A Touching Elephant Story
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.
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