Searching for Bonobo in Congo

Okapi Dung along Congo’s Lomami River

September 29, 2011 – 2:22 pm

David Stanton’s Adventures and Misadventures in TL2

ARRIVAL IN KINDU

Hi, my name is Dave Stanton and I am a PhD student at Cardiff University, UK and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). My PhD is on an animal called okapi, which is a rainforest giraffe that lives only in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo). I have teamed up with the TL2 project to try and find out more about this little known species in a part of the country called TL2 (the area between the Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba Rivers).

This is the incredible Okapi, big as a small horse, but a giraffe. photo credit: Kim Gjerstad.

Okapis are a species under threat from habitat fragmentation, human encroachment and poaching. They are also highly elusive and nearly impossible to see in the wild. To get around this problem, I am investigating questions about okapi ecology and conservation status using okapi DNA from dung found in the forest, and skins of hunted okapi that we find in villages. Genetic analysis can give us information crucial to conservation such as home-range sizes, movement patterns, and how population fragmentation is affecting the species.

Dung like a pile of gems —

TL2 is a particularly interesting area because TL2 okapi are separated from the rest of the species’s range by the Congo and Lomami Rivers and, therefore, may be genetically unique. (See map below.)
For this expedition I will be heading into the southern half of TL2 on motorbike, bicycle and foot to survey villages about okapi presence. I will then be heading into the northern half of TL2 to carry out a survey in the remote “Tutu Basin” to look for signs of okapi and hopefully to collect some samples.

At the moment I am in a town called Kindu, which is where this expedition will start. My first experience of Kindu is not a favorable one! I arrived with my assistant researcher, Chryso Kaghoma, on a UN flight. We had barely left the safety of the UN compound in Kindu when I was accosted by the head of the local immigration service (DGM). Despite already having my DRCongo visa, I am required to visit the immigration office. The head officer informed me that we have a “grand problème”.

“This is very serious. A legal matter,” he tells me gravely.

Despite only two options on the visa form that I filled out in London (transit and ordinary), in Kindu I need a “working visa” rather than the “ordinary” visa that I have. I am obliged to see what seems like every official in the building, one of whom is in a tiny wooden office, so small that after the assistant spent five minutes officiously squeezing a chair in for me, there was no room for me to get into it except by clamoring over the back! The DGM eventually tells me that he can sort out my “grand problème” if I give him $700. I definitely did not plan to do that!

The next two days are spent trying to find a solution to my problem. I go for a meeting with the DGM and the provincial minister of environment, interrupted every couple minutes by the DGM’s dog–bark, ringtone cellphone. We eventually find a solution, which is to pay $100 to the DGM as a “fine”. Suddenly all my problems evaporate, I get my passport back from the DGM who had been looking after it.

I am eager to leave for the forest.

Next day: I head north and west from Kindu on a motorbike, wedged somewhere between my rather large driver, our extensive baggage and a live chicken. Welcome to my adventures in TL2.

Finally — to the forest…

SANKURU UPDATE

I have just had a pretty tough few days. I went out this week to investigate some rumours of okapi presence, taking off from the base camp of the Harts near a small forest village called Katopa. Just to get to Katopa in the first place was a motorbike ride followed by a very long day’s walk from Kindu.

The okapi population in TL2 is incredibly important to investigate because it is on the west side of the Congo River and disjunct (or geographically distant) from the rest of the range on the east side. Okapi here are in very low numbers compared to elsewhere in their range, despite low hunting pressure, so it is important to find out why, if we want to conserve this species effectively. I am hoping to get some clues using genetics, but first I need samples!

The arrows are approximate okapi distribution with questions around the margins and the mysterious area of absence between the Lomami and the Lualaba.

For our mission we were on a tight timescale and had a lot of ground to cover. The first day we had an exhausting 40 km walk across an unusual savannah-forest habitat. Could this unusual habitat be one of the reasons that okapi are in lower numbers on the west side of the Congo and Lomami

I had started to get blisters on my heels from our walk a couple of days earlier – this was certainly not likely to help me with plenty of walking left to do! We arrived in a village called Etshuna late, put up our tents and passed out. We had a storm during the night and my hammock (great in the forest but not suited to villages) leaked. I had a very uncomfortable, wet night with little sleep. An early rise the next morning – we still had ground to cover.

Drying the socks, to then slip on over the blisters, yet again.

