By Siziwe Hlongwa
Maybe Hollywood or King Kong were to blame, says Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka of her
otherwise supportive mother’s dread at her daughter working with gorillas.
“She thought they would maul me or kill me,” says Kalema-Zikusoka, recalling the
fieldwork she first did with the great apes while as a student vet.
“She was someone who always encouraged me to do things, but she was a little
concerned about that particular species of animal.”
Years later however, when Kalema-Zikusoka’s mother (the trail-blazing Ugandan
politician, Rhoda Kalema) finally joined her to see gorillas for herself in the wild, she
changed her tune. “Oh, they are just gentle, vegetarian giants,” said the older woman.
Stereotypes and what it takes to shift them are subjects all too familiar to Kalema-
Zikusoka.
As Uganda's first female wildlife veterinarian and a woman to boot in the male-dominated
world of conservation, she knows what it’s like when people jump to conclusions about
others’ capabilities. Equally, she understands how determination, developing a strong
skills set and pursuing unique research can help women conservationists see off the
naysayers.
Kalema-Zikusoka, who was speaking at the 24 th Oppenheimer Generations Research
and Conservation “OGRC” Tipping Points webinar, co-founded Conservation Through
Public Health.
The not-for-profit uses primary health care and community coffee farming and marketing
projects to tackle poaching and habitat loss, giving endangered mountain gorillas a better
shot at survival.
The online seminar was held on the eve of South Africa’s Women’s Month and Kalema-
Zikusoka’s overarching message to delegates was: “You are missing half the story and
half the impact if you don’t involve women in conservation.”
Her fellow panellists were Simangele Msweli, senior manager for the youth leadership
programme at the African Wildlife Foundation, and Sakhile Silitshena Koketso, head of
science, policy and governance at the United Nations’ Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity.
They spoke on the theme “Wild leadership — Experiences from pioneering women in
conservation”, with Nkanbeng Mzileni, general manager of South African National Parks’
Cape’ Cape Research Centre, facilitating.
Kalema-Zikusoka counts stellar women primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and
Birutė Galdikas, as well as ecologist and Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathi among
the women who’ve inspired her most.
Having female role models and leaders was “really important” to getting people engaged
in conservation, she said.
Women leaders were also more receptive and better able to address the needs of both
men and women in the organisations they lead.
“If it’s just male leadership a lot of women’s concerns are not addressed,” she said.
On the subject of stereotypes, she advised “very intentional” and innovative measures to
break societal norms.
If the field of conservation was to be more diverse, savvy ways must be sought to engage
with women and youth (the subject of previous Tipping Points webinar), she said.
Msweli, who hails from northern KwaZulu-Natal and has a particular interest in community
engagement and policy development, spoke about the difficulties she has sometimes
faced when seeking to include women in meetings during environmental awareness-
raising exercises in rural areas.
Women were effectively excluded from meetings because of cultural norms and practices,
yet “because of gender roles, women are the ones collecting water and firewood”.
“So you have a critical component of society that engages with natural resources daily,
who's insights should ideally be very important on how we manage the resources. But
because of the context, they are the very same people who can't be at the table to share
their experiences and contribute.”
Msweli said it wasn’t always possible to change the cultural context, but women who
aren’t at community meetings could still be reached by, for example, going to the
marketplaces and water collection points where they sell their produce or gather with their
buckets.
She told how she was thrust onto conservation’s big league from a young age, attending
her first Conference of the Parties (COP) international climate get-together at 19 and then
at 27 taking a senior post at an international non-government organisation, sitting on
forums that established programmes and projects or crafted important strategies.
At such meetings she faced “new challenges at the intersection of being women and
being young, in leadership”, said Msweli, explaining how by virtue of being both young
and a woman she was often expected to be the note-taker or to run errands, when her
real responsibility was to listen and contribute.
She said young people participating in conservation leadership programmes reported
similar experiences.
“What those players don't realise is that it's not so much about you at a personal level (the
sense of being undermined).
At a greater level, it’s about how the world is missing out on the insights and experiences
of young women, just because they have chosen to not think that they have something to
offer… to underestimate what they bring to the table.”
