Page 23 - Local Voices, Local Choices Excerpt

Local ambassadors: learning from and speaking for the chimps 21
that animals should not be cared for in protected areas. They were going to take him to Kenya. He loved me so much and we lived with him for so long, I was told that because the chimpanzee is leaving and I was his friend, I could accompany him on the journey. But when it came to say goodbye to my parents, my mother said I couldn’t go—she was sick, and I needed to stay close by. The chimpanzee was taken away and I was told that I could go back to Gombe.” Mkono says this with a stoic expression, as if trying to conceal a sadness that persists some 47 years later.
Mkono returned to Gombe and started his new role as a researcher, studying for about three months. “After my training, which was difficult, I realized this was a lifetime job. I came to know Dr. Jane, and I really thought of her as an expert. She was able to live there, go into the for- est with the chimps and just stay there.” As he expresses his admiration, Mkono still seems almost surprised by his own words; in a patriarchal cul- ture such as Tanzania, especially back in the 1970s, the idea of looking up to a young woman of roughly the same age is quite a stretch.
“As a representative of the community outside the park,” he contin- ues, “I think the contribution of Gombe research has brought us tremen- dous benefits.” Mkono says he had to counsel his relatives and co-workers to understand the conservation work as something that would help them.
“Also,” he says, “I was trying to teach people about these animals, because local people didn’t really know or didn’t care.”
Mkono, on the other hand, knew the animals intimately. “For those of us who lived with them, there weren’t any naughty chimps, apart from Humphrey. Humphrey was the naughty one.” The term “naughty” is used by the locals to describe belligerent chimps. “Even towards human beings, he had an attitude and would sometimes throw stones or threaten to beat us. Later, after Humphrey left, there emerged a young man called Frodo. He was also naughty. He started his naughtiness while still young just like a game, but this later became much more serious.
“Chimps like Passion, for example, that chimp was a witch,” he says casually. “The way she was, her behavior, the way she used to cooperate