by Gill Lewis
But I can’t let go. I cling to Kitwana. Enzi thumps me in the chest. It’s a blow so powerful it takes my breath away and for a moment I lose hold of Kitwana and fall back onto the ground. As I lie there I see Enzi dragging Kitwana away by his foot, his small body bumping on the ground after him.
I scramble to my feet, sucking air into my chest. I try to follow, but Bobo holds me back.
“He’ll kill him,” I say.
“There’s nothing we can do. If you try to get Kitwana, Enzi might kill you, too.”
I hold on to a vine and watch. I can’t breathe.
Enzi lifts Kitwana by the leg, dangling him in the air while he snuffs and pokes him with his long finger. Kitwana is limp. He just hangs from Enzi’s hand, his eyes open, watching.
The rest of the group has crowded around, intent on exploring the new gorilla. Enzi drops Kitwana to the ground where he lies unmoving. He’s so still, I wonder if his neck is broken.
Then I see Kitwana’s mother push her way forward. She stops in front of Enzi, her huge body tensed. She just stares at Kitwana, her nose sniffing the air trying to get the scent of him. Deep furrows line her forehead. She moves closer and sits beside Kitwana, putting herself between him and Enzi. She reaches down and pulls her baby up into her arms, wrapping them around him, protecting him. She pushes her face into his fur, smelling him, holding him. I see his small arm uncurl and reach up to his mother and they just stare deep, deep, deep into each other’s eyes, their faces almost touching.
The other gorillas crowd around, but Hisani has her son back again and holds him close. I try to get a better view, but Enzi stands between his family and the rangers. This is his family and he won’t let us near again. He urges them to move away from us, pushing them up into the forest.
I catch one last glimpse of Kitwana, clutching his mother, looking out on the world. He looks right at me, right into my eyes. It’s so fleeting. A brief moment snatched in this predawn light, yet it holds me. I feel it long after Kitwana and his mother have slipped away into the shadows between the trees.
Kitwana is with his family where he belongs.
And I feel no sorrow, and no sadness, only joy.
Pure joy.
* * *
I turn to look at Bobo, but for the first time, I see his face is wet with tears.
“What is it, Bobo?”
Bobo doesn’t answer at first. He wipes the tears on his sleeve and shakes his head.
“Bobo? Aren’t you happy? Kitwana is with his family. He is free.”
He stares into the forest. “But for how long, Imara? How long can they survive? We know what it’s like. We have seen it. The Black Mamba and the White Lioness will not be the last ones here. The world won’t stop until it has destroyed everything and taken what’s beneath our soil.”
Kambale puts his hand on Bobo’s shoulder. “And that is why we are here,” he says, “to stop it from happening.”
“But who will listen?” Bobo kicks the ground. “My father died for the animals and people here. But it made no difference. No one cares.”
Kambale holds Bobo by the shoulders. “Your father was a brave man. He gave his life, because he never gave up hope.”
Bobo stares down at his father’s beret, turning it over and over in his hands, watching his tears make dark spots on the green fabric. “You’re right,” he says softly. He wipes his sleeve across his face and stands up tall. He pulls the beret onto his head and nods. “You’re right. My father never gave up hope. His last words were ones of courage. They give me strength to go on.”
I take Bobo’s hand. “Then tell me,” I say, “so I can find his courage too.”
Bobo turns his face to the golden rim of sun brimming above the horizon. He takes a deep breath. “Imara, what do you see?”
I squint into the light. “I see the sun rising above the mountain.”
Bobo repeats the words of his father, the words that have now become his own.
“Close your eyes and feel the whole world turn beneath your feet. As it turns, we turn with it. You and me . . . we are all part of it. Everything we are, everything we do connects us with it.
“Breathe this air.
“Drink this rain.
“The earth pulses with the life it gives us.
“But if we lose our love of it, then we lose everything. But most of all, we lose ourselves. We lose our souls.
