| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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have been doing this work themselves, but they did not have the academic background or financial backing for this. It took many years for Westerners to appreciate that Africans should be fully involved in all research and should shape many of the questions that a team planned to pursue. Some Japanese were more sensitive, and one team, led by Takayoshi Kano (1992), insisted that no primatologist could come to work in their bonobo (pygmy chimpanzees, Pan paniscus) research station in Wamba, Zaire, until he or she had learned the native language of the area, Lingala. That way, the scientists could readily hire and train local people to help with the research and discuss their findings with the neighboring populace. Bonobos would become not bush meat to be slaughtered, but interesting animals to observe and enjoy.
There was a huge breakthrough for Africans when kidnappers raided Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee station at Gombe in 1975 and took four white students hostage. Before that time, university students newly arrived from America would head field research projects and long-term employed Africans would be assigned to help them. From then on, because it was dangerous for white people to stay at Gombe, “the Tanzanian field staff moved front and center” (Peterson, 2006, p. 562). Africans who had been merely field helpers took over responsibility for the research, which they did with distinction. The compilation of field notes continued as efficiently as before: There were “A” records for observations at the feeding area and “B” records from the following of individual chimpanzees in the forests.
Since then, Africans in all parts of the continent have taken important roles in research along with white scientists. Wildlife researchers from Latin America and Asia (with the exception of Japan) have been little involved, though. It is wonderful to note that animals themselves are now often given African names, such as Makale and Mutesi for two elephant friends, because they are African too.