Ethipians! Zambians, stop going through Ethiopia, go through Kenya and Jo’burg.
Stop being crybabies… typical Zambians when you are offered with cheap Ethiopian Airlines tickets as if you would even think twice…just follow the rules or lobby your government to excuse itself from CITES but don’t complain when poaching increase s two fold.
If it was removed from her hand its unfair. Depending on how long she has been having it and given. Sometimes the tribes of wetern province give the bracelets from generation to generation. What the authorities should have done is to find out how old the ivory bracelet was before fining her and removing it. It could be that its a hundred years old. And that CITES convention i believes came later.
Its impossible to ascertain that as women do gain weight much quicker. …just follow rules same way you do not carry fresh meat when you visit relations in Europe.
Iwe Jay Jay, what does carbon dating the ivory bracelets got to do with women gaining weight very quickly? Stop being such a snob and understand that if the ivory the lady was putting on is more than 100 years then this woman has just been robbed of US$263 by the Ethipian courts. If an itenm is owned before certain laws are made it is still legal to have that item as law cannot be applied retrospectively.
Further, most sub-saharan nations such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, etc have defied CITES as they have more numbers of elephants than their natural habitants can support. They have gone ahead and auctioned ivory from culled elephants to countries in the far east with good income earned. The woman should have insisted for the ivory to be carbon dated.
You can make your own opinions which I wholly respect BUT you CANNOT just make up FACTS; those countries you have mentioned there are the selfsame with DEPLETED elephant population numbers. I’m a wildlife CONSERVATIONIST at heart (my tribe aside) and I can tell you for a fact that Botswana is the only country in the region which has a high elephant population.
Its also UTTERLY LUDICROUS for you to even suggest that she insisted on carbon dating, if only you knew what it involved. Moreover I dont think Ethiopia or any African country has those facilities. ..I remember Egypt sends its archeology samples to the UK for dating.
The only OPTION is a PERMIT if you cannot be bother to get one then FACE the CONSEQUENCES. There is ABSOLUTELY no EXCUSE for UTTER IGNORANCE.
By the way WAKE UP! !
*….cannot be bothered. …
Supposed it was hidden in the waste like the way Nsenga women do it, would they have known. May be hide the in the ‘ntweno’
Very sad.Awe chankalipa mwe.
Ba malozi ku ziima,why fly via ethiopia,this is the second case sha! You wear nkaya only when one is true royal!
Zambians can be soooooo IGNORANT and shamefuly Boastiful for nothing it Stinks!