Pygmies and Gorillas at War

- Script

 

 

Pygmies pick fruit           In a jungle clearing that used to be their home, pygmies harvest mangoes from the tree that once gave them both shelter and food.

 

                                           It's no longer home.

 

                                           Donations raised in Australia have paid to move them out of the rain forest.

 

Gorilla                               A couple of hundred kilometres south, foreign donations - in far larger sums - protect mountain gorillas by keeping them in the rain forest.

 

                                           Uganda is home to both pygmies and mountain gorillas ... both are threatened with extinction.

 

Misty mountains             Nine hours south of Kampala a dusty road - and civilisation - end in the mist and mountains of the impenetrable forest.

 

                                           It's home to 300 mountain gorillas - half the world's remaining population.

 

Park Office                       There's no easy way to see the gorillas ... and no cheap way either.

 

Official Counts Money   You need more than 200 dollars for fees, guides, trackers and porters.....

 

                                           And a mere head cold automatically disqualifies you from making the trek into the jungle....

 

Official                              When they get these infectious diseases they die.

 

Reporter                           So what do we need to know before we get there.

 

Guide                                Now I want to tell you some do's and don'ts.....

 

                                           One soon gets the message: visitors are barely tolerated and only because both Government and conservationists need the revenue.

 

In rain forest                    The forest is a national park that survives entirely on tourist income.

 

                                           The search for gorillas can take eight hours or more .... adult gorillas chew their way through 25 kilos of vegetation a day so each family is constantly on the move foraging for food.

 

At nest                              The hunt picks up pace when the trackers find the nest families make each night.

 

Guide                                They squash down this vegetation.  This is called mimopsis and they are very soft and then they put it down on the ground. 

 

Reporter                           So they lie on this. 

 

Guide                                Yes, every night they have to make a nest and this is rocky.   So we've got to keep on looking heh.

 

Reporter                           It's a long walk.

 

Guide                                Yes.

 

                                           It's hard going - if you're not used to it.

 

                                           And there's no guarantee you'll see the gorillas ... only one family of twelve has been acclimatised to human visitors....

 

                                           ... and a second group is gradually being habituated ...

 

Gorillas                             Long before anyone else can, the trackers spot them sheltering from the rain.

 

                                           It's dark, it's gloomy, it's wet - and it's frustratingly hard to see - but that's rain forest for you.

 

                                           Our money buys us exactly one hour to watch in silence from not less than 5 metres away .... while the adult gorillas guardedly watch back....

 

Gorillas                             There are - we're told - twelve gorillas in this family ... females, babies ... and a male silver back who's two metres tall, ferociously strong ... but somewhat shy.

 

 

Gorillas                             The hour's up ... we haven't actually seen as much as we'd like of an endeavour the world's leading conservationists see as a last-ditch stand against extinction.

 

 

 

 

Interview with:

Ben Otto

Permanent Sec.

Uganda Dept. of             How important are the gorillas do you think from the point of

Parks, Wildlife,                view of Uganda as opposed to preserving a gorilla

Tourism & Antiquities    population.  Do you see them as somehow kind of symbol of what you are trying to do. 

 

Ben Otto                           Well, I think that gorillas, in my view, are very important for our tourism industry but most importantly is for the conservation aspect.  Since two thirds of the world's population of mountain gorillas now exist in Uganda, unless we conserve them gorillas will be out of the globe.

 

Open Plains and            It's only recently that Uganda has re-discovered such

animals                            concern for nature .... for decades, wildlife was decimated ...

 

                                           In the 70s, under Idi Amin's notoriously bloody rule, soldiers slaughtered animals for food, for profit - and for target practice.

 

Elephants on plain         Poaching and civil war continued the carnage into the 80s.

 

Top shots of river            A new national park in the far west of Uganda ... one of 6

valley                                declared in the past three years.  For a century the rainforest here has been steadily chopped back for its timber, its minerals and its land.

 

Pygmies                           As part of the new image building, Uganda's pygmy tribes have been told they've got to get out because the forest and its wildlife have to be preserved.

 

Pygmies dance               The impact has been devastating ... after thousands of years of living in the jungle the pygmies are fast becoming fringe dwellers.

 

                                           What we're watching is not just a culture disintegrating .. but a race of people hovering (like the gorillas) on the brink of extinction.

 

Interview with:

Barry Chapman              Now here we have a group of people that really have been neglected.  They have an opportunity to fit into society just like you and me if they're given the chances ....

                                           Barry Chapman heads the Ugandan branch of ADRA - the international relief arm of the Adventist Church....

 

Barry Chapman              If we're going to make some choices about where we are going to put our money I think the Pygmies really should rate at the top of the list in front of gorillas.

 

Reporter with Pygmy     ADRA has spent the past 18 months helping to encourage

Edward                             Edward's clan of sixty pygmies to re-settle on open lands.

 

Edward                             This is the house.  This is for me - I live in here.

 

Reporter                           By yourself?

 

Edward                             Yes.

 

                                           Edward still lives in traditional nomadic accommodation.  Easily built and just as easily left behind.

 

Edward's kitchen            You can put food here for cooking.

 

                                           He's been here seven months .... and still has pitifully few possessions to aid him in his new pastoral life.

 

Reporter                           So these are the new houses are they Edward?

 

Edward                             This is the house over here.

 

                                           So this is the future for Uganda's six thousand Pygmies.

 

Reporter                           Can we look at one?

 

Edward                             OK.

 

                                           ADRA has built this group a dozen huts with some of the 20-thousand dollars its raised for them in Australia.

 

Reporter                           Can I look inside.

 

Edward                             OK, enter.

 

Reporter                           How many people live in here, Edward.

 

Edward                             Six People.

 

Reporter                           It's very small for six people.

 

Edward                             Yeah.

                                           Apart from a grant of the land they now live on, the Ugandan Government offers the Pygmies no other assistance.

 

                                           Though settled, they're at a loose end...

 

Woman with baby           They're happier here: life is less rigorous than in the jungle: but they've moved into a settled life and an economic system that is totally foreign to them.

 

Cooking/peel bananas  Today, meat is rarely on the menu .... instead, bananas are a staple diet ... along with the leaves and herbs they gather from nearby.

 

                                           Sometimes there's fish to be had from a river several kilometres away - but they haven't yet come to grips with fishing.

 

Cooking women             And because they're traditionally nomadic, they have little concept of agriculture ...

 

                                           The Pygmies wouldn't show us their marijuana plantation, but it's obviously an important part of their life ... and so is getting drunk on beer: when they can afford it.

 

Fighting and arguing     One can only fear for the Pygmies and their culture ...

 

                                           Their only income is from the occasional muzungu - white tourists - who come to gawp.