My friend and assistant, Kaghoma, who works for the Zoological Society of London, managed to rent us some bicycles to make the next leg of the trip a little easier – things were looking up! But not for long… We arrived in a village called Yosenge and were required to meet with the chief; a man sporting an all-blue adidas tracksuit, leopard tooth necklace and leopard-skin hat. We were told that we could not go any further without a meeting between this chief and the chiefs of six other villages of the region. This meeting would decide whether we were allowed to proceed or not and would take weeks to arrange – totally unfeasible with our schedule! This was a huge disappointment. Without any alternative, we had to turn around and go back to our camp at Katopa… Gutted!

Source of frustration…a chief with complicated protocol.

We set off the same day and arrived in Katopa the day after. A total of 80 km in three days and everyone (especially me) exhausted. My blisters had got progressively worse and by the time we arrived back at camp, my feet were in shreds and I could barely walk! On top of that, I had managed to get Giardia (not serious, but a very unpleasant intestinal illness…), probably from the water in Etshuna. All-in-all I was feeling a bit low…

Source of pain….

However, all is not lost! We gained some valuable information on locations of okapi from the villagers at Yosenge that we should be able to follow-up at a later date. At some point I am hoping that we will even be able to collect some okapi skins from hunters in the TL2 region. Skins are valuable sources of DNA as it is usually of a higher “quality” than dung DNA. This may allow us to study genes within the Okapi genome that relate to habitat, perhaps help us to understand why Okapi are in some areas but not others. It will also give us a better idea of how different okapi in TL2 are from okapi the rest of their range. The Congo River is an important barrier limiting the range of many species, and it may be that okapi either side of this huge river differ more than we thought.

Thank goodness for Kaghoma’s good spirits,competence and great endurance.

We are currently loading up our dugout (traditional Congolese canoe, hand carved from a single tree trunk) for our descent of the Lomami River. I’m starting to feel a little better, and very excited about the trip ahead and our mission into the Tutu Basin!

TUTU BASIN PILGRIMAGE

I have spent the last couple of weeks in the Tutu Basin in TL2 searching for signs of okapi and trying to find samples for my project on Okapi genetics. I’m pleased to report that I have had more success than my last mission out in Sankuru! This mission started with a three-day, dugout trip up the Lomami River, one of the main tributaries of the Congo River which is also one of the most remote places left in the world! This was a fantastic chance to see one of the world’s last true wildernesses, along with all manner of incredible birds, primates, bats and insects.

We arrived at our destination, a village called Obenge, and took a couple days of rest as we prepared for our trip into the forest – we would be miles away from anywhere so would have to bring everything we needed with us. The following are some extracts from my diary of our trip:

Rest stop. David’s knees are in the far back, next to John, on left side of photo.

Day 1. Today we set out on our expedition to try to verify and locate Okapi presence in the Tutu Basin. John and I have planned a basic route on Google Earth that takes us past some edos, openings in the forest where tracks are easier to see. The TL2 project has a small research camp, Losekola (link), from which we launched and that is only about a three-hour walk from Obenge. We left about midday. The moment we started walking there was a big clap of thunder and it started pouring rain. It rained all afternoon and night. The camp is nice, though, and we spent a comfortable night.

Day 2. “Didn’t leave camp until 9am because we were waiting for the rain to ease off. We stayed out until 6 pm though, making a long, tiring day. We found okapi tracks and dung at the second edo we visited, so really good!”

This was more like it — dung for the taking.

Day 4. “Another couple of really long days of walking. We visited a few more edos, but nothing there except a few buffalos, some pigs and stuff… We’ve seen characteristic signs of okapi feeding but only infrequently. My feet are really starting to hurt, and starting to get a bit of a pain in my tendon behind the left knee.”

Okapi were eating here….

Day 6. “Couple more very tough days of walking. My leg is very painful, I think I have a bit of tendonitis. Limped into Losekola camp at about 5pm. Very relieved and enjoyed my night at the camp.”

Once back in Obenge I have a look through what we managed to get from our mission; five dung samples and some information on okapi presence throughout the Tutu Basin from a week of hard walking. May not seem like a good pay-off, but this was actually more than I expected! It just goes to show how infrequent Okapi must be in this area.

