Friday, July 28, 2006

Elephant's Memory - Touching story

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 the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him. Probably wasn't the same elephant.

6 comments:

Pat said...

LOL!
(Yes-I'm warped-I admit it!)

Jellyhead said...

Poor Mbembe! I suppose the moral of the story is that although elephants never forget, they are also partial to the odd homicide?

Kerri said...

Hmmmmm, that's a strange story.
I'm stumped for a comment on that one. Poor Mbembe!
Thanks for visiting and leaving such nice comments. If you come up this way camping next year, you could set up your camper on our farm! You'd be more than welcome. I'd love to meet you! You could tell me more of your cops and robber stories :)

doubleknot said...

Read this story when you posted it but didn't leave a comment. Guess we should always remember that things are not always what they seem.

Leslie said...

And here I was thinking there was going to be a mouse in the story somewhere. Hmph!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

That story didn't turn out like it was supposed to, but at least the wild elephant wasn't captured in the zoo...it was plainly a different elephant that killed Mbembe.