My Landlord Gervase Tumwebaze

Gervase is my landlord, he is the owner of Albertine, my home for the last 7 weeks. He is also the chairman of this subcounty, Low Governement Representative.  He is a good housefather and a man with a very interesting carreer.

Gervase grow up in Nkuringo, in a big family.  When he was young, his father couldn’t pay the schoolfees of all the children, so Gervase stopped school after Secundary 3.

He helped his father farming, what he was already doing for many years.  But he wanted more than being a farmer.  So, in 1992 he left, and went to Congo, where he stayed for about 5 years, and earned his living by money-exchange.  Before and after the Genocide, there were a lot of refugees coming in to DRC and they needed local money.

In 1997, his older brother Silva, introduced Gervase to Ph. Craig Stanford, who made a study about the ‘The Behavioral Ecology of Chimpanzees and Gorillas’.  Silva and Gervase were from an influential local family that owned a large piece of land bordering the forest. Gervase had the work ethic that any field researcher dreams about finding in a assistant, so in time  Gervase became the most skilled and knowledgeable of all the local field assistants.

The project needed a camp, and Ph. Craig Stanford bought a plot of land from Gervase his family, bordered by one side by the Kashasha river.  This place allowed them to live as close to the forest as possible.  For construction they used only local traditional materials.  So that once the project is terminated, the camp would quickly return to a natural state.  Also, Ph.Stanford signed an agreement to donate the land to UWA after completing the project, to be returned to forest.

On the 28th of February, at dawn, a Rwandan rebel militia attacked Buhoma.  At that time Buhoma was already a ecotourism center. There were 13 foreinger kidnapped, eight of whom ultimately died, 17 others escaped.  One of the hostages was Mitch Keiver, a member of Ph.Stanfords team. After 24 hours negotiating, they released Mitch.  Ph.Stanford decided that it was an unreasonable risk to return to Kashasha-Camp, and they moved to Ruhija.  The fragile balance between tourist revenu and gorilla conservation had been badly damaged.

The move to Ruhija created a dilemma for Gervase: either stay with his family farm and lose employment income, or move with the project and be separated from his wife and children.  Ph.Standford and Gervase worked out a plan in which he saved up his off time from work and took off several days at the end of each month.  Gervase wanted to be around his children for their education.  All 7 of them are now going to good schools.  

Ph. Craig Standford wrote a book about the “Apes of the Impenetrable Forest”, 

and this paragraph I really like :  

“The following morning, I saw a line of small children, most no bigger than my five-year-old son, walking steadidly down the mountain, each balancing a 15-foot tree trunk on his or her head.  Behind them came a second caravan, made up of the children’s mothers, also carrying the poles.  I complained to Gervase that I wasn’t comfortable employing women and children to do the manuel labor I had expected of my field assistants and myself.  In return I got a polite verbal lecture from Gervase on how African gender roles operate, and why it would have been inappropriate for my men to do work that their wives and children could do as well.”

After working for Ph.Standford, Gervase became the Chairman of NCCDF (Nkuringo Comunity Conservation Development Foundation), for 4 years.  After that he became Chairman of this Subcounty.  That means he is now the head of security, he has to control the schools, and there are 17 villages/ 17 chairmen who have to report to him.  He has to solve many problems, many issues, many …, he is a very busy man.

I asked him if he has a personal message for the people at home :

“According to the capacity I have, I want to invite people, to come and chaire our knowledge, and so help each other.”