Jumbos, gift-wrapped

In 218 BCE, Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, made his audacious assault on Rome from the north, crossing the Alps with his army of 30,000 men, 15,000 cavalry and most famously, 37 elephants.

- NAVTEJ SARNA

In the ensuing two millennia, Hannibal would have gone the way of most history, gradually reducing to a footnote. But largely because of the image of his elephants in the snowbound Alps, he has reached metaphoric status, immortalised in film and legend.

If a mere 37 elephants could so impress the European psyche, imagine the result if Botswana’s President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, were to deliver on his threat—or promise—of sending 20,000 elephants to Germany and, as he added for good measure, he “won’t take no for an answer.” The thought conjures up delicious images: thousands of pachyderms marching down the Unter den Linden to the tune of Baby Elephant Walk, or shooting the breeze in Potsdamer Platz or heading down to Munich’s beer halls to quench their summer thirst.