With a few more samples I will be able to start using genetics to investigate questions important to okapi conservation. The first step is to get a unique genetic fingerprint, or “genotype” for each okapi individual. One of the things we can then investigate is how related the individuals are to each other, and see what features, such as rivers, villages and habitat-type affect this relatedness.

Look closely — there’s an okapi in this picture and quite close. No wonder they are rarely seen. This photo from the Harts’ radio collar study in the Ituri Forest – late 1980s.

The genetic information can then be used to advise the new protected areas as to how best to protect their Okapi population – all this from a few piles of dung!! Our trip also brings home how big the task is ahead of me – I am trying to genetically characterize this species throughout its range and this expedition covered only a very small part of that area! I’m determined to make it work – wish me luck!

Dave.

Addendum: After Dave left the TL2 study area, two of our TL2 researchers, Mpaka and Louison, went north to Rubi Tele to try to collect okapi dung samples from that protected area. They got samples from three dung piles and one dried skin. Their is a new energetic effort to protect Rubi Tele Reserve but the challenge is great: hunters consider it their forest. Okapi and all other mammals are seriously threatened.

By Terese Hart | Posted in About the project, Okapi | Comments (9)

Ancestors along the Lomami of Central Congo Embrace the Future Park

September 8, 2011 – 11:05 pm

The ancestors observed as the drums and song filled the forest around them.

The chiefs in the northern province of Orientale, like those in the south, insist that the ancestors be consulted before a Park is created on their lands. A “tambiko” must bring together all the traditional authorities. The Mbole ethnic group held the first tambiko in August. The village they indicated was the most remote possible, a tiny outlier that had become a hide out for elephant poachers and bushmeat buyers.

Probably the best place for the ceremony. The chiefs would be amongst the people that needed most to understand what a park meant. But getting everyone there would be a project.

Our TL2 project has had a base in Obenge since 2007. This is our compound and if you look carefully you can see our dog.

We started in Kisangani on August 11^th. We were 22 people on 11 motorbikes, included two people from the governor’s cabinet, a representative of the department of the environment, the provincial head-warden for parks, the army, a chief from another territory to be a witness, and someone from the department of land tenure. It was two days to get to Opala.

We stopped for minor repairs in the mission village of Yaleko.

We crossed three major rivers the first day and slept on the banks of Lomami to arrive at the capital of the territory – Opala, a town with no telephone coverage sitting in a huge bend of the Lomami River. It takes a full hour in an empty dugout with a 25 horse power motor to go from one end of Opala, around on the Lomami, to the other end. It can be walked in less than 20 minutes.

A welcome evening to relax in Opala after two days on motorbike. The Parks head-warden for Orientale Province, Paulin, is in TL2 shirt, and joking with two members of the governor’s cabinet.

After a day organizing food and passengers we took off on the 14^th with 54 people in two dugouts lashed together. Along with the motorbike caravan from Kisangani, there were the Mbole chiefs from the clans of the whole region, along with elders, and the top administration of Opala. The dugout trip was two days, upstream with three motors pushing us. All we had to eat was cold fried pig meat and shikwong (a sort of hard manioc paste). I will be perfectly pleased if I am spared another such meal for a good few months. We had a ten-person singing group in the back of the dugouts. At one pitstop (three per day) they lined up dancing and singing along the bank’s ridge — they pulled us up one by one to go disappear for a few minutes in the trees.

Taking off in the early morning from Opala. The territorial administrator in front with white kofia (cap).

We camped just north of the future park arriving in the outlier village of Obenge on the 15^th early afternoon.

John was already at our TL2 compound in Obenge having come up from the south in another dugout and having brought two chiefs from the Province of Maniema as witnesses.

Early the morning of the 16th men of the Balolo clan “invaded” our compound : the ceremony would soon begin.

The tambiko started on the 16^th. What we saw was amazing, what happened was unexpected….

A goat was slaughtered. The woman chief of Obenge announced that the ceremony was beginning holding high her bloodied hand.

Drums. Song. Soon everyone was up dancing, including us….

….including women in a whirl of color…

…including the ancestors.

– But only John can tell about the final denouement. Here are his words:

16 August 2011

“The events leading up to my “investiture” at the tambiko:

The women, including MamaTerese, and the woman-chief of the Balolo were asked to leave. I continued to sit with the men in a large circle as Jean-Marie Ngandi, chief of the Balinga Lindja selected one by one individuals to move into a smaller circle around palm branches set up as a symbolic gateway to the forest. Banana leaves had been laid out around the palm gateway. As the clan elders were selected, each stood up, left the big circle and, taking their chairs, moved near one of the banana leaves by the palm gateway. Finally Jean Marie asked the visiting chiefs from Maniema to join and he moved to the palm gateway himself.

