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9-1-2006

" Trails in Paradise": Carl Akeley, Mary Bradley, and the American Search for the Missing Link

Jeannette Eileen Jones University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected]

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Jones, Jeannette Eileen, ""Gorilla Trails in Paradise": Carl Akeley, Mary Bradley, and the American Search for the Missing Link" (2006). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 28. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/28

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in The Journal of American Culture 29:3 (September 2006), pp. 321–336. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2006.00374.x Copyright © 2006 Jeannette Eileen Jones; published by Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

“Gorilla Trails in Paradise”: Carl Akeley, Mary Bradley, and the American Search for the Missing Link Jeannette Eileen Jones University of Nebraska–Lincoln

n 1881, Ward’s Natural Science Bulletin published “[s]uspicionless of guile” strayed beneath the I the anonymously authored poem “The Miss- trees where the simian court convened. When ing Link.” Referencing decades-long debates over the “monarch spake his love” to her, “the lady the relationship of man to ape, and the spiritual, smiled on him,” at which point the gorilla king intellectual, and moral capacities of apes, chim- stuck “his great prehensile toes” in her hair and panzees, and orangutans (Desmond 45, 141, 289), carried her off into his arboreal kingdom. “Thus the poem recounts the following tale of a simian was the monarch wed, [a]nd thus the race began, king ordered by his council to fi nd a bride. When [w]hence, thro’ various links, somewhat strange pressed by his “lords of state” to “mate,” as the methinks, [c]ame the “Descent of Man!” (Ward’s time arose for him to perform his royal duties, Natural Science Bulletin 8). the simian regent replied with indignation that he The Bulletin, the offi cial journal of Henry would not make a “mesalliance” with a chimpanzee. Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Roch- Despite assurances that the female of the lesser ester, New York, enjoyed a wide readership in simian species would suffi ce as royal consort, the America and a selective reading audience in Eu- gorilla king declared that he would wait for some- rope. Ward’s, an emporium, cabinet of curios, and one worthy of his royal bloodline. Suddenly, from taxidermy studio, boasted a reputation as one of his treetop viewpoint, the sight of “a vision of the premier American (and Western) purveyors beauty” never seen before—”[a] maiden young of natural history specimens (Kohlstedt, 647–48). and fair, [a]s the charcoal’s ebon tint”—surprised In another poem “To the Gorilla in The Roch- him. Her teeth were white as cowry shells, “[h]er ester University,” which appeared in the Bulletin locks of a crispy curl,” and “[h]er feet of a mam- in 1882, the narrator questions the existence and moth size.” The gorilla king felt so moved by this purpose of the gorilla. At one point in the imagi- “bewitching dream” that he declared: “Now by nary conversation with the stuffed animal on dis- my kingly troth, This maid shall be, I think, My play, the author asks: “Could you not serve upon a royal bride, and supply beside Mr. Darwin’s miss- rice plantation—[r]aise sugar-cane, and cotton, for ing link.” The African woman, “thoughtless” and the masses, [a]nd carry burdens, as do mules and

Jeannette Eileen Jones is an assistant professor of history and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She conducts research in the areas of American cultural history and the history of science, with emphasis on race and representation. 321 322 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

