In 1961, the largest elephant in history was unveiled on exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC; the Fenykovi elephant, affectionately known as Henry by the museum staff. In the mid-1950s, when this grand elephant was shot by Josef Fenykovi, Angola was known as the “living room of Africa”, legendary for its giant sable antelope, enormous elephants, and vast herds of wildlife.
That same year, Angola’s war of independence broke out, ushering in four decades of armed conflict in the wider region. Almost all the elephants, perhaps as many as 100,000, were either killed or driven out to become refugees in northern Botswana and Namibia, or western Zambia and Zimbabwe.
