The beat of the African drum ushered Dr Jane Goodall into the Victoria Ball Room at Speke Resort, Munyonyo, Kampala, on August 23, 2023. 

The drama actors from Musanyusa Group wriggled their waists to accompany the beats. This provided a setting for the dinner gala to commemorate 25 years of Ngamba Island Sanctuary in Lake Victoria, which is home to 53 orphan chimpanzees.

While chimpanzees live in families, poachers and traffickers have disrupted some of them in the wild. They exterminate the mothers and fathers before they can grab the infants for the pet trade. 

In the last three decades, conservationists have teamed up with the government and private sector, as well as civil society and the media, to crack down on the vice. However, the rescued chimpanzees cannot return to the wild.

As a result, Ngamba Island was set up 25 years ago to provide a new home to chimpanzees rescued from poachers and traffickers. It is time to look at the milestones of the last two and a half decades. 

The stories about Ngamba are about love and commitment to saving wildlife and humanity.

Dr Joshua Rukundo, who is the third executive director of the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, took to the podium and beamed the staff (current and past) to step forward. They responded in droves.

The patrons listened and chuckled at times and also gave thunderous applause to the staff, who panted and hooted as a way of greeting.

"Do we have chimpanzees in the house?" inquired one of the journalists who was sitting near me.

Away from the theatre, Rukundo said the workers on the island were exceptional. 

"You need to be a nutritionist, a caregiver, a carpenter. We have workers with multi-talented skills."

Rukundo is the third executive director of the Ngamba Chimpanzee Trust. He stepped into the big shoes of Lilly Ajarova, who was executive director of Ngamba for 14 years until she moved to the Uganda Tourism Board as executive director. The first executive director was Debbie Cox, who lives in Australia currently.

The people who work with animals are special," says Rukundo, adding that you must love and commit to wildlife to serve in places like Ngamba.

"The animals have a soul and emotions," he says, adding that they also love back. 

"The chimps know who I am. I remember my first encounter with Naku. She was a low-ranking female who did not interact with the keepers that much."

He added, "I remember when she fixed and locked her eyes with me. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She had broken her arm and trusted me. I treated her, and she recovered."

Ngamba started as a project of the Jane Goodall Institute, and later it was registered as an NGO (non-governmental organisation) that manages Ngamba Island.

The population of Ngamba is 53, which occupies the island, which is partly forested, and another part, which houses the chimps when they retire for the night. Ngamba supports the rescue of chimpanzees and their rehabilitation.

"We conserve chimps and tell the world about the plight of chimps," Rukundo says, adding that this is no one man's or woman’s work. Ngamba is supported by a board of trustees that includes the Jane Goodall Institute, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, Eco-trust, and Born Free Foundation.

Goodall, who is a global conservation icon, a primatologist, and a UN Peace Ambassador, was the chief guest. She gave testimonies of her encounters with chimpanzees, some of them in bad situations. 

She studied chimps at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, which created a better understanding of chimp behaviour. 

She says chimps use tools like human primates. She says they belong to apes, which also include mountain gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and human beings.

Goodall wants partnerships, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 17), to be promoted to help conserve chimpanzees and the environment.

Martin Mugarra, the State Minister of Tourism, and Doreen Katusime, the tourism ministry permanent secretary, addressed the patrons before a sumptuous meal was served. 

Goodall and the dignitaries gave out awards to outstanding contributions to the conservation of wildlife. 

Goodall also gave a public lecture on Tuesday (August 22, 2023) at Sheraton Hotel Kampala, and engaged the EU in Kampala and the First Lady, Janet Museveni over conservation.