In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from
Northwestern University.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant
standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed
distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found
a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out
with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down
its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look
on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.
Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.
Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Chicago Zoo with
his teenaged son.
As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures
turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were
standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off
the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times
then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn’t help wondering
if this was the same elephant.
Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made
his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and
stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its
trunk around one of Mbembe’ s legs and slammed him against the
railing, killing him instantly .
Probably wasn’t the same elephant.