Chief Jean-Marie Ngandi of the Balinga Lindja.

At this point just the visitors and witnesses remained in the original circle: the officials from the territorial and provincial administration, David (a student) and myself.

Jean Marie then stood and approached me and asked that I join him with the clan members at the palm gateway. Okangola, an Mbole university student, accompanied me as my guide (and interpreter). We joined the smaller circle. My chair, and that of Okangola were set up beside the palm gateway.

The chiefs and elders encircle John at the gateway to the forest.

After we were settled, Jean Marie Ngandi gave a short speech in which he made it clear the establishment of a park in the Mbole forest was not selling the forest. Following that he called on each clan representatives to come forward using his leopard-skin covered scepter to direct them to stand next to me at the palm gate. Each clan leader took strips of banana leaf dipped them in a basin of water in which we had washed our hands first. Each person then invoked the ancestors standing in front of me and at the end hitting me on the head with the dripping leaves. Finally, each ended by “kutema mate”, or spitting on the leaves as they tossed them under the palm gate.

A chief haranguing John before slapping him on the head with the leaves.

We all then ate a symbolic meal of meat from the goat slaughtered at the beginning of the ceremony and lituma (pounded bananas). The remains of the meal were carefully cleared up. Okangola explained to me that they were placed as an offering to the ancestors.

After that, we all stood up and without further ceremony or even a final word of closing, left the site.”

I was later told, with some awe by an old man, that John had become Wilangi — a keeper of customs able to deal with the invisible world, intercede with ancestors. What does this mean? We don’t know — not yet — but I still hear the drums, and the song.

Crocodiles in Central Congo – View from Lomami

July 29, 2011 – 9:13 pm

We had a croc-handling visitor accompany us to the Lomami River. He had already collected samples from a couple sites in Congo, including the Okapi Reserve in the Ituri.

Matt at our old okapi camp in the Ituri Forest

Below is his report from TL2 , with our photo documentary along the way:

My name is Matt Shirley and I am a PhD candidate in the Dept. of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation at the University of Florida. Since 2005 I have been studying the ecology and evolution of African crocodiles in order to establish a basis for their conservation. My work has taken me on surveys throughout West and Central Africa (including Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Gabon, Uganda, and Egypt) to establish, in most cases, the very first information on crocodile population status and distribution in the region. In some places, like Senegal and The Gambia, my efforts have resulted in the rediscovery of crocodiles that were previously believed to be locally extinct. While in others, like Gabon, I have been able to document the global stronghold for the little known slender-snouted crocodile which is, unfortunately, all but extinct now through West Africa. These efforts led me to be invited as a member of the IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group in 2009.

Slender snouted crocodile on the Lomami River

Throughout my surveys I capture a selection of individuals to take small blood samples for genetic analysis. So far, extensive efforts have been made to assess the systematic status of both the dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) and the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). A study published by Eaton et al. (2009) diagnosed the presence of significant cryptic diversity within the dwarf crocodile, distinguishing three distinct species – O. osbornii (Congo Basin), O. tetraspis (Ogoouè Basin), and O. sp. nov. cf. tetraspis (West Africa). Since then, with the rediscovery of the Senegambian populations, I have diagnosed a critical Evolutionary Significant Unit within the new West African species. For the Nile crocodile, my recent paper (Hekkala and Shirley et al. 2011) has revealed that what we currently call the Nile crocodile is, in fact, also a cryptic species complex that is paraphyletic with respect to the New World crocodiles with deep divergence (ca. 10 million years ago). The newly recognized species – Crocodylus suchus – is primarily distributed throughout West and Central Africa with a few remnant populations in the Nile Valley of Uganda and Sudan.

Matt checking out other wildlife on his march to the Lomami

This brings me to my work in DR Congo:

First, DR Congo is one of a very few countries in Africa that has never had a formal crocodile survey. Because of this, we have very little idea what species are distributed where, what is their population status, and how severe are the major threats.
Second, DR Congo is one of the only countries identified so far that might have sympatric populations of Crocodylus niloticus and C. suchus.
Finally, the systematic studies described above for the dwarf and Nile crocodile species complexes have yet to be carried out for the slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus).

