Risemoor Sheepdogs (2026)

02/04/2026

So CGO died and that section began to fall apart..

Most of this took a long time for me to work out what was going on, largely due to the secrecy between tribes people

For example if someone was drunk, absent, sick or late, often it wouldn't be reported because the culture is 'today that is my brother, by tomorrow it could be me'

The leadership on that section was new, and later I realised very lacking. There were huge issues with cattle on that section because without CGO taking on the mantle of chief, and being the driving force for the workers, the work wasn't getting done.

A faction of the herders, resented this man's attention to detail and discipline. They told him that soon he will be sleeping with the fishes. Death threats were made against him.

Before he passed he wrote a letter, naming three individuals as the witches who had sworn to take his life. He then died. Following the funeral, the village was basically at war with each other.

There was a wider chief, not employed by the ranch, who people could take disputes to through a tribal court. We had to offer a token of respect of half a beast (sometimes a whole beast) annually, for 'continued co-operation'. Which later I was told, basically meant that they didn't actively steal the cattle.

The family of CGO took the evidence to the police. Now an important thing to know about the police, is that they rarely get paid by the government. Like most civil servants they go years without pay, hence why they are so open to corruption. The family paid the police to arrest the witches. The witches were arrested, they paid for their freedom, and then they paid to have the family arrested for defamation. Who in turn, had to pay to be freed. The purposes of all of this, I couldn't tell you, because it seemed to me the only beneficiary was the police.

To calm tensions, I had to investigate the witchcraft claims. It didn't matter that I myself didn't believe in witchcraft. Other people on the ranch DID, and were deathly afraid. The intention to terrorise, and indeed 'murder' was there.

The three witches were dismissed, and therefore had to leave the village. But they ran away, leaving behind their kids. The idea being that the ranch wouldn't force their children to leave the house, and therefore they could really stay a bit longer.. obviously they would eventually return, we just had to catch them.

But for now a bit of calm was restored..

24/03/2026

Nyoka nyoka 🐍

There is politics in any workplace, but this was something else. Tribalism is deeply rooted in the culture. Even if this person is an enemy, if you're of the same tribe you support them against a perceived outsider enemy, so you can then go back to your own squabble. People who tried to operate outside that tribal structure, found that their relatives and friends would then be put under pressure, who in turn would then put you under pressure until harmony was restored.

On the ranch there were two tribes. The local native tribe, and a tribe from the north who had been brought down to be managers. There was an idea (probably correctly) that locals were working with local chiefs and encouraging theft. Bringing in an outside tribe seemed like a good idea, until they started doing the same thing on a bigger scale, moving goods north back to their tribe lands. This also created a two tier system on the ranch where nepotism and tribal links were more important than competence, so there was a lot of resentment festering.

One of the big cultural differences for me wasn't language, but was about what was communicated. Brits tend to be direct, Germans/dutch even more so. In DRC that's considered a bit rude I think.

Someone would come to my office for a conversation, but I couldn't get a direct answer out of them, everything is drawn out or implied.

It usually took multiple meetings to get information out of them, and even then, the question you ask might get answered, but often there was a lot of context and other information omitted. Not necessarily to cover up, but because that wasn't the specific question you asked.

Add all of this, into the genuine terror inspired by the ranch witches, it actually took a lot of trust for people to confide in me. The society is very patriarchal, and I do think perhaps being a woman, helped with this. 'Madame' was the french formality, but some started to call me 'mama solution' which made me smile. I did start to feel like I was a mother of many thousands of people! I felt a real heavy weight of responsibility to my workers and their families, and I wanted to work to make life better for them.

I expected I could bring skills to teach those willing, it was for me the real attraction of going, but I hadn't anticipated the level of protection and sheer energy, I would need to expend to keep workers safe.

Everywhere I looked there was a crisis, the houses were falling down, the water systems polluted, the cattle sick, predatory individuals looking to exploit and enrich. It was absolutely exhausting and sometimes heartbreaking work, kept up under intense pressure to remain stoic and poker faced.

There is no room for weakness in Congo, especially from a woman.

22/03/2026

The worst first week ever?

The original plan (like most new jobs) was to continue auditing the cattle, getting to grips with everything, and developing a plan for the future.. however week 1 took an unexpectedly horrendous turn by day 2.

I received a phone call that a senior member of the team had died. They had been sick for a few days, and suddenly died. This person's death set a ball in motion that changed everything at the ranch.

This person, and I'll call him CGO, was well respected and very hard working, he was second in command to the chief of that section and the ranch comprised of 4 sections. He had moved to this section to help counter the influence of a previous chief, the one who ended up controlling the ranch and running it as their own fiefdom.

As he lay on his deathbed, this man wrote a letter, naming three men in the camp as witches that had threatened his life (and now succeeded). He then died.

Now, I have to say 2 days into the job I did not expect to a) have someone die and b) have a witchcraft investigation on my hands

But before we get into that, that day became a blur. The work gang team started cutting planks for the coffin, I sent a motorbike to the nearest village for a shroud, and then I went to pay my respects, using my truck to transport mourners.

