Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
to go deep into the forest, much less materials for proper tracking. They didn't even have money for
pens and paper.
During their years in the region, the CREF scientific staff had seen bonobos in the forests
near Lac Tumba. In hopes of getting his researchers working properly again and doing a scientific
bonobo survey to the west of Lac Tumba, Mwanza put together a proposal for a $2,500 grant, an in-
significant amount by the standards of conservation NGO expenditures. But everyone he met turned
down his requests, one person even admitting that she'd been told to do so by Furuichi, who, since
Kano's retirement, had been Mwanza's primary partner.
“Furuichi told her,” Mwanza recalled, “that he would give me the money himself. He wanted to
keep the monopoly on CREF's researchers. He said that he would give me eighty dollars and a few
rain ponchos, so that I could go into the forest. I said no. I want a program. I have to send research-
ers. The area is vast.”
Instead, Mwanza gave Sally the proposal. She had told Furuichi that she wanted to find addi-
tional funding for Wamba, since there was very little money for the community's needs, only for
trackers and the expedition. But as she explained to me, Furuichi had replied that he didn't want
her to raise more money, and though she didn't understand his reasoning, she respected that he was
a scientist with an established site and might not want to spread himself thin. She also realized
that working with Albert and Mwanza fit better with BCI's philosophy, to support local leaders and
communities, and to use local knowledge to protect large areas for the future Bonobo Peace Forest.
Though I contacted Furuichi by email to get his take on what happened at that time, he declined
the interview. According to Mwanza and Sally, however, when Furuichi found out that they would
be working together, he told Sally not to and said the same to Mwanza.
“I got angry,” Mwanza explained to me. “I told Furuichi, 'I run a government organization, and
I am free to collaborate with whomever wants to work with us. If I can work with Sally in Lac
Tumba and with you in Wamba, I don't see a problem.' But Furuichi wanted to be CREF's only
partner for the bonobos. He kept suggesting that I stop working with Sally, but I told him no, that I
saw nothing wrong with Sally that I should stop working with her.”
When Sally returned to DC, she set about trying to find funding for Mwanza and Albert.
On a day at the end of August 2001, she received a phone call from a man in New York City.
He told her that his name was Arnold Bob and that he was a traveling street performer. Each year,
when he went through San Diego, he stopped at the zoo and did puppet shows for the bonobos, who
watched eagerly. He told Sally that he'd been involved in a legal case and received a windfall com-
pensation of $2,500. He said he wasn't a man of means, but he wanted to do the best thing possible
for bonobos, so he'd contacted BCI. She told him that she had a proposal for exactly $2,500.
Around the same time, when President Joseph Kabila announced his intention to visit Wash-
ington, the DRC ambassador, Dr. Faida Mitifu, contacted Sally to help plan his reception, then
scheduled for mid-September. On September 11, BCI's executive director at that time, Angus Gem-
mell, who went on to found BCI Australia, came running into Sally's office, shouting, “The fucking
Pentagon, man! The fucking Pentagon!”
From her office window, they could see the smoke rising from where the hijacked airliner had
struck the Pentagon.
Later that afternoon, the phone rang. It was Arnold Bob again. He was in New York City. He
wanted to send the money that very day and was determined to find a means.
“I need to do something good for the world today,” he said, “however small.”
