Searching for Bonobo in Congo

The efficient, economical answer to supply problems,  “MATROPOPO”,  showed up on John’s budget request for the northern park.  Whatever it was, it cost thousands of dollars.  How are we to explain Matropopo to the finance department in Frankfurt, Germany?

John was in the forest camp of Katopa about to start the descent of the Lomami River.  I asked him by satellite SMS: “What is Matropopo?  How do I explain it? Is it French? Is it Lingala?  Is it Swahili?”

He answered in the 160 characters – spaces included – allotted an InReach message:

 “About matropopo: Logistics breakthrough. Not Swahili, not Lingala. Onomatopoeia. It refers to sound of big diesel motor:  po-po-po. Ignition makes: Maattrrrooo.”

OK ,I get it. A sort of 3^rd grade lingua-franca:   Matrrrrooo— Matrrrroooo – po-po-po-po-po. So, what do I tell Frankfurt?

In order to be able to translate for the financial department I did my own “Internal Audit” when I met John in Kisangani: “The real breakthrough,” John said, “is not the matropopo – but its owner.”

He is very proud of his discovery of Madame Lucie Mosopa.  She oversees the loading of her Matropopo, a combination of three outsize dugouts lashed together, and accompanies it from the port of Kisangani on the Congo River to the Port of Opala on the Lomami River and from the port of Opala to our port at Bangaliwa, the most northern of the Lomami National Park base camps.  It takes her 6 days.

She maximizes travel speed by omitting all unnecessary stops e.g. the Outhouse is off the stern.

On the trip, she only pulls into shore to pass the nights.   It takes four days to get from Kisangani to Opala and two, upstream, from Opala to Bangaliwa.

When we asked her how much fuel was needed, she did not hesitate or consult a log book;  she knew.  “We used 7 barrels one way from Kis to Bangaliwa.” That is the equivalent of 1400 liters or $1,750.00 by current Kisangani prices.

What is her crew ?  Five:  one captain, one mechanic and three sailors.  I assumed they were somehow family as that is the way it is usually done in Congo. But no. These were the most reliable people that she could find in the ports.  And she is always with the same crew.

And how did she start in the matropopo business?

She started like all the hundreds of “mama commerçantes”:  using a commercial riverboat she bought goods in Kisangani, where they are cheap, to take them where she could sell them at enough of a markup to make a profit:  Isangi, Opala, Basoko, Lokutu. Then brought back agricultural goods to sell in Kisangani.   But she realized that she lost money waiting for the riverboat in which she rented space.  It would take, two, three, or more days for it to accumulate enough of a load to be profitable for the owner to pull anchor. 

 She set about little by little to save enough to buy a diesel motor and her own large dugout.  Now she has three dugouts that she lashes together to make the Matropopo.

Madame Lucie has a husband working in agricultural outreach and two children: 11 and 7 years old.

My conclusion: it takes a strong woman to own and operate a matropopo.

The bonobo was killed first.

It was 2018, on November 18^th.  A patrol team, led by Elias Omana, was on surveillance in a forested part of the Lomami National Park near a point we call KK/4.   There was a scuffle of leaves.  Poachers were near.  The surveillance team ran, but the poachers were gone…they had dropped their loads.  One contained smoked bonobo.  One of the three poachers was seen enough to recognize him as someone from ChombeKilima.  But Elias did not know his name. 

The bonobo was brought back to Katopa camp where it was burned.  We usually burn confiscated bushmeat right there in the forest to avoid accusations of reselling it for profit.  But the bonobo came back to camp.  A bonobo is different.  The hunter broke two laws: (1) hunting in the park and (2) killing a totally protected species.  Besides, the Katopa teams have all been involved in bonobo studies.  These hacked and singed arms and legs might have belonged to an individual they observed and one whose nest they counted again and again.

It was important to know who killed the bonobo and to hold him accountable.  Not easy with little evidence.

Informers from Chombe Kilima asked what hunters returned to the village soon after November 18^th.   The probable hunter was Tonda Djeha, a hunter from Chombe Kilima, whose porters had come out of the forest on the 19^th.  Tonda was caught hunting in the Park more than once before.

Of the two porters, one was Tonda’s son.  He would not be a good source of information.  The other, Junior, lived on the road around the south of the park.

Junior, is young, newly married, but living with the in-laws.  He wants a better house of his own, which is why he was working for Tonda.  Junior knew that Bonobos were especially protected and did not tell our workers anything, but eventually an informer got a recording on his phone of Junior saying that Tonda had killed a bonobo in the Park when he was the porter.  This was enough proof to arrest Tonda.

But where was Tonda? A plainclothes policeman went to Chombe Kilima to make the arrest, but Tonda had fled the village through the forest.  He now moves between several villages. For two years he has avoided arrest.

Chombe Kilima is a village of hunters.  They know hunting in the Park is forbidden and they know that bonobos are protected.  Early on we burned a hunter’s bonobo bushmeat in the center of the village.  Bonobo protection is one of TL2’s main village messages,  BUT no neighbor would turn Tonda in for hunting Bonobo in the park…it still is considered a minor misdemeanor, though dangerous because of TL2 and the Park guards.  

But killing a person is different.  Now Tonda is in jail.

Nearly two years later, December 2020, Tonda was again hunting in the park.  This time with one other shotgun hunter and six porters, one of whom Osenga Alongo was his son in law.  He and Alongo took off to hunt at night by headlamp.  The others stayed in camp. 

In the early morning Tonda came back alone with a small duiker in his basket.  He told the porters to quickly prepare food so that they could return to Chombe Kilima.  They asked where Alongo was.  Tonda said  “Park guards ambushed us.  We ran in different directions but Alongo knows the forest, we will find him back in Chombe Kilima.”  Even then there seemed something wrong because, if ambushed, you drop all baskets and backpacks. You just run to save yourself. But Tonda insisted.

It was several days later that the other shotgun hunter came to report his concern to the FZS team at ChombeKilima.  Tonda had come back to the village and taken off immediately for the town of Kindu.  Alongo never showed up, not in Chombe Kilima and not in his own village of Kakungu.    The local chief went to Kakungu to see what he could find out.  Tonda had stopped at his in-laws on his way to Kindu. He told them – Alongo is in Chombe Kilima, he will be coming soon by bicycle.  Tonda continued by motorcycle to Kindu.  

These villagers are hunters.  Hunting at night with head lamps is dangerous.  Everything pointed to an accidental killing of Alongo by his father-in-law, Tonda.  Alongo’s family was furious.

When he was arrested in Kindu, Tonda had already bought a boat ticket to Ubundu.  Now he is in jail.  

We helped gather the information, and we will help prosecute, but it was villagers themselves that put Tonda in jail.

Whatever happens next will likely be long and slow.  The dead bonobo will be a bit player, or perhaps be totally sidelined as irrelevant evidence.  Family loyalties and kin outrage will continue to fester and explode.