In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college.
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
thorn deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn 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 stern 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 he was walking through a 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 and 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. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again,
wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's legs and swung him wildly back and
forth along the railing, taking his life.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
