Guns For Hire: Hired Guns In Africa

Hunting poachers in Kenya and desperate times in "Mercenary Village":

Teams of private soldiers are patrolling the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya keeping poachers at bay while the poverty and desperation of "Mercenary Village" in South Africa makes for fertile recruiting ground for hired guns.

The age old profession of hired guns is experienceing a rebirth not seen since the rise of the nation state over three hundred years ago. With up to forty thousand private soldiers assisting in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq the business of hired guns has become a hundred-billion dollar industry. This project looks at the many forms of hired guns from the institutionalized forms to more fringe elements.