Gorillas in the Mist (50 page)

Unwilling to stay at yet another hotel, she went in search of a furnished apartment. None was available, but by an astonishing coincidence, the second-floor apartment in the North Lansing block she had occupied after her arrival in Ithaca in 1980 was vacant. It had been nakedly empty then—it was as empty now; nevertheless it offered a roof over her head, independence, and privacy. She moved in, equipped with a sleeping bag, a portable typewriter, three wooden crates, and her luggage and called it home …

… for just five days. Then the Houghton Mifflin publicity staff flung her into action again. The “national promotional tour” that followed took her through many of the southern, central, and eastern states, and lasted until October 29.

By the time she staggered back to Ithaca and her Spartan refuge in North Lansing, she had lost thirty pounds—and most of her vaunted new joviality.

It hadn’t been all bad. The lectures had earned nearly eleven thousand dollars to help support Karisoke. Publicity from the talks and the book had triggered a generous flow of donations to the Digit Fund; and Dian had been truly moved by the interest ordinary people had shown in the fate of the mountain gorillas. She wrote to her New York agent, Gina Maccoby:

“I hope the tour really was the ‘smashing success’ you say it was. It certainly got off to a rocky start in New York and braked to a pit stop in one other location. For the most part I was awed by the public’s interest and empathy with the gorillas. It was a great privilege to have been able to represent the species to large audiences who seemed to care about the animals. The
experience would have been almost ethereal were it not for the fact that so many of the gorilla individuals were dead, and that Anita McClellan was also absent from receiving her very just rewards for making
Gorillas in the Mist
possible.”

This last was a reference to the fact that Anita and a number of other Houghton Mifflin employees had been fired a few months earlier as part of an economy measure. Dian’s sense of loyalty had been outraged, and she had been waging war with her publishers ever since.

Although she had been physically drained by the past two months—her physician of many years, Dr. Ralph Spiegl, was now adjuring her to “preserve yourself; throw away the cigarettes; gain some weight; do some exercises; stop phoning your parents”—the experience seems to have stimulated Dian’s imagination.

I’m going to introduce an entirely new idea for the protection of the remaining mountain gorillas; one that, hopefully, will eliminate once and for all the barriers that continue to divide native blacks from white expatriates, pit one country against another (Zaire/Uganda/Rwanda), and one organization against the other. My idea is based upon the very simple fact that gorillas live in groups.

I call it the Guardians for Gorilla Groups plan.

I would like to see each of the forty-five or fifty gorilla groups scattered throughout the Virungas made the sole responsibility of a small staff of “guardians” consisting of one or two park guards, perhaps some of their family members, and a few black or white assistants.

Ideally each gorilla group would be contacted by a guardian at least every second day so that the location and status of every gorilla within the Virungas would constantly be known to a central registry. In addition to regular salaries, the guardians would be rewarded on a merit basis.

The American and European public, instead of being asked to give toward the general cause of gorilla conservation, would be invited to adopt a gorilla group and
contribute to the expenses of that group’s guardians. These sponsors would receive accountings of the work of the guardians and reports on the status of the groups, and of named individual gorillas within the groups.

The idea is so simple it can hardly help but work, and I do not understand why I have not thought of it before. The surviving gorillas are now very unevenly distributed because of the very unequal degree of protection they receive. For example: Mt. Muhabura, shared by Uganda and Rwanda. In 1955 there were over fifty-five gorillas living on that mountain. The Karisoke Research Center census of 1981 found only six survivors in two tiny groups, and a solitary silverback. This is because this area gets no protection from the Parc National des Volcans guards, and none from Uganda. Yet Mt. Muhabura is ideal terrain for mountain gorillas. My Guardian plan could save what individuals remain and help the buildup of a new population there.

I don’t believe I am being unduly optimistic, not after all my years of experience with the local people. I will present the proposal to the new director of
ORTPN
upon my return to Kigali. At worst, he can only turn it down, but I intend to be convincing.