Now I cannot emphasise this enough, African funerals appear to be almost the opposite of British funerals. At a British funeral you wear black, you are solemn, people generally cry quietly, but as a rule, culturally 'stiff upper lip' and reserve is how things go. Now a Congolese funeral is something very different. It seemed that the louder and more overtly you mourned, the more respectful it was seen. Every time we passed a person, on the hour journey to the camp, would cause the whole car to errupt into wailing and crying. Which the first time it happened, I nearly crashed the vehicle because I thought I'd hit someone. I wasn't prepared!

I do think there's something beautiful and cathartic about such public mourning, the community rallies together, and are united in their grief, rather than bottling it up and handling it privately like we typically do in the west.

Months later, i discussed these differences with my Congo guys and honestly they were as bamboozled at the prospect of being reserved, as I was at the prospect of being overt 😂

The convoy arrived, and the union rep pipes up from the back: 'we need to bring smoked beef and mille meal (ground maize) as a token of respect.' Pardon me?! Why didn't you inform me of this an hour ago before we set off?!

Turned around, went back the central section.. not a good start. Id never been to this section or met anyone there btw.

Got the necessary, and 2 hours later returned, with a new pick up full of mourner's and repeated the process. Dropped off the goods.

'now you must go in and pay your respects'

At this point I'm sweating, and not from the heat. it's mid afternoon, I haven't met any of these people before, everyone is wailing, I have absolutely zero idea what's culturally appropriate. I'm genuinely terrified I'm going to do something wrong and cause mortal offence. People are expecting me to say something.

I am then ushered into their house, where all of the mans women folk are. The body is laid out. Upon my arrival, everyone starts crying even more hysterically and throwing themselves on the body. (Again, in my experience! other than immediate family visiting in chapels of rest, visiting the deceased is quite unusual, even open caskets are not typical.) But not in DRC.

The female relatives have dressed the body, and taken care of him for his final rest. There's something beautiful about family structure and community in Africa, and this was my first real experience of it. I am introduced to the widow, and I try to summon every bit of 12 years of Catholic education and broken french to say something appropriate and meaningful. This man was a great man on the ranch, even though I never knew him, I needed to convey my respect for him, and my empathy for this widow, who was now a single mother to many children.

He was buried the following day by his family.

I was dog tired that day. Drained from all the emotion and responsibility of getting things right.

Now to deal with the witches ✨

21/03/2026

You know how in the UK you'll see at traffic lights or round abouts, signs on lamp posts saying things like 'experienced plasterer - call John' 📞

In Africa, this is what you'll see instead 😂 fair play to this guy he's got all bases covered!

Fairly tempted to give him a bell and ask if he can sort next week's lottery numbers for me, but then perhaps if his financial spells worked, he wouldn't need to advertise his services quite as much ✨

But what am I saying? Business expansion and entrepreneurial skills should be encouraged! Slide into my DMs if you want to CHANGE YOUR LIFE; I'll connect you with him for a small fee 🤑 🪄

20/03/2026

Before I continue my posts, I need to give you some context regarding ✨ witchcraft ✨

Belief in witchcraft is still very big in central Africa, especially amongst the poor, rural communities. For healing and as a means of control/violence. For example, there were clinics on the ranch for workers and their families, yet sometimes people would prefer to use traditional methods instead.

There was a lot of superstition: Death? Famine? Accident? All must be the work of witches. I should add, people were deeply Christian and spiritual, but this is culture, both exist and are considered a part of life.

The year before I arrived a woman was struck by lightening, she had argued with a man in the camp the previous day. As a result her family went to the police and this man was arrested for murder via magic, and is currently in prison. Prison in DRC must be as close to hell on earth as there is.

Previous to my arrival, the ranch was overseen by someone claiming to be a witchdoctor, as a result he held enormous sway over the community, and people genuinely lived in terror of this man and his disciples (more on this later), who used his magic for his own gain to coerce and enrich himself. If I was to dismantle this guys chokehold on the ranch, I would have to tackle this. People were very concerned for our safety 😅

Maybe they should have been, Owls in Africa are often said to be/working with witches. Here's a beautiful Eagle Owl hunting in my garden.. or maybe she was actually spying on me ey 🦉

18/03/2026

Unexpected herd members..

So most of the herd were a mongrel mix of bonsmara, Zebu, Brahman there was this herd of surprises 🐮

Back in the colonial period there was a hotel on the ranch (now derelict), which was popular with European tourists. You could actually take a train from Lubumbashi all the way to the ranch, as the railway ran through it. Then you would go via horse and cart to the hotel. For the hotel dairy animals were required. So ever so occasionally you'd see a flash of piebald cow in the mix, a distant throwback to the dairy animals that joined the beef herd here when the hotel became defunct.

Additionally, Belgian Blue genetics were brought over, and I think an attempt to reintroduce them at some point was made further on. As such occasionally a double muscled calf was thrown out. Pretty impressive they could survive the harsh selection pressure of the dry season in southern drc!

