John Boyes [1875-1951] was a British born ivory trader, soldier of fortune, opportunist, and king, in Africa.
In all African history, there is no one quite like John Boyes. There have been better hunters, greater explorers, and finer writers. But almost no one disputes his prowess as an opportunist. During his adventure filled life, he employed himself as a sailor, safari cook, soldier, railroad fireman, officer of the Matabeleland Mounted Police, retail businessman, horse, mule, and camel trader, hunter, explorer, ivory poacher, sheep and cow thief, gambler, reprobate, and even king—as John I–[of the wa kikuyu, a tribe very similar to the Masai]. He ran away from home at age 14 and hopped a ship bound for wherever so long as it involved distant ports. John Boyes ended up making a name for himself in Africa by overcoming man-eating lions, disease, drought, and hostile tribes, and by his many and varied occupations, some of them outright legal.
The death of King Leopold of Belgium in 1909 created an elephant hunters’ free-for-all in the Lado Enclave, a 100-square-mile corner north of Lake Albert in Uganda. The area was home to some of East Africa’s largest elephant herds, which had thrived under the King’s protection. After he died, the local politicians could not decide what to do with the Lado; so’ it became a no-man’s-land without any direct or effective policies, enforceable rules, or official enforcers. The Lado had been off-limits to hunters for many years. Suddenly, in 1909, it became open to them for lack of any other option. The only obstacle for hunters and poachers was the cadre of loyal Belgian police who–acting on their own authority–tried their utmost to protect the elephants from poachers flooding into the area from British East Africa.
Once a hunter crossed the Nile, he took his life in his own hands. Although the rewards were great, he was not protected by British authorities and faced many dangers in pursuit of the “white gold.” The elephant hunters devised a variety of elaborate schemes to avoid the Belgian police. If a hunter did not know the area, he would probably search in vain for the elephants; and if he was not arrested by the rangers, he would probably die from sleeping sickness, black-water fever, mishaps occurring by wild beasts of either the four-legged or the two-legged kind. There was no honor among thieves, and poachers were touchy about their territories and activities. None of that dissuaded John Boyes.
One of the first adventurers to take advantage of the “ivory rush” was John Boyes, who owned a farm in British East Africa. Immediately after the King’s death, he headed out to try his luck in the Lado. John was intelligent, cunning, and aware of the real world he was about to enter. He first went to the Belgian commissioner and told him that he wanted to trade in the Lado Enclave but was nervous about camping among so many elephants. He asked the commissioner to point out on a map where most of the elephants were found; so, he could avoid them.
The commissioner was more than happy to oblige. Armed with this information, Boyes set off to hunt elephants. he bagged 3,000 pounds sterling–roughly $13,000 at that time–worth of ivory in just one month. Elephants were so abundant that some hunters earned upwards of 16,000 pounds sterling/$75,000 in less than six months—a very considerable sum at the time.
Despite his early good fortune, Boyes soon realized the difficulties and dangers in elephant hunting. In much of the area the grass grew too tall to see over; often he had to sit on the shoulders of a porter or gun bearer to take a shot. Invariably the recoil would bring both men tumbling down.
The ingenious Boyes eventually used a well-trained mule as his shooting platform; and in time, the mule became his constant and most trusted hunting companion.
Unfortunately, his success came to a tragic end several weeks into his Lado safari. Boyes and his hired men were tracking a large bull elephant in a dry scrub area of the Enclave. They reached a small clearing where he could see the bull, which sported long, heavy tusks. As it turned to face the hunters, the bull let out a deafening scream and then charged at frightening speed.
Boyes fired his rifle, which appeared to stop the bull in its tracks. As the dust gradually settled, Boyes waited to see what damage he had inflicted. To his horror, he realized that the elephant was not at all handicapped. The angry behemoth suddenly emerged through the dust, bearing down on him once again.
Boyes grabbed his second rifle from the gun bearer; but before he could raise it to his shoulder the bull was on him. The bull ripped the gun from his hands with its massive trunk. The shocked hunter could only look on in amazement as the elephant began to beat his rifle to pieces against the ground. Boyes took this opportunity to dive for cover. Just then the bullet in the rifle’s chamber fired, spooking the elephant, and sending it charging down the track and into the bush.
Boyes dusted himself off and went in search of his men. He soon found his gunbearer lying not far from the shattered rifle. The elephant had knelt on the luckless native, crushing out his life, and had plunged his tusks through the man’s chest. Boyes and the porters performed an impromptu burial service and then continued their hunt.
No story about Africa, about hunting in Africa, would be complete without telling the tale of when John Boyes became king of the wa kikuyu. John Boyes was an impostor who ruled Wakikuyu for three years before he was discovered by the colonial government.
When he arrived in Muranga in 1898, there was no British administration in Kikuyu land, a fact which Boyes exploited to the maximum. He first endeared himself to chief Karuri wa Gakure by giving him a present of clothes which the chief accepted with every appearance of pleasure. After that the two became friends; and when Boyes signified his intentions of staying longer in the Kikuyu country, Chief Karuri readily agreed and ordered his men to build a hut for Boyes. Over time, Boyes developed a growing influence over Chief Karuri and his people which eventually made him the supreme power of the Kikuyu country.
He collected taxes, chaired barazas [conferences] and led Kikuyu to war. To defend his new territory, he set up his own army of 5,000 uniformed kikuyu men giving them fake ranks of corporal and sergeant complete with realistic looking rank insignae. He also reinforced his new status as the king of wa kikuyu by flying the union jack outside his compound and also by marrying three Kikuyu women.
By 1899, Boyes extended his territory far beyond Mount Kenya and even became the proud owner of Africa’s second highest mountain having paid 10 sheep to Chief Wangombe and 10 to chief Olomodo of wandorobo. Boyes had also amassed too much wealth—according to British colonial standard–by exploiting the Wa Kikuyu and selling their farm produce to the Mombasa Caravan for a serious profit for himself, much as did all the other chiefs.
When he finally realized that the government was closing in on him, he called all Kikuyu chiefs who had usually supported him together and explained to them that the colonial government wanted to take his place as the general manager of all Kikuyu affairs. So, he made an agreement with the chiefs to accompany him to meet F.G. Hall–the foremost government official–so that he could defend his position as the ruler of Kikuyu.
Unfortunately for him, when the day to meet F.G Hall arrived, all Kikuyu chiefs disappeared. Not even his friend Chief Karuri turned up to accompany him. But—in usual Boyes fashion–he took it in his stride and marched with his army of 5,000 men flying the Union Jack to meet Hall.
After a brief conversation with F.G. Hall, he was told that all his 5,000 askaris were impostors and were being placed under arrest as they had no right to be in uniform.
The colonial officials went further to cut all the fake rank badges off the arms of Boyes men.
Boyes himself was also put under arrest for masquerading and flying the British Union Jack illegally, to which he responded:
“I am British. Did you want me to fly a Russian flag?”
He was then handed a summons to appear before the officer in charge of the fort the same day. The summons read: “I charge you John Boyes that during your residence in the Kenya District, you waged wars, held Barazas, masqueraded as a government official, went to six punitive expeditions and committed dacoity [an act of violent robbery—which includes murder–committed by an armed gang] by robbing Wakikuyu.” He was also indicted for “setting shauris” [making treaties].
Boyes was detained at Fort Jesus Mombasa, where he served a brief sentence. After his release Boyes and Chief Karuri continued with their less than kosher dealings.
Boyes disappeared for many years, then resurfaced in 1932 when he wrote to the Sir Morrison Carter land commission claiming ownership of Mount Kenya.