While Dian was still in Ithaca, devoting her depleted energies to refining her gorilla guardian plan, a letter arrived from Richard Barnes. It was a shocker. “The center is now bankrupt,” he announced curtly. “There is no money left to pay the staff…. On Tuesday I will pay the men’s wages out of my own pocket, and then it seems that I will have no other option but to close down the center…. If that happens the consequences could be serious: the news will get around outside the park and (a) potential poachers will realise that our gorillas are unguarded, and (b) robbers will know that it is easy to raid the camp.”

Dian received this doomsday announcement with incredulity and bewilderment. She had left Barnes what she believed to have been more than sufficient funds and as recently as October 18
had sent him an
additional
five thousand dollars by bank transfer. She was still trying to make sense of the situation when Dr. Snider telephoned in great perturbation. He too had received a copy of Barnes’s dire warning and wanted an immediate explanation of what had happened to the National Geographic grant monies.

Very much on the horns of a dilemma, Dian had no ready answer. She had convinced herself, and wished to believe, that Barnes was the right man in the right place—an able lieutenant who not only could assist her in restoring the center to its former state of effectiveness, but one who could exercise effective command during her absences. “He is calm, reasonable, and above all, reliable,” she had insisted.

Her written reply to Snider was defensive of Barnes. She maintained that Karisoke could not possibly be short of money. As for Barnes, “he is an exceedingly conscientious person who has, I fear, become overly fatigued by patrol work and trying to keep up with various fringe groups of gorillas. Therefore he is not putting the camp’s objectives into their proper perspective; fatigue is the biggest cause of ‘bushiness’ that I know of, and who could be a better spokesperson on that topic! … It is my fervent hope that the camp will live up to its past standards despite the current slump, which I feel certain will be remedied.”

These hopes were dashed when a worried Warren Garst, recently returned from Rwanda, called to tell her that conditions at Karisoke had become chaotic and that Barnes had also told him that the center was closing down. Bewilderment was followed by disillusionment, then anger as Dian heard from another source that Barnes and Jensen would be joining the staff of the Mountain Gorilla Project under the ubiquitous JeanPierre von der Becke.

By then it was time to fly back to Rwanda, accompanied by Warren Garst, who needed some additional footage for his film. The pair arrived in Kigali on November 22 and remained in the capital for the next several days while Dian tried to rally
the Rwandan authorities and other interested parties in support of her gorilla guardians scheme. On December 15 she sent the National Geographic a formal account of what had transpired in Kigali, and of what had awaited her when she climbed to Karisoke.

As if fearful that the Society might not credit what she had to tell, she invoked the services of a witness:

“I have been fortunate in having Dr. Warren Garst present … during most of the events that occurred following my arrival in Rwanda….

“I had a meeting with Laurent Habiyaremye, the new director of the Office Rwandais du Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux
(ORTPN).
Mr. Habiyaremye has been a friend of mine for some ten years at least, from the time when he used to direct an import company…. We had an excellent meeting. He appeared very pleased with the new plan, Guardians for Gorilla Groups….

“Dr. Garst and I invited J.P. von der Becke to dinner, along with Drs. Alain and Nichole Monfort, who serve as advisers now for the A’Kagera Park. J.P. had just returned from a six-week stay in America and Belgium as you know.

“J.P.’s attitude could only be described as a mixture of hostility and smugness. He stated that he had been asked to lecture at the National Geographic Society … and that he had had ‘discussions’ with members of the N.G. Research Committee. If this is so, could I be informed about any decisions made, please? He was not talking.

“J.P. alone, of those I spoke to in Kigali, did not care for the Guardians for Gorilla Groups proposal, stating that it required too many extra guards, which is not so at all. Personally I feel that he was miffed that he had not thought of it first…. In quite an outburst he stated that my ‘book was all lies,’ as were my lectures.