asses?” (“To the Gorilla” 9). Both poems refl ect- particularly as those international links refl ected ed popular and scientifi c discourses concerning and reinforced the politics of empire. Specifi cal- the relationship between man and the animal king- ly, the article recounts and analyzes the Akeley Af- dom in light of the publication of “Mr. Darwin’s” rican Expedition to the Belgian Congo conduct- The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man ed in 1921 under the auspices of the American (1871), and allude to the importance of the goril- of Natural History (AMNH) to create la in those discussions. More specifi cally, the po- an unparalleled gorilla (a museum exhib- ems’ authors speculated that Africans and African it of stuffed animals posed in a simulated habitat). Americans were the key to unlocking the transi- It tracks how the safari morphed into (1) a mis- tion from ape to man, as popular and scientifi c sion to rehabilitate the image of the gorilla and thought confi gured “Negroes” closest to the sim- (2) a campaign for the preservation of the gorilla. ian in form and intellect. In this complex exposi- The article places special emphasis on the relation- tion of race and gender, popular thought imagined ship between the Belgian government and Amer- the female African body as the producer of “the ican scientists in creating the world’s fi rst gorilla missing link”—a half-man, half-beast creature that sanctuary. Lastly, “Gorilla Trails in Paradise” dis- would reveal the key to the descent of man. Anal- cusses how the images of the gorilla as painted in ogies drawn between Africans, African Americans, the travel narratives of naturalist Carl Akeley and apes, and in “missing link” narratives as- writer (and safari participant) Mary Hastings Brad- sumed that African women submitted to animal ley emerged and indeed became imbedded in cin- couplings due in part to their perceived hyper and ematic culture. bestial sexuality (Collins 99). This discussion of I argue that the AMNH gorilla expedition possible couplings between African woman and and Akeley’s quest to know the gorilla direct- gorilla refl ected a broader American captivation ly engaged America’s search for the missing link. with the missing link. For Akeley, this mission entailed discounting “Gorilla Trails in Paradise” explores the Amer- fantasies of hypersexual and vicious ape behav- ican obsession with primates and evolution, as in- ior, as well as salacious theories of human–ape formed by notions of race and sexuality, as an mating, which both reifi ed and contested partic- important current in American cultural and intel- ular concepts of race, gender, and sexuality as lectual history during the late nineteenth and ear- understood by Americans. In his revisioning of ly twentieth centuries. This preoccupation began the gorilla, Akeley upheld the image of the mas- with queries regarding the relationship between culine ape—the ape as male progenitor of hu- man and ape in light of evolutionary theories that manity, patriarchal ruler of the jungle, and mas- predated the publication of Darwin’s seminal trea- culine protector of his family. Yet, Akeley shied tises. However, Darwinian evolution brought the away from sensational sexualized descriptions of question of that relationship into mainstream dis- the masculine gorilla in his travel narratives. He course. No longer confi ned to the musings of achieved this by anthropomorphizing the male learned white men, the ape–human puzzle in- gorilla as father to a nuclear family, thereby deny- formed American popular thought and popular ing his existence as part of roving bands, whose culture by the late nineteenth century. mating rituals seemed to suggest something oth- This article explores how a group of middle- er than monogamy. In contrast, his travel com- class Americans took up the search for the miss- panion Mary Bradley exploited the popular im- ing link by conducting a safari in Africa, and how age of the hypersexual ape in her travel narrative. their quest transformed and infl uenced American Recognizing the gorilla as masculine father (and ruminations on the ape–human relationship. In sometimes uncle), Bradley literarily fantasized this examination, the article discloses the transat- about copulating with the progenitor—pledg- lantic connections involving this pursuit of goril- ing to offer no resistance should the ape carry las in the misty mountains of the Belgian Congo, her away into the treetops. Here she complicat- “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 323 ed views of white female sexuality. By offering to and lover—they refl ect what Stoler calls “a palpa- switch places with the Western constructed Afri- ble obsession” with “whiteness” (Carnal Knowledge can woman, Bradley antagonized acknowledged 13)—in this case, the need to reaffi rm constantly “truths” about race, gender, and sexuality. their whiteness against the “blackness” of the pri- This article engages Donna Haraway’s seminal mate and the African. work “Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the This article also engages Haraway’s contention Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908–1936” in that the simian primate existed in the borderlands Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World between culture and nature. I argue that this view of Modern Science (1989). Haraway’s analysis of can be extended to perceptions of Africans, whom Akeley’s quest to capture the gorilla as a perfor- Western thought also constructed as between cul- mance of patriarchy, reminiscent of Victor Fran- ture (civilization) and nature—if not as exemplars kenstein’s elusive pursuit of his monster, is only of man in his natural state. In reading the Ake- one reading of his fascination with the gorilla. ley and Bradley narratives we see the lines blurred Perhaps an alternative (and more appropriate) lit- between gorilla and man, yet the contemporane- erary reading of that infamous gorilla safari would ous reader remained clear that the closest proximi- employ Sigmund Freud’s family romance theory ty between the two could be located in the African as discussed in Totem and Taboo (1913). More ex- (or black) body. Thus, their primate stories upheld, tensive research into Akeley’s quest to both create not contested, racist portrayals of “Negroes” as a defi nitive gorilla diorama and the world’s fi rst ape-like beings. gorilla sanctuary, as well as a reading of his narra- tive of the gorilla expedition against Bradley’s re- veal a more complex interplay between ideas of Gorillas, Real and Mythical gender, race, and sexuality. As Todorov reminds us in The Morals of Histo- Although American fascination with gorillas ry, travel narratives project a writer’s “ethical and