Puppetry and Elephant Conservation

24 minutes

Produced for CNN Inside Africa

From a collective of young creatives, to an expert puppet-maker and an enchanting parade in the valley of the women, we see how a centuries-old art form is being used to highlight the plight of a continent’s endangered species.

How do you train 4 giant elephants to perform on stage? The answer is you don’t, you build human-operated life-size puppets instead. This was the task set for a group of creative young designers in cape town.

For the past few years, the “handspring trust for puppetry arts” has collaborated with the local community of the small town of Barrydale, a 4 hour drive from cape town. Together they stage a street parade and play designed to draw attention to an issue that concerns the town’s residents. In 2016, the community chose to highlight the plight of Africa’s dwindling elephant population.