“So, what gives me the right to sit back and do nothing to protect it? With every dawn, I ask myself: Who am I? What is my part in this? How am I going to use this day, to make the next one a better world?”
gorilla
Kitwana clings to his mother, remembering the sway of her body, feeling her strong arm around him. The forest wraps itself around them both, drawing them in, protecting them beneath its canopy. Kitwana rides on his mother’s back, as Enzi leads them farther up the mountain.
When Enzi stops to feed, the other gorillas crowd around Kitwana. Wary of him at first, they sniff their noses into the air, taking in the scent of Tall Apes on him. Kitwana’s mother won’t let them close yet. She barks when they try to touch him.
Enzi watches them all and sits next to Kitwana’s mother for her to groom him. She doesn’t look Enzi in the eye, but keeps an arm around her son. She begins to groom Enzi with her fingers, releasing her grip on Kitwana as she picks through Enzi’s fur. Kitwana joins her, raking his small fingers across Enzi’s skin.
The other gorillas settle, seeing Enzi has accepted Kitwana back. They feed and rest together. Sunlight reaches down into the twilight world beneath the canopy. Kitwana clambers in the trees and spins on the thick lianas that drape across the forest. For a while, Enzi forgets he is the head of the family and chases Kitwana round and round, playing the games he played before, with Kitwana shrieking in delight.
This is how Kitwana remembers his family.
He feels safe, protected.
This is his world.
For now.
As the day draws into night, Kitwana curls up with his mother in the nest of leaves she has wrapped around them. He rests his head against her chest and listens to her soft breathing and the steady beat of her heart. Slowly, his eyes begin to close.
Sleep finds him cradled next to his mother, hidden in night’s deep shadows.
Above, the moon traces its bright arc across the sky.
The constellations spin.
And the whole world turns toward a new tomorrow.
Dear Reader,
The idea for Gorilla Dawn was sparked by an article that linked mobile phones to the fate of gorillas. Intrigued, I read on to discover that many of the minerals used in the manufacture of mobile phones and other electronic devices are sourced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home of the eastern lowland gorilla. One of the minerals, tantalum, is found in the ore coltan, which is extracted by hand from open mines, often constructed within the forest home of the gorillas. Huge areas of forests are being destroyed for mining, logging, and charcoal production. And not only are the gorillas under threat from habitat loss, but also from poaching for bush meat and the illegal pet trade, and from diseases such as Ebola.
Gorilla Dawn is set in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country abundant in wildlife and minerals. But despite its natural riches, it is one of the poorest countries in the world, due to the exploitation of its people and resources. World greed for resources has funded various rebel groups and corrupt army officials to continue the instability. Recent history has seen huge political unrest. Since the outbreak of fighting in the 1990s, over five million people have died as a result of the violence. It has been the deadliest conflict since World War II.
The forests are vital for the people who live near them and for those of us who live thousands of miles away.
The Equatorial rainforests drive our weather patterns around the world and regulate our climate. The forests are not a benign paradise; they are essential to all life on earth.
And yet, time is running out, especia
lly for the gorillas.
A report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program in 2010 estimates that only 10% of the gorilla habitat will remain by 2032. Even this is thought to be optimistic. The eastern lowland gorilla may face extinction before 2050. If this happens, it would be a huge loss for us all.
However, there is hope. The numbers of mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park have been increasing slowly as a result of conservation strategies working within the forests and with local communities. There are also many brave men and women rangers who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect the forests and the animals.
Our own fate and that of the gorillas are bound together. Our everyday actions have ramifications far across the globe. Yet, this gives us power, knowing that what we can do as individuals can really make a difference.
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”—Jane Goodall
Gill Lewis–2015
Gill Lewis is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wild Wings and One White Dolphin, both winners of the Green Earth Book Award, as well as Moon Bear. As a veterinarian, her love for animals and the natural world plays a big part in her writing. She lives in the United Kingdom. Visit her online at gilllewis.com.
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Also by Gill Lewis
Moon Bear
One White Dolphin
Wild Wings
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Gill Lewis
Jacket and interior illustrations copyright © 2017 by Susan Meyer
Originally published in Great Britain in 2015 by Oxford University Press
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ISBN 978-1-4814-8657-6
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