IMAGES: VOLCANOES SAFARIS; MATT MIDWORTH; ALAMY
UGANDA
THE GORILLA IS GARGANTUAN. THERE’S A PROMISE OF RAW POWER IN ITS CHEST, SUPREME AGILITY IN ARMS THAT RIPPLE WITH MUSCLE, AND WISDOM IN ITS DARK, DEEP-SET EYES.
It looms larger than the trees, taller than the mountains, dwarfing even the sun — a canary yellow sphere sketched in the corner of the page. Ten-year old Akankwasa’s drawing captures a
mythic vision of the forest, winning first prize in a local competition run by the Gorilla Organization. The charity’s Ugandan arm works from a simple conviction: that change begins in classrooms. With fewer than a dozen staff, they support 28 schools that cling to the edges of the gorillas’ kingdom, the mist-cloaked slopes of Mgahinga and Bwindi National Parks in the country’s south west. Their work is practical as well as poetic, from
funding water tanks and building new classrooms to organising quizzes, storytelling sessions and art competitions. The aim: to teach children why the forest matters, nurturing a generation of conservation champions. And yet Akankwasa’s gorilla, for all its wild imagination, wasn’t conjured from daydreams alone. “To become passionate about something,
you need to see it, to feel it,” Francis says as we wander round Nyagakenke school, set in a fold of Mgahinga’s countryside stitched with cabbage patches and roamed by gangs of overconfident goats. “We take children into the jungle to meet the gorillas for themselves. Once you’ve seen them in the wild, it’s impossible not to fall in love.” Francis heads up the project, an inspiring figure
and one of many I’ll meet on my mission to learn about the people powering Uganda’s conservation success story. The children clearly know him well and we’re trailed by dozens of pupils in pristine purple uniforms, their wide eyes full of shy curiosity. With gentle persistence, he coaxes even the quietest into conversation. “We’ve learnt that gorillas love sugarcane and
that they can laugh, but sometimes they are sad like people,” one girl says, stealing glimpses of me through her eyelashes and fiddling nervously with a shirt button. “I’m not scared of them,”
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a boy barely taller than my waist chimes in, before adding that he dreams of becoming a tour guide when he grows up — proof the seeds Francis is sowing are already taking root.
A FORCE OF NATURE The following day I meet Mgahinga’s gorilla family and at once understand what Francis meant about falling in love. The sight of them silences me. The 10-strong group are grazing in a forest glade, surrounded by ferns rising in delicate fans and dew-laden saplings bowing under their own weight. Mark is head of the family, and while he may not tower above the canopy as Akankwasa’s drawing depicts, he commands the jungle with such authority it feels as though the clearing exists solely for him. His amber eyes burn with a fierce intelligence
and when he moves, sunlight skims across his back, gleaming like silk stretched over steel. Beside him, two more silverbacks shift their weight, each one a living wall of power. Weighing close to 500 pounds and including — my guide Hosea says nonchalantly — the biggest gorilla, Uganda, the trio seems less like animals and more like moving fortresses, the forest floor trembling beneath their tread. “It’s almost unheard of to have three males in
one group,” Hosea explains. “When their backs turn from black to silver it marks maturity and most will leave to start their own family. Mark’s a friendly guy though — he took in that 27-year-old over there, and the other silverback is his brother; they’re close buddies.” It’s a pleasing revelation, and I wonder if Mark’s
placid nature has anything to do with the wild opium leaves he’s munching on. He’s stripped an entire plant since we’ve arrived, stems splintering beneath his huge fingers as he crams fistfuls of foliage into his mouth. “It does chill them out,” Hosea says with a smile. Mark certainly seems relaxed, and suddenly, as if casting off his mask
Clockwise from top left: Volcanoes Safaris has four lodges in Uganda, all of which employ locals and support Indigenous communities; the number of female guides has risen sharply in the last decade; The Gorilla Organization is building new classrooms at Nyagakenke school; female gorillas typically have one baby every four years, making every infant even more precious Previous pages from left: Silverbacks are capable of lifting up to 10 times their body weight; guides start tracking gorillas at dawn, following clues like nests, footprints and chewed bamboo to locate them before tourists arrive
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