Does Kruger deserve a park?

库格勒公园是否名至实归?

The Documentary Podcast

2025-11-08

26 分钟
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Kruger national park in South Africa is one of the most well known nature reserves in the world. But the legacy of Paul Kruger, who the park is named after, is complicated. He founded the park to protect South Africa's wildlife, but he is also considered to be a relic of the country's racist past and considered by some as an architect of apartheid. Khanyisile Ngcobo is a reporter for BBC Africa and she tells us more about the name change debate. Luiz Fernando Toledo BBC News Brazil tells the story of the successful conservation of the giant Amazon fish, the pirarucu. Its skin can be turned into leather, which is used to make high end fashion items. The fishermen who catch them do so in exchange for policing illegal fishing, which has pulled the fish numbers back from the brink of extinction. But despite their role in conservation, and providing the leather, these fishermen don't share in the economic benefits of this fish. Have you ever thought about the history of toothbrushes or dental hygiene? Tejas Vaidya of BBC Gujarati went to meet an Indian man who owns the world’s largest toothbrush collection. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Caroline Ferguson, Rebecca Moore and Alice Gioia. This is an EcoAudio certified production. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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  • Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

  • This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.

  • I'm your host, Farinaq Amidi.

  • Kruger National Park in South Africa is one of the most famous nature reserves in the world.

  • But like so many things in South Africa, it has a complicated history.

  • It is named after a man called Paul Kruger.

  • He founded the park to protect nature.

  • But for many South Africans he is viewed as a relic of the country's racist past,

  • as he was one of those responsible for driving black Africans off their land,

  • and is seen by some as an architect of the country's later system of legalized racial segregation known as apartheid.

  • We have a clip of a black South African man who worked in Kruger Park during apartheid in 1968.

  • Ironically,

  • it is in the Kruger National Park that Africans are allowed to carry guns in order to protect the whites against the wild animals.

  • As a black man,

  • I have come to realize that the animals have far better freedom than the black people of this country.

  • The Kruger National Park is segregated in the sense that They're separate facilities for both black and white.

  • So one will come to realize that the animals have a far and a better freedom of movement than the African people.

  • Apartheid was officially ended in 1994, 26 years after this man was speaking.

  • But South Africa is still reckoning with its past and with Paul Kruger.

  • The economic freedom fighters say the defacing of the Paul Kruger statue in Pretoria is part of the nationwide campaign to bring down all apartheid-era statues.