predated the appearance of Darwin’s treatise on aesthetic” values (6), and it is helpful to adopt human evolution, it was not until the late nine- his discussion of travel narratives in Europe to teenth century, after the Europeans colonized those of Akeley and Bradley. Akeley’s and Brad- Africa, that unlocking those “various links” be- ley’s accounts of the gorilla expedition are polit- tween man and ape seemed possible. The Euro- icized narratives in that they are situated in what pean empire building project in Africa escalat- Todorov calls “the intellectual, cultural, and politi- ed in the late 1870s, when the French expanded cal climate from which they arose” (11–12). More their control of parts of Western Africa begin- concretely, Akeley and Bradley’s American pre- ning with Senegal. By the 1880s, French eco- occupation with the cultural politics of the early nomic interests included establishing commercial twentieth century—eugenics, lynching, race riots, outposts in North and Central Africa. Other Eu- immigration policy, sexuality, and racial identity— ropean nations followed suit, so that on the eve inform their narratives of the gorilla. The reader of the Berlin Conference of 1884, Britain, Ger- sees “personal narration” and not “objective de- many, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, and Italy already scription” (Todorov 67); that is, glimpses into the had established claims to protectorates, colonies, minds of the travelers and virtually nothing about and spheres of infl uence on the continent. The Africa and the gorilla. Approaching these safa- conference merely refl ected the reality of events ri narratives from the stance of “critical colonial that unfolded a priori in Africa—the subjuga- studies” and regarding them as practices (as de- tion of indigenous peoples and the consolidation fi ned by Pierre Bourdieu), I include them in what of economic power around strategic natural re- Ann Stoler calls “the range of practices in which sources (Iliffe 187–93). racisms were produced.” Thus, as the narratives The fact that the publication of the missing reveal differing ideals of the gorilla—father fi gure link poems coincided with the intensifi cation of 324 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006) imperialism in Africa was not by chance. The his- nearest relative.” The 1902 encounter of Ger- tory of the 1880s reveals that conversations on man colonial offi cer Captain Robert von Beringe race, sexuality, and imperialism reinforced each (erroneously referred to in naturalist literature as other. As Ann Stoler reminds us in Race and the Oscar Beringer) with a in Ger- Education of Desire, “the nineteenth century im- man East Africa on the Virunga Volcanoes in- perial world” linked discourses on sexuality and spired a new generation of Westerners to travel the construction of race (19). Indeed, Francis to Africa in pursuit of the elusive simian (Barns Galton serves as a perfect example of how Eu- 278; Warren). ropean imperialism inextricably tied race to sex- In 1921, upon learning that famed white hunt- uality. His experiences as both gentleman travel- er Alfred Collins desired to travel to Africa to col- er in South West Africa and scientist exploring lect gorillas for the AMNH, Carl Akeley, Ameri- Central Africa as a member of the Royal Geo- can naturalist and former employee of Ward’s, graphical Society during the 1850s and 1860s, fu- wrote museum President Henry Fairfi eld Os- eled his belief that the human race could be im- born and outlined his “defi nite plans for a goril- proved by “selective breeding”—a “science” he la expedition.”1 He explained that for many years termed eugenics in 1883 (Bulmer 11–28, 79). Pro- he had been contemplating securing gorillas for ponents of eugenics saw it as foremost a mech- an exhibit that would be “authoritative in every anism for policing sexuality and controlling race. sense.” Akeley sought to capture mountain goril- That is, theoretically in its application it would las “discovered” by von Beringe and vowed to use decide what women could bear children and by his prospective expedition through the volcanic whom. Fears that imperialism facilitated misce- mountains of the Belgian Congo to fi ll a gap in genation and the loss of white manhood—par- natural historical literature about the gorilla. How- ticularly in intercourse between white European ever, Akeley diplomatically agreed to defer his trip soldiers and women not of their “race” (Stoler, should the museum chose to back Collins.2 When Carnal Knowledge 43–46) or worse, white women the museum decided to endorse Akeley’s expe- and black male servants—supported the equat- dition, he traveled to Africa with friends Martha ing of Africans with apes. If African bodies held Miller (Bliven), Priscilla Hall, Herbert, Mary, and the retrogressive and atavistic simian gene, logi- “Baby Alice” Bradley,3 emphasizing his purpose cally, no one would risk giving birth to a degener- of correcting “inaccurate theories that [had] per- ate ape-man/woman child. sisted about little-known African animals,” partic- Despite the fears of racialized sexual anar- ularly the gorilla. chy resulting from imperialism, the opening of Akeley argued that “the study of this ape [the the “Dark Continent” through colonial conquest gorilla] is perhaps more interesting and more im- made prospects of observing gorillas in their portant than the study of any other African beast natural habitat more realizable. Before the 1884 that has been the center of so many fables and partition of Africa, only four European men— superstitions,” because many Westerners recog- Andrew Battel, le Comte de Buffon, Thomas nized the gorilla “as man’s closest relative.” Ake- Savage, and Paul Du Chaillu—claimed to have ley imputed much of the historical misinforma- seen the infamous primate (or something resem- tion about gorillas to the “inaccessibility” of the bling it). Du Chaillu designated himself the only gorilla’s habitat, combined with the “myths of an white man to have killed a gorilla (Schiebinger imaginative and superstitious people.” Akeley, like 78, 239 fn. 79; Akeley, In Brightest Africa 238). Co- many of his contemporary Americans, viewed Af- lonial “improvements” and the bringing of mod- ricans as irrational peoples, and thus he expressed ern conveniences to the continent (East Africa in no surprise at hearing “natives” attribute fantasti- particular) in the late nineteenth and early twen- cal behaviors to the gorilla. However, the suscepti- tieth centuries inspired safaris, both personal and bility of naturalists in believing and promulgating institutional, into the “jungle” to fi nd “man’s these “native” tales aggravated Akeley. According “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 325

