I have seen them! I was not sure what to expect when we set out on our search. I think I mostly believed that we wouldn't actually find them. The thought of actually seeing them in their natural habitat was too unreal for me.

By Saskia Roskam

Congo Calling

About Saskia Roskam

Saskia Roskam, born in 1982 from a Cameroonian mother and a Dutch father, is travelling over the next six months through the Democratic Republic of Congo. In her fortnightly column entitled ‘Congo Calling’, Saskia shares with us the impressions of her journey.

But as it turned out, they had just crossed one of the few roads in the National Park (Kahuzi-Biega). When our eyes caught the newly sprouted green bamboo branches torn apart, it was obvious they had just been there.

After a fifteen minute walk we landed exactly onto their nests. Lots and lots of cut bushes neatly arranged to fit their huge bodies. And then there is the pungent smell of urine and huge heaps of dung. Caution is needed not to step into their excrement.

Another fifteen to twenty minutes walk through a moist forest, I come across a figure that is clearly having a rest. A large silverback gorilla with one hand folded underneath his head and with the other very softly and slowly picking away at his side fur. He looks to be day dreaming, feeling quite comfortable. Next to him sit two smaller young male gorilla's. They seem to be guarding him. Their eyes gazing at us and us looking back at them in all admiration, witnessing at first hand, how beautiful, black, furry, gentle creatures they are.

When the silverback, which the park rangers have named Chimanuka, has had enough sleep, he pushes his powerful majestic body from the ground and walks some 50 meters over to a nice open spot in the forest. He sits himself down for a little morning snack of thick bamboo branches. The sound of him breaking the bamboo is crisp, clear and immensely powerful. As he sits there, completely ignoring his audience, the only thing occupying his mind this morning is the same as yesterday's and the day before that day: food.

While he moves from sleeping mode to the open field his group members follow him. His two guards climb up a tree. A mother and a baby appear and take a seat behind Chimanuka. The picture is perfect. It gives hope and yet at the same time it frightens me. Docile as they are, if the war were to start here again, they would be in great, great danger.