Really on the ranch, there should have been selection for an animal that was hardy, which could graze even poor ground, and was structurally able to walk long distances.. what actually was happening was that the biggest (tallest and hardest kept) animals were kept for breeding, which meant body condition dropped and fertility dropped with it. This combined with degraded soils, meant to numbers of cattle the ranch was sustaining was decreases year on year.

The ranch acted as a filter for cattle from the Northern sister ranches, which walked approx 200km to the ranch I was on, rested and then walked to the city. Where they were loaded and transported to Lubumbashi via truck to the feedlot.

This was a HUGE logistics headache for me, not least because of the huge disease problem in the north, combined with security issues along the trek. One beast was worth approximately 1000$, which is almost two years wages in DRC.

More about that later!

16/03/2026

Often people ask me what sort of wildlife lived on the ranch. The real answer is 'almost nothing'.

The Congolese I met were extremely hungry, particularly for protein. If it could be caught it was eaten. Snakes, grubs, rodents, birds of any variety, they are food. Strips of bush were burnt, to make the animals emerge, the surrounding people caught the creatures (of any kind) and consumed them. There is poverty, and then there is Congo.

Traditionally (and there were still some living locally) they were 'forest men' they lived off the land, on the abundant wildlife Africa offered them, there wasn't a requirement for agriculture, they followed the herds.

I won't claim to fully understand the complex causes of why the ecosystem became so broken. Even before colonialism, Arab slavery and tribal warfare made life very turbulent. Vaccination and malaria nets given out by NGOs mean that child mortality is decreasing (comparatively to previous generations), but now as more children reach adulthood, there are few jobs to sustain them, and education is very difficult to access. Living off the land becomes harder, and wild populations have never recovered from the human population boom. Bush meat is a roaring trade. I saw 2 monkeys (one in captivity), jackals, and 2 antelope, my entire time I was there. The animals have been pushed to almost nocturnal habits, in an attempt to avade poachers.

So while it was a beautiful place, in many ways it was desolate, you expected to see animals, but they are gone. And with them, so does the life of the traditional forest man.

Here on the wall is the last lion on the northern ranch shot in the 60/70s. And there's also a skull on a sister ranch shot in 2003. Never to return again. Just another example of a species having to make way for man.

16/03/2026

Risemoor Buck son available in Australia 🌏

Buck is a son of Risemoor Immy, who is my main dog, sheep or cattle she can move from working lambs to cows and calves in a heartbeat. Lots of videos of her on here, and happy to answer any questions.

Jess always rears her pups super well too 🙏

13/03/2026

African cows are typically leaner than you'd see in the UK, and indeed fat is a waste product- they like lean tough meat - these cows are way too thin even for dry season.

They have zero rumen fill.. i.e they're hungry! When you feed a cow you're actually feeding their stomach microbes; the better you feed them the more rumen activity, the more efficient digestion is etc. Cows should spend their day eating and cudding. I NEVER saw cows ruminating in drc!

The system was that cows must go out to graze, and then they must return to the kraal to be guarded by security at night. As the ranch was absolutely beset by thieves (incl plenty of the staff!), beasts couldn't be unattended at any point, or they'd get butchered in the field.

This meant the herders had to walk them out of the kraal leaving to huge amounts of soil damage and over grazing around the kraal area and huge areas of bush with loads of feed further away

Option A) build new kraals and take them into the bush
Option B) keep grazing on the same bit of 'grass' and kip under a tree

The sooner cows were back in a kraal the sooner you could go drink homebrew with your pals 🙃😅 so there was heavy incentive to chuck them back in the kraal as soon as possible.

You have to understand that education is extremely poor and unavailable to many, if you asked the majority why a cow wasn't pregnant they'd simply reply 'it wasn't god's will', which perhaps could be true, but I don't think being in BCS 1-1.5 particularly helped either 😅

Equally the average salary in drc is just less than $600/year so perhaps understandably motivation can often be lacking.

It was definitely set to be an uphill battle!

12/03/2026

Arriving in Congo 🇨🇩 and an expensive rookie error 🐾

My first proper experience with corruption..

So as in many places, DRC operates on a who you know and who you've bribed basis. NOTHING moves without money first, and this is especially true if you're mzungu (white). Naturally I expected to pay a bribe, I had come properly prepared but I underestimated the situation.

My dogs had flown in via aeroplane, aeroplanes are expensive. In Congo dogs are also expensive, because if you can afford to feed a dog then you are wealthy. I had many dogs, me and all of my dogs had arrived via aeroplane ergo I was very rich.

I went to collect my dogs and do the necessary paperwork 💲 when I was met with an obstacle. Largely, they wanted thousands of dollars in cash or they were going to keep them. We then spent hours in 'negotiations' with hours of travel still ahead.

The longer the negotiations the more airport workers seemed to arrive out of thin air with demands. After bartering them down, we departed 1000 dollars lighter after a trip to the bank, bribing everyone from pilots to bog cleaners, the dogs were liberated..

Lesson 101 for surviving in DRC: find the highest authority in the room, and bribe only them, that way you won't have to pay every single other person on your way up the food chain 🙃

Risemoor Sheepdogs

02/04/2026

24/03/2026

22/03/2026

21/03/2026

20/03/2026

18/03/2026

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