Matt with slender-snouted croc on the Lomami

The slender-snouted crocodile shares, to a certain extent, the distribution of the others and is therefore subject to many of the same biogeographic processes. Unfortunately, the only region thus far with no samples available for this species is the geologic Congo Basin east to its easternmost populations in Lake Tanganyika. So, to these ends I made a trip to DR Congo in order to establish the very first, albeit very preliminary, data on population distribution and status and collect samples of the three crocodile species to further refine our understanding of the systematics and biogeography within these cryptic species complexes.

Late morning in Katopa camp, an advantage of mainly night work

One of the target sites within DR Congo was the Lomami River and the newly proposed protected area in the TL2 landscape. I felt this area was critical because it is a very remote area with little human activity, and therefore had the potential to harbor significant populations of crocodiles. And, after exchanges with John and Terese, it became clear that at least one species – the Congo dwarf crocodile – was a constant presence in the local bushmeat trade and further evaluation of the sustainability of this resource is warranted.

The dwarf crocodile is a frequent victim of the bushmeat trade for Kindu

We decided on an itinerary – first looking at the proposed National Monument site Imame followed by the Lomami River itself.

After a brief delay in Kindu due to some administrative snafu’s, I met my Congolese counterpart – Kinois Kitoko – and departed with the team to Chombe Kilima, our base to explore Imame.

Imame and the Lomami River were Matt’s collecting/observing points, but he asked questions all along the way from Kindu to Katopa camp.

Imame is a site along the Nyamatende River identified by the local residents as important for crocodiles. Effectively, this is a site where the river leaves the forest and enters into an edo (bai)-like clearing and forms a pool surrounded by large floating grass mats that extend back to the forest edge. After winding through this unique, open habitat for less than 0.5 km the river again reenters the forest on its way past Chombe Kilima, to the Loidjo River and eventually the Lomami River. Local fishermen used to fish this site regularly and often encountered many nkondenkonde (the slender-snouted crocodile). We visited this site on two occasions, once during the day for a preliminary scouting mission and once at night to better census the population and understand the demographic classes that use the site. During the day we encountered ±13 individuals, all of which were larger than 1.5 m total length and many of which were larger than 2.5 m! The night survey painted much the same picture though closer to 20 individuals were detected. In addition to the same group of large adults, at least four small animals of ± 1.0 m were observed, though no hatchling/yearlings were encountered.

Scanning the Imame before dusk

From these observations, additionally considering data collected from surveying the Nyamatende River on two separate occasions, it appears that Imame is a critical site for the adult population of slender-snouted crocodiles outside the breeding season. This area is relatively difficult to access from the nearest village, provides a constant source of deep water and prey during the dry season, and due to its openness provides ample opportunity for basking and thermoregulation. Further work needs to be done to verify this, but nesting likely takes place inside the forested areas of the river within a couple kilometers of Imame. After hatching, the adults return to Imame while the young exploit the forested river as a nursery. The latter was confirmed through observations of young slender-snouted crocodiles distributed throughout the Nyamatende River.

Hatch site

After visiting Imame we embarked on a long, two-day walk to the Katopa camp on the Lomami River. This was to be our base for the next 4 nights of surveying and sampling. The night of arrival we did a quick survey 15 km downstream largely to orient the new team members (notably Balanga, our pinacier or dugout captain) to the survey and capture methods. Our survey craft was an enormous, 15 m dugout pirogue with a 15 hp outboard motor. Needless to say, maneuverability and response time potentially presented significant challenges to approaching and capturing crocodiles. On the downstream trip we focused largely on learning communication signals between the surveyor and the pinacier, spotlighting crocodiles and identifying the species and size classes present. We additionally stopped at two fishing camps along the way to ask about lokokele (dwarf crocodile) hunting.

Writing out a specimen label in the prow of the dugout

Interestingly, the fishermen along the Lomami claimed that lokokele hunting was largely done during the rainy season when water levels were high and the forested margins of the river were flooded. They claim that during the dry season the lokokele retreat to their burrows and rarely come out. This is in contrast to villagers who live in the Kasuku basin at Kakungu village who explained that they primarily hunt lokokele during the dry season. This area has many streams and significant flooded forest that is, presumably, largely inaccessible during high water.

