WAY BACK in 1858, Nongqawuse, a prophetess of the Xhosa Tribe in South Africa, had a vision telling her that all cattle of the tribe would have to be slaughtered, having been reared by contaminated hands. She said that she had met the spirits of three of her ancestors, who had told her that the Xhosa people should destroy their crops and kill their cattle. In return, the spirits would sweep the British settlers into the sea; their granaries would fill again, and their kraals would have more and better cattle.
In the cattle-killing frenzy that followed, they killed between 300,000 and 400,000 head of cattle. In the resulting famine, the population of the province dropped from 105,000 to fewer than 27,000. Neither the cattle nor the Xhosa tribe recovered from this deadly cure.
Every species has its lurking danger waiting to pounce: Hendra virus for horses, Johne’s disease in sheep, Varroa mites attacking bees, bird flu, swine fever, mad cow disease, monkey pox, wooden tongue, myxomatosis, even the plant kingdom has its rusts and blights.
The spirit of Nongqawuse lives on in today’s bureaucratic instinct to kill every member in any threatened herd to ensure all sick ones die.
There is one fatal flaw in the scorched earth disease control so loved by the bureaucracy: it fails to encourage the survival and multiplication of resistant individuals. Those individuals who survive, showing that they are resistant to the disease, are also slaughtered. There is no survival of the fittest, no evolution of a resistant strain under the Nongqawuse remedy.
For example, a disease was detected in Australian beehives. It is being managed by a scorched earth policy of isolating and exterminating all nearby bees. Naturally, honey supplies are dwindling and there are fears for the pollination of fruit trees and crops.
In our local Woolworths, the long shelves usually devoted to eggs were empty last week. Why? Followers of Nongqawuse found some sick hens on some farms and murdered every hen in every flock where ‘bird flu’ was detected. Entire flocks are culled when even one bird tests positive.
They are forever seeking more efficient ways to select the flocks to slaughter.
In the sad but moving Australian film Rams, modern flock exterminators kill every sheep in the district to eliminate a few with ovine Johne’s disease. One cunning old sheepman, distraught that they planned to destroy his life’s work in breeding better sheep, refused to accept their Nongqawuse solution. He hid a few ewes and his top-class ram in his cellar, sprouting grass for them in his bathroom. He let them out onto the grass at night. When threatened by a diligent visiting inspector noticing fresh sheep poo on his lawn, he fled to the hills with his remnant sheep. They all survived (in real life, the bureaucrats would probably have pursued the refugees with drones and marksmen in helicopters).
‘Foot and Mouth’ is used everywhere by politicians with hidden agendas to crush live exports or local meat consumption. In America, an outbreak of measles is being used to bludgeon Amish people into vaccinations which they normally refuse. One recalcitrant Amish parent was fined US$118,000.
We need to learn from wild populations. When they get disease, the weakest may die, but the herd survives and becomes stronger.
Look at the wildlife crowded around the shrinking polluted water holes, thirsty at the end of a dry season in the Serengeti grasslands in Southern Africa. There can be hundreds of animals and many species all drinking from contaminated puddles of water and adding their germs to the muddy soup via their solid and liquid wastes. All ‘germs’ get well spread, the weak die, and the fittest survive to pass their genes onto the next generation. Herd immunity is strengthened without the pain of a single vaccine needle or the scorched earth policy of the bureaucrats (they would surround the waterhole, shoot every animal and then have a huge bonfire).
Our grandparents understood the value of natural vaccination. Long before we had artificial vaccines, chickenpox parties were valued as a way to get a child protected from chickenpox at an age when the infection is ordinarily less severe.
There are some who believe that the human population needs a Nongqawuse solution. Prince Phillip of England allegedly said:
‘In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.’
To facilitate their population control, they need to herd us into ‘smart cities’, keep track of us via smart phones, reduce our food supplies and limit our access to land, energy and water. Their latest abomination? Using mosquitos to vaccinate humans.
The spirit of Nongqawuse was rediscovered by China’s Deng Xiaoping, who introduced their one-child policy. It was strictly enforced with fines for violators and often forced abortions. People risked losing their jobs if they were found to have had more than one child. As always, there were unintended consequences: Chinese parents made sure that their one child was a boy to look after them in their old age. Suddenly, China had a generation of angry and lonely young men unable to find a wife, and so, that policy was scrapped.
Britain’s King Charles probably supports Deng and Nongqawuse. He said in a speech that population growth must be halted if the world is to live within ‘nature’s benevolence and bounty’.
The bureaucracy is forever seeking ways to identify, keep track of and vaccinate every one of us and our animals. They love electronic tracking – electronic ear tags are already compulsory for Australian cattle, and from now on, all new sheep and goat offspring must also get an electronic tag.
Covid tracking and vaccination was a test run to see how far they could go. Soon, they will use 4G to tag and track every human, with electronic car limiting travel. Only the privileged with be allowed to travel outside their zone. Smart meters will ration energy, and controls on food and water will soon follow.
Nongqawuse dreamed a dream, and most of her tribe died.
‘Net Zero’ is today’s apocalyptic dream articulated by Al Gore (today’s disciple of Nongqawuse) and his loyal Australian disciple, Chris Bowen. Their impossible dream is to power the modern world with green energy. How many people need to die before they are content?