to Akeley, “merely writers rather than observers” bly inspired in part at least the mounting of more internalized the stories heard from Africans or than one ugly museum specimen.” Akeley pledged read in outdated natural history literature. These to make his gorilla diorama pleasing to the muse- narratives accompanied the male naturalist into um patron’s eye (“Gorillas” 436, 429). the fi eld, and cast a “spell” on him, so “[w]hen he Akeley cast further blame for propagating sen- observes an animal in the distance and is unable sational images of the gorilla on Du Chaillu’s nar- to distinguish clearly what it is doing, he natural- rative Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Af- ly interprets its actions in the light of the tale he rica. In his tale of the chase, Du Chaillu wrote: has read.” “Eyewitness testimony,” that which be- “[T]ruly he [the gorilla] reminded me of nothing stowed authority on travel narratives as nodes of but some hellish dream creature—a being of that knowledge, thus evolved into “natural history fi c- hideous sort, half man, half beast, which we fi nd tion.” Akeley recognized that existing narratives pictured by old artists is some representations of antagonized the scientist’s unending endeavor to the infernal regions” (qtd. in Akeley, In Brightest separate truth from fi ction (“Gorillas” 429). Africa 238). Interestingly, Akeley did not condemn Akeley identifi ed the writings of Battel, Buf- Du Chaillu for the images he elicited, but rather fon, Savage, and Du Chaillu as several among the publishers of his adventures and the expecta- many of the sources of the “prevalent concep- tions of the public. Akeley argued that the “fi rst tion” of gorillas. The Portuguese captured Bat- erroneous reports of the gorilla” surfaced “when tel, an Englishman, in Angola during the 1580s.4 publishers … feared to rely upon the unadorned Akeley credited Battel with establishing “the idea truth to hold the public’s interest.” Akeley warned that the ferocious beast walked erect, slept in that the patrons who expected to see the gorilla in- trees, and was the terror of the natives” (“Go- vented by these authors and “motion picture pro- rillas” 436). Battel called the gorilla in his narra- ducers” in his exhibit would be sorely disappoint- tive Pongo. According to him, pongees (plural form) ed (“Gorillas” 436, 431). resembled men, except for their legs, which had Writers and fi lm producers stood among many no calves. Unlike humans, they ate only vegeta- Westerners who misrepresented gorillas in cultural bles and lacked the power of speech. Their intel- texts. Akeley once commented on French sculptor ligence supposedly never surpassed that of any Emmanuel Frémiet’s bronze statue “Gorilla and other beast. According to Battel, gorillas traveled Woman” which won a medal at the Salon in 1887. together and killed many Africans working in the The artist later gave the statue the AMNH. Ake- woods; they also pummeled trespassing elephants ley wrote: with fi sts and logs. In 1747, Antoine Prévost (Ake- It shows a beautifully modeled animal in ley mistakenly attributes the description to Buf- the act of bearing away on his right arm fon) included an “exaggerated translation” of Bat- a lovely native woman, who by the way tel’s description of the pongo in his Histoire générales has more of the earmarks of a Parisian des Voyages. Buffon’s writings concentrated on the model than of an African savage. The gibbon. The term gorilla fi rst appeared in the writ- gorilla, of course, is walking erect, on ings of Thomas Savage (Schiebinger 239, fn. 79, his legs; one hand clasps his captive, the 78). In an 1847 article in the Boston Journal of Nat- other hand contains a great rock, which ural History, Savage recounted a hunter’s fatal en- presumably he is about to throw at his counter with the gorilla. The animal’s “enormous pursuers. Although they have already jaws” were “widely opened at each expiration” as succeeded in lodging a huge arrow in his he shrieked “kh-ah! kh-ah … presenting an aspect heart, he apparently has an abundance of indescribable ferocity” as he approached “the of strength and energy to defy them and enemy in great fury” (qtd. in Akeley, “Gorillas” make away with his prize. (“Gorillas” 436). Akeley conjectured that Savage’s portrayal 430–431) of the “ferocious” and “offensive” gorilla “proba- 326 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