In both places the hunters are largely placing baited hooks at the entrances to burrows and waiting for the crocodiles to be caught. This hunting style is practiced throughout Central Africa, but in many other places the hunters actually go out at night to actively hunt the crocodiles outside of their burrows. The latter method can be much more damaging to a population if unregulated due to higher levels of detection. The lokokele fishery in this region, while probably not as destructive as the hunting of other exploited species, is an important source of income and protein for local communities. Its dynamics should be further explored and, if appropriate, can be encouraged as a sustainable resource for people living around the new protected area.

Even the little ones have their jaws taped closed during sampling

Going back to the first night of surveys on the Lomami River, on the return trip to camp we continued the training and focused largely on trying to capture animals for sampling. We were successful with two small slender-snouted crocodiles, the first samples taken thus far! This was a good experience for everyone, to handle a live crocodile for the first time, observe the measurements taken and the blood sampling protocol.

Sex is just another data point

Halfway back I gave the spotlight to Kinois so that he could begin some preliminary training in spotlighting for crocodiles. Kinois quickly got the hang of the method and was detecting individuals easily. During crocodile surveys, the two most critical pieces of data to collect on detected individuals are the species identification and their size class. The former is usually not a challenge, at least not in Central Africa where the three crocodile species are relatively easily distinguished, but the latter is a skill that takes a lot of time and experience to hone. Kinois displayed solid competence in species identification, as well as solid potential to develop the sizing skills!

Kinois getting the hang of it

Additionally on the return trip, we were successful in finding a slender-snouted crocodile nest site. The nest was placed on an elevated section of shoreline between the river and a flooded forest pool. It is likely that the female occupied the flooded pool while guarding the nest and that she brought the young into the pool after they hatched until it dried back into the main river. This was a good opportunity for the team to not only see a nest site, but to begin to fully comprehend just how challenging it would be to monitor the slender-snouted crocodile population through indices of nest effort and success. This species, as well as the dwarf crocodile, does an amazing job at hiding their nest sites and for this reason, coupled with low nesting density, nest surveys would not be an effective means of population monitoring.

The next morning plans were made to go down river approximately 50 km and work our way back, surveying and catching animals over a two night period. Over the course of these next two work nights we successfully collected additional slender-snouted crocodile samples, as well as the only two dwarf crocodile samples from this area. The survey data are not yet analyzed, but a couple of interesting characteristics stand out.

the encounter rate was relatively low – on par with 1.0 – 1.5 crocodiles/km. I guess I should clarify that this is “superficially low”, simply because the site is so remote, uninhabited and seemingly unexploited. However, many aspects, most notably ecosystem productivity, have yet to be thoroughly explored and it could just be that the population density is naturally low for reasons such as this.
an interesting low abundance of adult and sub-adults individuals. Over the course of +/- 50 km only three animals in the adult size class (> 2.0 m) were detected, all other encounters were juveniles with the exception of the hatchlings from the one nest from this year. This is a bit concerning as it suggests recruitment is low.

Further work needs to be done and more long-term data must be collected to determine exactly what is going on here. Additionally, comparative data with sites further downstream would be informative.

Back you go – and thanks for the info

In all this was a very successful preliminary examination of the crocodile population in and around the TL2 landscape. We demonstrated that Imame is an important site worth further protection and, in fact, the local Chombe Kilima community has already agreed to support this effort by preventing further fishing at the site. We have collected some preliminary information regarding the dwarf crocodile fishery, which will prove important in devising a plan and protocol for further study. And the samples collected from both crocodile species will be the first ever analyzed from within the arc of the Congo River. These will certainly prove informative about the evolutionary history of crocodiles in this region.

By Terese Hart | Posted in About the project, Natural History of TL2, The Forest | Comments (7)

Anarchy and the Absurd in Central Congo – 4

July 3, 2011 – 7:00 pm

Bofenda’s Field Diary from Along the Lomami

Jack arrested by the population of Yawende.

Major Guy and Maurice started their trip to the Lomami because of a death threat; a cross was traced in the dirt at the entrance to our field camp at Obenge.

Along with Obenge, we have a second base just north of the future Lomami National Park, at the small village of Yawende (see map below). It was only later we learned that the same outlaw- evangelists who tried to frighten Ephem at Obenge had also threatened Bofenda and Gilbert who are stationed at Yawende.