“Dr. Garst and I climbed up to camp on Sunday to find that Karen Jensen and two family members of Richard’s had packed up their belongings and left the previous Thursday for J.P.’s
home near Ruhengeri. Dr. Garst went to Richard’s cabin to invite him for dinner, which was refused; but a 10:00
A.M.
meeting was scheduled for the following morning. Dr. Garst was present throughout.

“Without any formalities Richard announced, ‘It will not come as any surprise to you, but we are quitting.’ He then proceeded to hand over a check for 270,000 Rwandan francs (which were the unspent funds on hand)…. No accounting was given of any money spent since the end of June…. I asked about my .32 Walther pistol…. He responded, ‘I threw the gun away in the forest. It was not registered and was therefore illegal in this country.’ … No answers except ‘Bullshit’ were given to my inquiries about three missing Olivetti typewriters…. There were no reports or summaries of research activities after the end of September. As well, the Karisoke seal is missing.

“Richard left at 10:45 along with the rest of his belongings…. During the course of cleaning up the mess in his cabin, I found several letter copies from J.P. von der Becke to the director of
ORTPN
stating that Karisoke should be part of the Mountain Gorilla Project, therefore under his jurisdiction…. This explains, to a great extent, why work permits have been held up. Without researchers, a research camp is simply a collection of buildings awaiting occupancy by tourists. I don’t intend to let that happen.

“I had a lecture series arranged in South African universities beginning January 25, to be followed by a book tour in England through February. Unless something in the way of a miracle happens, I don’t see how I can now keep these schedules.”

Not only had Richard Barnes failed to live up to Dian’s expectations, his departure with Karen Jensen stripped the Karisoke Research Center of researchers, leaving it—in the opinion of her detractors—without legitimate purpose. It also left Dian effectively rooted to her volcanic aerie in the role of caretaker and general factotum.

In this emergency she began beating the academic underbrush
in the United States for new students. She also bethought herself of David Watts, to whom she wrote and cabled, asking him to reconsider taking on the job of center director.

She needed researchers not just to keep von der Becke and his ambitions at bay, but also to justify continuing financial support for the center.

Without research data’s being generated at camp, it is not possible for me to ask N.G. for funds to support Karisoke. For the time being, until new students can be found, I am monitoring the gorillas as best I can with the aid of the trackers. When N.G. funds run out-probably at the end of January of ’84-1 will have to keep the camp going entirely on my own funds for at least three months until research gets properly under way again. For the time being, because of the money earned lecturing in the United States, we can survive.

Although Dian was beset with difficulties, Karisoke comforted her. On the first morning after her arrival home, even before the somewhat bizarre meeting with Barnes, she had spent an hour on the meadows watching the biggest, most inquisitive bushbuck she had ever seen; and had been greeted there by the resident pair of white-necked ravens accompanied by two young-of-the-year. The adult birds flew directly to her and lit on the ground only a few feet away. Dian could not be sure that they had recognized her, but felt they had.

On her second day home, “feeling very fit,” she accompanied Garst on a filming foray to Nunkie’s group where that sage old silverback obliged the camera by staging such a convincing mock charge that Garst fell over backward with his tripod on top of him. “If gorillas could laugh,” Dian noted gleefully, “Nunkie would have been having hysterics.”

Garst departed on December 18.

I am now alone with my white elephant, Karisoke, my wonderful Africans, my gorillas, and all the other animals. It would be ideal, if not for future problems
having to do with money and the efforts of outsiders to make as many difficulties as possible.

A few days later Anita McClellan arrived for a two-week visit. This was a happy time. Dian introduced her friend to the forest world and to the gorillas, and they spent long evenings in front of the restored living room fireplace talking of their dear departed dogs and other subjects close to their hearts. They also made excited preparations for the revival of one of Dian’s cherished Karisoke traditions— “the Wogs’ Christmas party.”

Anita and I had to work nearly to dawn wrapping extra presents and making more food because Gwehandagoza came up with the news there would be one hell of a big crowd coming. The party is supposed to be just for the Africans who work here and their close relatives, but now they have the idea it’s for the
whole
extended family!