"Double Trouble"
Acrylic on Panel 9x12
Price on request
After the construction of the railway
from Mombassa to Uganda (nicknamed the Lunatic Express) British
East Africa and the Uganda Protectorate changed drastically.
The wild interior between the port and the fast growing frontier
town of Nairobi and beyond, formerly traveled by foot, horse
or ox cart, had now been opened up to civilization. As little
railway stations were constructed along its route, lions and
leopards, constantly on the lookout for easy prey, became frequent
visitors to the construction sights. Long after the Man-eaters
of Tsavo, lions habituated the railway settlements causing
injury and death. Available white hunters were often asked to
come and rid areas of the marauding beasts.
In my painting a small camp adjacent
to the railway, perhaps being used by traders of the time, is
being visited by a pair of adolescent male lions. Young lions
are seemingly immune to human danger and would wander through
camps at night in this manner. Sometimes camp dwellers would
be snatched and devoured, other times it would be just a walk
through who knows which this will be?
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