After arriving in Opala, Major Guy recruited a small group of military from the local contingent. They discussed the mission and split paths: four military headed west, overland towards Yawende, while Major Guy, Maurice and a local government authority took our dugout south, up the Lomami to Obenge.

Below is Bofenda’s account from Yawende (see map), starting more than a month before the arrival of Major Guy’s expedition. This is a translation from his field journal:

23 February 2011: Mister Jack, disciple of Moses, the ‘god of Opala’ , arrived in Yawende. Jack is saying many bad things about our project. Don’t know why.

1 March 2011: Am back from an elephant survey. Gilbert and I are building our camp. Another disciple of Prophet Moses, Djefula, has joined Mister Jack. They tried to excite the population against us – no success. They say Yawende is the second center of Moses’s cult religion – after Yakoko.

The women of Yawende helped put mud on the walls of our house.

3 March 2011: A man coming from the forest tells us that Jack left for other villages to excite people against us.

13 March 2011: Gilbert and I have returned from an inventory mission in the future park. The chief here in Yawende says Jack is in the village of Masisi. We met with several village chiefs to figure out how we can control other disciples of Moses. They are also stealing from the population.

28 March 2011: Jack is back here in Yawende. He came with an automatic rifle and a 12 caliber shotgun. He sang all night saying that behind him were 700 Maimai men.

Jack, the disciple, in his better days — before being arrested.

29 March 2011: Jack is making announcements in front of Prophet Moses’s church saying that our TL2 project must leave Yawende by April 2nd otherwise he will slaughter all members of TL2.

At 15h15 four military arrive from Opala looking for the « outlaws » who threatened TL2 in Obenge. They arrested 2 members of Moses’s church, one with a 12 caliber shotgun. The AK47 rifle is somewhere hidden in the forest and Jack escaped.

30 March 2011: The military entered the forest to look for the war-rifle and the escaped outlaws.

31 March 2011: The military found the outlaws in the village of Ndulu (see map below). Pitchou, one of the outlaws, fired as soon as he was told to put down the rifle. A military returned fire immediately. They arrested Mr Black Horse. Pitchou died of bullet wounds.

The military with the chief in Yawende before continuing on to Ndulu.

2 April 2011: The military march back through Yawende and continue directly to Opala with their prisoners.

Later, in the afternoon, Jack comes back into Yawende. The population arrests him.

Jack on trial — village court.

A day later, Bofenda’s final journal entry announces that the community of Masasi also arrested a man:

3 April 2011: The people of Masasi arrest Dido Esende, one of the escaped outlaws who raped another man’s wife.

A map of all the major points in the mission of Major Guy, Maurice and the military recruited in Opala.

When arrested and frisked, letters were found on the prisoners. A letter written by the Prophet Moses to Colonel Thoms – “we must unite”. Letters written by Colonel Thoms to the chief and elders of Obenge – “The forest is ours, its animals are ours, beware anyone who opposes us.” (Thoms was and is the most dangerous of elephant poachers). Letters from the Prophet to Jack and Black Horse – “Unite the people, we will be one holy force”.

This letter was from Jack and addressed to Colonel Thoms. He calls himself the President of Lumumba’s “maquisards”.

The prisoners and the evidence were all taken to the military court in Kisangani. A week later Major Guy and Maurice returned to Yakoko to ask the Prophet Moses what his part was in threats, rape and thievery committed by the outlaw band of Maimai.

The prophet admitted that they were part of his “flock” but he denied that the letters were his. “Many kinds of people follow me.” He could not take responsibility for their actions, but nor would he write a letter denouncing what had been said and done in his name.

What lessons are there in this??

Two of the outlaws were arrested by the local population. Does that suggest that the only real security in DRCongo is do-it-yourself security? If so, it is not only in DRCongo, but much of central Africa .

What does it mean for a central government when the main security at the village level is do-it-yourself?

In fact just a week ago we got a thuraya message from our Obenge base that the chief of the village had just arrested an elephant poacher. Does that mean that conservation is also do-it-yourself?

Below is a scenario of do-it-yourself healthcare from Yawende:

Here is do-it-yourself healthcare in combination with do-it-yourself security/conservation:

The local traditional healer calls on the forest to cure a sick man and bring wellness to the community of Yawende. All symbols — including Christian symbols — are legitimate. May the forest long have the ability to cure.

By Terese Hart | Posted in Law and Order | Comments (2)