The African female womb was Frémiet’s link” was the offspring of a white woman and a ape’s ultimate prize, just as it was for the goril- gorilla. Bradley and Miller’s imagined transgres- la in “The Missing Link.” Akeley castigated the sion threatened to undermine Akeley’s intent, as “misleading” nature of Frémiet’s bronze and es- it engaged images of dangerous, oversexed pri- chewed the theory of hypersexual male primates. mates. More importantly, if we read Akeley’s text It is telling that Akeley restricted his concern to as an exposition of white masculinity, the wom- the misrepresentation of the gorilla. He focused en’s sexual fantasies undermined the virility of on the pose of the gorilla and the attributes of the mythologized Great White Hunter—the very primate behavior it denoted. Although he char- self identity Akeley wished to establish on safari acterized the “abduction of native women by vi- and in his travel narrative. cious old male gorillas” as legend, he did little to rehabilitate the image of the African woman, as he so painstakingly did for the gorilla. Indeed, he Gorilla Trails in Paradise joked that an African woman could never be as beautiful or aesthetically pleasing as a white Pa- Upon arrival at the White Friars’ Mission in risian woman (“Gorillas” 430). More important- Usumbura, Akeley heard tales of a gorilla killed ly, Akeley’s critique of Frémiet’s statue refl ected nearby. Apparently, the animal had ravaged a ba- his conviction to “bring back stories of beautiful nana grove owned by the regional chief, who sub- Africa” and not the dark Africa fi xed in the pub- sequently sent out “his men” to chase the unarmed lic mind.5 animal. Unfortunately, one of his trusty subjects Unfortunately for Akeley, his female com- fell victim to the gorilla. Enraged, the chief or- panions did not aspire to such lofty aims. When dered the men to kill the gorilla with their spears. told that they (Martha Miller and Mary Bradley) In his recollection of this story, Akeley questioned would be “the only women [read white women] the “veracity of this tale” of men armed with in the world who had seen wild gorillas,” Bradley sticks chasing a gorilla, and discounted the feroc- jested: “We hope they’d appreciate the trouble we ity of the animal offender. He also showed little were taking and if a wild gorilla would only ap- concern for the life of the African man, as he re- pear and perform that much advertised act of marked that the chief underestimated the harm- carrying women off we wouldn’t offer any re- lessness of the animal. More importantly, the tale sistance” (98, 112). Miller and Bradley suggested signaled that the safari party was “getting into the disappearing with their simian lover. Much like real gorilla country” and this pleased Akeley tre- the men’s decision to play the “savage” hunting mendously. The knowledge that they were getting the defenseless gorilla, the women jokingly exult- close to the animal, “quickened the blood,” as this ed in the chance to “go primitive” sexually—to mission represented “that last word in African ad- share one lover (a quasi-polygamous union) and venture” (In Brightest Africa 200–01). to engage in an act that only African women re- At Gissenyi, the Akeley party met the wife of portedly performed. Miller and Bradley’s sally T. Alexander Barns, a hunter collecting gorillas for challenged popular cultural views of white wom- the British Museum. There, the men left the wom- en’s purity and fi guratively closed the distance be- en as they “push[ed] on into gorilla country.” Ake- tween black and white women’s sexuality. Meta- ley left with 30 of the 170 porters to secure the phorically, by embracing an “atavistic sexuality” “fi rst” moving pictures of gorillas in their natural (Gilman 263), Miller and Bradley defi ed attempts habitat. He was both “nervous and anxious” about to “police” white women’s bodies and mytholo- the prospect of seeing a gorilla as he traversed the gize them as separate and distinct from those of landscape that recalled for him past adventures on “Other” women. Why could not the white wom- Mt. Kenya years earlier (Akeley, In Brightest Afri- an supply “Mr. Darwin’s Missing Link?” (Ward’s ca 201–03; Bradley 98). Monotonous treks across Natural History Bulletin 8). Perhaps the “missing walking paths and game trails gave way to the mo- “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 327 ment of splendor, when Akeley saw his fi rst goril- is normally a perfectly amiable creature. I believe la track. He remembered, that if he attacks man it is because he is