Synopses & Reviews
When Deni Band#233;chard learned of the last living bonobos and#151; matriarchal great apes that are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom and#151; he was astonished. How could we accept the disappearance of this being with so much to tell us about our own past? As he looked more closely though, the challenge of protecting them becomes discouragingly clear: Their home in the Congo rainforest has been devastated by war and aggressive resource extraction, and the people there are understandably skeptical of foreign intervention.
And yet, when he decides to travel into the Congo with the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, he realizes and#151; through hundreds of interviews, days traveling on motorcycles and canoes, and hours sitting with local guides waiting on apes and#151; that poverty does not equate to ignorance, that change requires more than wealth and power, and that only through collaboration can we achieve sustainable species conservation around the world. An adventure travel story as compelling as it is inspiring.
Synopsis
Bonobos have captured the public imagination in recent years, due not least to their famously active sex lives. Less well known is the fact that these great apes don t kill their own kind, and that they share nearly 99% of our DNA. Their approach to building peaceful coalitions and sharing resources has much to teach us, particularly at a time when our violent ways have pushed them to the brink of extinction. Animated by a desire to understand bonobos and learn how to save them, acclaimed author Deni Ellis Bechard traveled into the Congo.
Of Bonobos and Men is the account of this journey. Along the way, we see how partnerships between Congolese and Westerners, with few resources but a common purpose and respect for indigenous knowledge, have resulted in the protection of vast swaths of the rainforest. And we discover how small solutionsfound through openness, humility, and the principle that poverty does not equal ignorance are often most effective in tackling our biggest challenges. Combining elements of travelogue, journalism, and natural history, this incomparably rich book takes the reader not only deep into the Congo, but also into our past and future, revealing new ways to save the environment and ourselves."
About the Author
Deni Band#233;chard's first novel,
Vandal Love, won the 2007 Commonwealth Writersand#8217; Prize. He has also authored a memoir,
Cures for Hunger, and written for a number of magazines and newspapers, among them the
Los Angeles Times,
Salon,
Outside, the
National Post,
VQR,
Maisonneuve,
Le Devoir, the
Harvard Review, and the
Harvard Divinity Bulletin. He has been a fellow at MacDowell, Jentel, the Edward Albee Foundation, Ledig House, the Anderson Center, and Vermont Studio Center, among others. He has done freelance reporting from Northern Iraq as well as from Afghanistan, and he has traveled in more than fifty countries.