It was last Saturday, 27th of September, that
the famous biologist, archeologist and human rights activist, Jane Goodall
gathered around 200 souls to hear her talk about her professional and personal
path, in Woburn Safari Park, outskirts of London.
The motto was “Gombe and Beyond” referring to
the Gombe Stream National Park, in Tanzania, where Goodall spent her last 55
years studying chimps. But, back to the beginning, this narrative started at
Jane’s youth when she went back to the 40’s and explained how quite simple
gestures would nurse in young Jane this deep love and interest for animals. How
with their low economical conditions, her and her mother tackled the big
obstacles and make Jane able to, not only, further her knowledge in the matter,
but also study and hope for a job that could actually lead her to Africa.
She found herself a job as a secretary in
Oxford University and was actually for this function that she was hired, a few
years later, by Louis Leakey, a British archeologist that was doing research
about hominids in Kenya. Leakey was her first contact to scientific research
and as well as to chimpanzees, and a long lasting friendship and work
partnership allowed Jane to give her first steps as a primatologist.
Pic 1: Jane Goodall with some natives from Gombe Natural Park |
Still, from arriving to Africa to secure
funding to study all this years the chimp population of Gombe, was a tough,
continuous and ever-lasting war, that lead Jane back to the UK to take her PhD
(without having any kind of academic studies before), which she remember as a
quite difficult time for her, grab funding for a six months project and
therefore putting her under the obligation of find something amazing in that
short period that make her able to receive further funding.
That trigger as was wonderfully described was
her discovery of the use of tools by the chimpanzees what also lead to a great
revolution in scientific community, who then faced the need to contest and
redefine biological and behavioral concepts and definitions about men, other
animals and what tells us apart from each other.
This one hour talk went on eventually reaching
Jane’s work as a human rights activist with the NGO Jane Goodall Institute,
founded by her in 1977 and working since to promote sustainability in the usage
of natural resources, protection of endangered species and environmental
education, a project already spread out to a few dozen countries all around the
world. She also spoke about her Roots&Shoots program that already reached
8000 youth groups and aided them to work in the promotion of environmental and
social development in their own communities.
Pic 2: Jane Goodall and Mr H (from Hope) |
This really enjoyable conversation was followed
by a question and answers session and a book signing.
A very special event, an amazing woman and
example and a moment to remember.
Nuno Soares