Koketso began her presentation by sketching out a career journey that has taken her
places.
She started out at a small game reserve outside Gaborone around 1998, working for
Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. NextNext, she coordinated the
drafting of the country's first biodiversity strategy before spells with the Kalahari
Conservation Society and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, an environment, politics and
policy focused organisation, in Cape Town.
In 2010 she joined the UN’s Secretariat on Biological Diversity.
Koketso acknowledged she had been fortunate in her career. Conservation had taken her
from the local to the international stage, but it had come at a personal cost, most of all to
her as a mother.
“I am not trying to stop anyone from joining conservation, but would like people to make
informed choices,” she said, advising others to “put in place contingencies to help them”.
“I used to go away for months at a time and not see my children. The kids would be crying
because for them it would be mommy’s leaving; they don't know mommy’s coming back.”
She told of an email from her daughter that read: “Mummy, I know you are not like other
mummy’smummy’s, and you are not able to come to all my (parent-teacher) meetings and
all my conferences, but I know you love me.”
Koketso said she kept the email for years because it “hurt my heart and it made me want
to be better at what I am doing”.
“If I am going to have this cost to my kids, I might as well make that cost count,” she said.
In addition to the personal cost, her work in international conservation exacted a
psychological cost too, said Koketso.
She spoke of the exhaustion, burnout, depression and anxiety that her work risked. “You
also have the cost of cynicism and that’s the biggest thing I have seen in my career. If I
don't guard against itit, I tend to get cynical, not just about the environment, what's
happening in the environment, but the organisations I work for.”
How does Koketso cope with this and what lessons can the high-flying conservationist
share with other women?
She told the webinar she drew strength and guidance from others, including by following
the online posts, especially book excerpts, by people she admired like Indra Nooyi, the
former PepsiCo chief executive.
Koketso said Nooyi, a mother of two and the first woman to head the food and beverage
multinational, rightly called it a lie, the notion that women can have it all – enjoy a top-
flight career and the pleasures and rewards in full of motherhood and family life.
On the other hand, Nooyi had been able to count on “great support” from her husband,
mother and personal assistants.
“Find people whose stories reflect yourself or whose progress reflects the progress you
are trying to make in your life and try to do that,” said Koketso.
She advised women in conservation to find ways of “putting in structures around you to
protect yourself”.
Joining a group of like-minded women in the UN had been a source of great support and
encouragement for her, she said.
“And might I say, if you have a job that has benefits that can afford it, please try to get a
therapist, or a psychologist or a coach or something that can help you to navigate those
spaces.”
Responding to a question put to the panel on how women can best “navigate the
conservation space”, Msweli also stressed the value of establishing support structures.
Conservationists, she said, found it easy to join networks for advocacy, to fight for causes,
but were slower off the mark in joining networks for self-care.
Happily, Msweli said she could also count on supportive friends and a husband who kept
the home fire burning while she is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Those less fortunate might turn to social networks, not necessarily online, she said.
She reminded delegates that most of us were unable to control others, but we could
develop and exercise self-leadership. We needed to learn how to set boundaries, and
become confident and assertive, without necessarily being rude.
How do you manage politics in your work to get this far in your career? the panel were
asked.
Kalema-Zikusoka advised women to stay focused on their goals.
“Don't allow people to discourage you and just keep going,” she said.
She also stressed the importance of seeking support and “looking out for female role
models.”
But if that support was not forthcoming, Kalema-Zikusoka advises women to take heart
and steel themselves for a lengthy struggle.
She spoke about Goodall and how her professors at Cambridge did not take her seriously
enough because she was a woman.
“SoSo, she had to fight a lot. Now everybody thinks she had an easy ride, but… she had
to fight a lot and it's the same for other women.”
Sometimes, you just have to keep fighting, said Kalema-Zikusoka.
“Just keep talking about what you are doing. Sometimes as a woman you just have to
speak louder than everybody else. But don't give up the fight. And a lot of people end up
joining you in that fight.”
This story was produced with support from Roving Reporters’ New Narratives
project, a journalism training initiative developed in partnership with science
communication specialists Jive Media Africa.