Soul of a Lion, written by Barbara Bennett, tells the story of how one woman came from rescuing a baby baboon on the side of the road to owning Harnas Wildlife Foundation in Namibia, Africa. Bennett, a professor of English at North Carolina State University, writes the first chapter about her experience at Harnas. She includes sleeping under the stars with cub cheetahs, having wild baboons raiding her home, and bottle feeding a baby giraffe. Bennett explains how these are regular experiences at Harnas that help to build relationships with the animals. She also explains that it brings awareness to hunters, farmers, and tourists about the importance of preserving these animals homes and lives. Bennett spends the rest of the novel writing about the founder, Marieta van der Merwe, and her family, and how they have converted their cattle ranch to Harnas Sanctuary in order to support and protect embattled wildlife. Bennett emphasizes the founder Marieta Van der Merwe’s most important rule, “the animals are wild, and it is always human error that causes outbursts from the animals.”
At Harnas Sanctuary, founder Marieta van der Merwe and her family, along with many volunteers, care for about 400 rescued, injured, and orphaned…show more content… Bennett briefly describes one of the many trifles countries in Africa have in relation to medical care being underdeveloped. Virtually every animal at Harnas, if not for the van der Merwe’s, would be dead. Thanks to the van der Merwe’s, Harnas has been the home for many animals that have illnesses, special needs, and defects of various kinds. Each chapter in Soul of a Lion has the underlying theme that every animal has the right to live, and Bennett beautifully illustrates the lengths to which Marieta will go to save a
