Stany discusses the day's schedule with juvenile chimps Afrika and Rambo at Ngamba Island on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Provided by Jack Jones
In 1995, Shandy Nyandwi was on a humanitarian mission from his native Burundi to transport 20 chimpanzees to safety in Kenya.
While he was gone, the civil war that racked his homeland claimed the lives of his parents and two brothers.
Nyandwi has returned to Burundi once since then, and stayed close to the border.
But on Uganda’s Ngamba Isle in Victoria Lake, 48 chimps are safe under the care and attention of Nyandwi and his staff of 30
Nyandwi stopped in Bath Friday as part of a month-long campaign to raise awareness about a species threatened by extinction. In two weeks, at her invitation, he will join renowned primatologist Jane Goodall at the U.N.’s International Peace Day.
All of the animals have been brutalized in one form or another by humans – people willing to spend $20,000 for a pet, poachers who kill a mother to take her baby, scavengers who take the mother’s carcass and sell it to witch doctors.
The Ngamba Isle chimps have had to learn what it’s like to be a chimpanzee and how to survive in the fiercely structured society of their world.
It isn’t easy, according to author Jack Jones, of Prattsburgh, now writing a book about Nyandwi and the chimpanzees.
Even some comic aspects on the island have a bittersweet side.
On a recent visit to the sanctuary, Jones, and Nyandwi, were chased into the lake by Mawa, a 150-pound, 15-year-old chimp, who had broken out of his cage. Kept in the cage to avoid a battle with the island’s alpha male, Mawa then showed the men his supremacy by cleaning the bathroom and pouring rice and water into a pan – skills he had learned from his human owner.
Such housekeeping skills aren’t helpful in a rigid chimpanzee system where outcasts can be ostracized or killed by the chimp leaders or any subgroup threatened by the newcomers.
Nyandwi is the bridge, a father-figure.
Considered one of the world’s top five chimpanzee communication experts by renowned anthropologist Jane Goodall, he communicates with the chimpanzees on their terms – he learns their gestures, their sounds, their body language.
“They teach me,” he said. “I learn to understand them.”
Chimpanzees have a heavily political society, with factions and roles, distinct personalities and whimsies.
There is Big Eddie, who looked for permission from the alpha male Mika before unexpectedly taking a strong dislike to Jones, who barely made it to safety.
“It’s kind of like being a guard at a maximum security prison,” Jones said.
Then there is little Sarah, who spent hours tying and untying Jones’ boot laces, throwing banana peels and pulling his hair. But after Jones left the island for four days, Sarah greeted him by gently grasping his forearm with her mouth – a sign of welcome and respect.
Nyandwi is the bridge between the chimpanzees. He has been attacked on occasion, and shrugs it off. The chimps are being true their nature – and as a general rule, Nyandwi prefers them to people.
In return, Nyandwi has a kind of stature among the unpredictable primates he guards – on their terms. Even with the alpha Mika.
“I respect him,” he said, adding carefully, “He respects me. Sometimes.”
Nyandwi’s work has not been ignored by his peers. In 2011 he received the Carole Noon Award for Animal Sanctuary, the Siddle Madsen award by Pan African Alliance Sanctuaries, and International Award by Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust.
At one time there were a million chimpanzees worldwide. Now there are roughly 100,000.
Nyandwi is determined to raise money for the sanctuary and educate people about the importance of chimpanzees – as chimps and not little humans.
He wants them to avoid the fate of the northern white rhinoceros. Hunted for their tusks, a handful of the rhinos now exist only in captivity.
The father of four, adopted father of another four, Nyandwi admits he has a big heart. And there is a bond that goes beyond concern, that may be greater than love.
He looks back to the day he took 20 chimps to Kenya, and escaped with his life.
“They saved my life, I will save theirs,” he said.
Link: http://www.the-leader.com/news/x1606942314/Burundi-native-fights-for-endangered-chimpanzees?img=4
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