Born Free

Story name: Born Free The Story of Elsa.

Presented by: Remaa Zoabi

Their mothers bore them free

Written by: Joy Adamson

Published: 1996

The story of a woman and a lioness. Joy and Georgia Adamson live near a safari park in Kenya, Africa. One day, in a village in Kenya’s Northern Province, a human being killed and being eaten by a male lion, George Adamson is dispatched to kill the menacing lion as well as his female, who accuses him in defense of her three cubs. George brings the three cubs to his wife Joy and raises them.

Then George found three young lions behind the trees. They are waiting for their mom. They are all alone, and can’t take care of themselves, so George takes little black to his wife Joey’s house. They call the Cubs Big One, Lastika and Elsa who are younger and more closely related to Joey and George in particular. When the cubs get old, the older ones are sent to the Rotterdam Zoo, but Adamson chooses to keep the Elsa individuals near the park.

Joy and George decide to leave Elsa in the jungle for at least a week and change their camp location so that Elsa becomes more independent. However, they found her severely injured (possibly due to wild lions). Joy still thinks she can teach Elsa to survive because she opposes sending her to a zoo, where she will not have freedom. This proves to be a good decision as Elsa finally begins leaving Adamson for days at a time and eventually does several kills. Elsa manages to fight a wild lioness and is accepted into Pride – Joy and George are overjoyed at their success but promise to see their dear friend again upon their return to Kenya.

A year later, the Adamson family returns to Kenya and are given a week to find Elsa. They were thrilled to see that Elsa had succeeded as a wild lion and was now the mother of three cubs. However, both Joy and George agree that they will not interact with the cubs, allowing them to survive as wild lions.