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VAGUAYE, Grand Cape Mount – In 2018, James Mulbah expected a big harvest like previous years. He had planted rice on five lots of land, and that year he really wished for the rain. But when the rain finally came, it did not bring the 36-year-old any good. Just as the first raindrops hit the ground, a herd of elephants raided his farm.
“The elephants destroyed all the rice,” says Mulbah, who has five children. I have nothing on the farm again, so I just decided to leave the farming work and join the mining.”
Mulbah is one of several farmers in Vaguaye and other towns and villages in the Gola Konneh District of Grand Cape Mount have abandoned farming and taken to the mines as the result of continuous raids by the elephants. The giant mammals have wreaked havoc in the area since 2015, and have made people here more dependent on food and other supplies from outside.