Young Lions Earth First!

Young Lions Earth First! in South Africa had a roadshow which travelled all the way through the country as well as going on to visit five neighbouring countries.

With an old Kombi and a pick up truck twelve of them set out with barely enough money for, petrol and with a smaII PA, an Earth First! flag and about 1,500 pamphlets (which they had taken from the internet and translated into Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho) explaining what Earth First! is about. They drove to townships and played music and displayed the flag to draw attention to themselves, and soon they had a lot of young people at the kombi enjoying the music and dancing. They then talked to them about their immediate environment - shacks, garbage, water pollution and trees cut down for firewood. Ignore all the stories about crime, rape and pillage that the papers are stuffed with, they said that people were friendly and wherever they went they were offered food and a place to stay as well as money to help fund the rest of the trip!

In Egoli (white South Africans call the city Johannesburg, they call it Egoli which means 'the place where gold is found') they split up, with one group travelling up to Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and the other to Botswana. They had to keep a pretty low profile in all the three other countries that they visited, for political reasons, but still managed to speak to many people. Contact Young Lions EF! PO Box 27491 Greenacres, 6057 South Africa. E-Mail - 101356.2535@compuserve.com.