Part 2 of 3
Western lowland gorillas live in the very heart of Africa,
including the Democratic Republic of Congo,
named for the Congo River,
which cuts through it on its way to the Atlantic.
The Congo’s second largest tributary, the Ubangi,
flows from the north,
and here …
… the Congo spreads up to 10 miles wide.
It acts like a giant moat,
blocking all but the strongest fliers and swimmers
from crossing central Africa.
And because of that, the Congo River is a game-changer
in the evolution of the great apes.
When the river formed millions of years ago,
it pushed our closest living relatives to the north side.
[Distant howling]
[Shrieking]
Chimps.
Like us, they use their smarts to solve all sorts of problems.
Chimps also use tools.
A little ingenuity gives them access
to almost any food source.
But there’s one food they go bananas for …
[Twig snaps]
Fresh monkey meat.
Chimps vigorously hunt red colobus monkeys.
They monitor every monkey jump – a highwire act without a net.
One wrong move, and dinner is served.
Chimps live by a strict code, an organized jungle-land gang,
smarter and often meaner than anyone else around.
Lanjo, the dominant male, gets to eat first.
As long as everyone keeps to his or her place, life is grand.
But this mother chimp dares to scoop the rest of her clan
on these fresh blossoms.
[Barking]
Lanjo is one peeved primate.
[Shrieking]
He won’t tolerate such disobedience,
especially from a female.
She forgot her place in the rigid chimp family hierarchy,
which is run like an old boys’ club.
The head of the clan leads a troop of lower adult males.
Females of any age and males younger than 15
rank lowest of all.
Among the males, politics rules the day.
They form alliances with one another to stay in favor,
rise in the ranks, or even grab control of the clan.
They strengthen bonds by picking off dead skin and parasites –
the chimp version of golf.
Someday, when the alpha male grows too old and weak to lead,
one of these males will leverage his alliances to take his place.
These two, left out of the group,
have no future in chimp politics.
Still, they have it better than the females.
For them, it’s every girl for herself
against the aggressive males.
This mother hides in the forest with her baby
to avoid them hassling her.
All she wants is peace and quiet,
though here’s the dilemma …
Her absence might anger Lanjo.
But it’s too late.
The leader, secure in his alliances,
is itching to dominate the wandering female.
His male subordinates’ grooming session
gets interrupted by a subtle noise.
[Scratching]
Scratching is their secret signal.
Lanjo calls his posse.
The search is on.
[Thunder]
A storm blows in, complicating the patrol by masking the sound
of anything moving through the forest.
The female hunkers down,
shielding her baby with her body.
[Thunder]
Hours later the storm has passed
and the males head back on her trail.
They spot her.
A henchman sneaks up under the watchful eye of the leader.
By the time the mother sees him, it’s too late.
[Barking, shrieking]
The baby is lost, but it can save itself.
Lanjo goes after the female.
She’ll get her punishment.
When a male chimp is about 15 years old,
he’ll start a lifetime of bossing and brutalizing females.
The only other species to act so violently against its own
is humans.
AFTER my divorce, I went with my mother to live at my father's farm in South Cottonwood.
Here, I think, I was happier than I had ever before been in my life. My health was much improved, and what with the care of my children and the portion of the household duties which I assumed to assist my mother, my days were well filled. My boys were growing healthy, hearty, rollicking fellows, and they returned my care with all the love which the most jealous heart could desire.
How thankful I was that they were not girls! I knew too well the troubles of my sex in polygamy to wish to bring one girl into the world, who, under the system, would be sure to endure such certain suffering. I made up my mind to teach my boys to shun it, even if it was a vital part of my religion. I was willing to accept all else that Mormonism taught, and to teach its underlying principles to my boys; but that I could teach them was right....
During this time at South Cottonwood, while I was teaching my children, helping my mother, and getting all these peeps into the inside experiences of polygamy, my own life running along in the smoothest channels it had ever known, a great change was preparing for me. I had no thought nor premonition of it, as I went blithely about my daily duties, happy and content in the quiet life which I was leading in my mother's companionship, and in my darling children's love. I dreamed of nothing beyond this peaceful life; I wished for nothing else. Such a sweet restfulness had taken possession of me, and I pictured myself growing old in this quiet spot, with my strong, brave boys near me to make my rough path smooth, and to help my faltering footsteps over the stony places with their strong arms that would encircle and hold me then, as I encircled them now. The improvement of my health was a source of great joy to me. I never was so well in my life. The color had come back to my cheek, the sparkle to my eye, the smile to my lips, the elasticity to my step, and something of the old life to my spirits, although I had suffered too much to have them quite as light as they were in the old frolicsome days when I had gone merry-making with my old companions, had won friends in the theatre, and had wailed "with the girls" over the monotonous fare of the Prophetic table. I was a child with my children, and it would be difficult to tell which of us got the most scoldings and pettings from the fond grandmamma.
She was happy, too, at having me with her again; and though she sorrowed at my sorrow, she could not regret anything that brought me back to her, so long as it did not make me utterly unhappy; and she recognized as well as I the fact, that my life was fuller and freer without my husband than with him, and that my children were better off, and stood far better chances of becoming the men that both she and I wished them to become, under my guidance alone, than under the influence of such a father as theirs. They would never have felt a strong, steady, guiding hand, but would have been, as their mother had been before them, the victim of alternate passion and rough good nature, that was easily shaken.
I had very many offers of marriage. A moderately prepossessing woman in Utah is sure not to be long without them; and I knew that I was that, at least, but I could not be brought to look with favor upon any of my suitors. I did not care to try matrimony again, I had vowed that I would not become a plural wife, and, with my past experience, I was afraid to try even a monogamic alliance again; for I knew that in Utah the step from monogamy to polygamy is very short, and very easily taken. My answer was the same to one and all —"I have my children; I shall live for them alone; they are my only loves."
Some of them appealed to my father and mother to use their influence to make me change my mind; but they refused to interfere, saying that I probably knew my own mind, and, if I did not wish to marry, that was quite enough.
I usually had my own way; and when I knew that any of my persistent suitors had turned to my parents for sympathy and assistance, I laughed to myself to think how little of either they would receive. To tell the truth, they— especially my mother—were no more anxious for me to marry than I myself; and I knew that so long as they had a home, my children and I should share it. I was not allowed to feel that we were in any way a burden, and, to tell the truth, I did honestly try to do all in my power to assist my mother, and make life easier for her to bear.
"I shall never, never leave you," I used to say, as I would nestle at her feet, and lay my head in her lap in the old childish fashion — a habit that I could not bring myself to abandon, even though I was a mother myself, with two bouncing boys to curl down in my own lap in the same loving way, begging for caresses.
"God willing, we will never be parted, my darling."
"Never! never!" cried I, with loving enthusiasm, as I felt her hand on my head, resting in tender benediction there. I kissed the hand that had grown hard with toil for me and for others; and together we sat with no premonition of the future that was so near, and that was to change the whole current of both our after lives.
Brigham Young and some of the apostles were coming to South Cottonwood to hold a meeting. But what was that to me? How did it affect me when he came or went? I had no part nor lot in his movements. Life was nothing to me beyond my mother and children; and all the Prophetic coming and going would not cause a ripple on the surface of my placid life.
So I thought, as I lay cradled in my mother's arms that summer evening in the old farm-house at Cottonwood; and the stars, as they looked down upon me there, revealed nothing more to me.
--
Wife No. 19, the Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy, by Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's Apostate Wife