Battle at Kruger

In 2004, amateur videographer David Budzinski and amateur photographer Jason Schlosberg happened to be on safari in South Africa’s Kruger National Park and—during their very last hour in the bush—found themselves “in the right place at the right time” to document an extraordinary encounter between a herd of buffalo, a pride of lions, and two crocodiles.

The two men later privately exchanged the video footage and photos with one another, but it wasn’t until 2007, when Schlosberg uploaded the video to YouTube, that the video he titled Battle at Kruger took off, attracting four million views within a month and over 93 million views to date.

An article in TIME magazine aptly summed up the eight-minute video as “a three-act play of attack, counterattack and rescue.” After the lions snatch a baby buffalo, engage in a baby-buffalo tug-of-war with the crocodiles, and seem to be prevailing, the buffalo herd—methodically approaching in formation—regains the upper hand. Reported TIME:

“What really surprised and delighted web viewers was the cavalry charge of the returning buffalos, who put themselves in the path of the predators to save the good-as-gone baby.”

Nearly two decades later, there are still numerous reasons to appreciate this compelling video. At Solari, we enjoy it as a reminder of the famous “Ye are many—they are few” line from poet Percy Bysshe Shelly’s 1819 political ballad, “The Masque of Anarchy,” which Wikipedia describes as “perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent resistance.” In one stanza, Shelly asks:

“What art thou, Freedom? Oh! could Slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand, tyrants would flee
Like a dream’s dim imagery

In evoking Shelly’s poem, however, we must make note of one caveat: In the closing stanza, it is the slumbering lions who are urged to arise and shake off the chains of slavery.

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable NUMBER!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fall’n on you:
YE ARE MANY—THEY ARE FEW.