being I’ll never forget it. In that mud hole attacked or thinks he is being attacked. I believe were the marks of four great knuckles that he will fi ght in self-defense and probably in where the gorilla had placed his hand on defense of his family” (In Brightest Africa 196–97). the ground. There is no other track like The male gorilla behaves like any human male this on earth—there is no other hand would. Indeed, in evolutionary terms, the human in the world so large … As I looked at male inherited the gorilla’s masculine impulse to that track I lost the faith on which I had protect. Akeley did not comment on “real” goril- brought my party to Africa. Instinctive- la behavior; rather, he projected human values on ly I took my gun from the boy. I knew it, fi guratively and literally, walking in the prints then the feeling Du Chaillu described in of the primate. his quaint phrase, “My feelings were re- Akeley’s audience did not understand or know ally excited to a painful degree.” I had necessarily of the emotive properties of gorillas. more thrill from the sight of this fi rst More importantly, Akeley offered no scientifi c evi- track than from anything that happened dence of the complex emotional lives of primates later. (In Brightest Africa 203) as evinced in his reliance on safari-like encoun- ters with the animals to describe their behaviors. Akeley’s companions, the Bradleys, similarly rec- Akeley had yet to systematically observe the goril- ollected their fi rst sight of gorilla prints. On this la outside the hunt; that is, as anything other than occasion, Mary Bradley joined her husband in the prey. Thus, his description of gorilla behavior in hunt. Upon hearing their guide refer to the prints his creed was a well-crafted fi ction, a deliberate as “big, big,” she called the news “stirring” and equating of gorilla with man to illicit sympathy set out to follow the tracks. Bradley wrote: “We and a sense of familiarity from his readers. Yet, it followed with a feeling of tremendous exhilara- is not simply the stated creed or the detached de- tion. It was the actual mark of the great beast we scriptions of evisceration that unmask Akeley’s re- had come so far to see; he was there somewhere visioning of the image of the gorilla. Rather, the ahead of us, hidden in a turning of the green human-like characteristics that he imparted to the thicket—any moment a parting of the leaves primates as he stalked them, killed them, and pre- might show us his black, twitching face and spar- pared their death masks disclosed his desire to so- kling eyes” (107). lidify the humanness of the gorillas. Akeley’s hunt of the gorilla was arduous. At In “Adventures on Mt. Mikeno,” Akeley hu- fi rst glance, his narrative of the gorilla killings manized the gorillas he shot, particularly “the old seems straightforward. A great white hunter sur- black female” and her son. By referring to the fe- rounded by “forty odd” hands and guides en- male gorilla as an “old black female,” Akeley may dured unseen dangers to secure specimens for a have been playing on images of the “mammy” museum. However, it bears noting that Akeley be- that popular culture often troped in precisely those gan his narrative of the hunt by reviewing all the terms. Also, for the fi rst time in his recollection of false notions people held about the gorilla, par- gorilla hunting, Akeley designated his guides “Ne- ticularly its ferocity. He wrote, “[T]his reputation groes” (an American term for blacks), instead of is so fi rmly established in the popular mind” that boys or Africans. Akeley employed a more pre- his and Herbert Bradley’s decision to take wom- cise language to avoid confusing the reader, sug- en and a girl child in Central Africa “was looked gesting a confl uence of his earlier descriptions of upon as madness.” To rid his mind of these pop- Africans and gorillas. In this retelling Akeley also ular myths, Akeley fashioned a mantra to recite put on the mantle of “savage” and “aggressor” before he set out to “hunt the ‘ferocious’ gorilla as he recalled shooting the female and her off- in the heart of Africa”: “I believe that the gorilla spring. The latter ran away, only to be located thir- 328 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

ty minutes later, running about until speared by a some three hundred feet of motion pictures of guide. As Akeley looked down upon the infant go- lone gorillas and gorilla bands. Traveling up the rilla’s dying face he saw “a heartbreaking expres- slopes of Mt. Karisimbi, the safari came upon “a sion of piteous pleading” and reasoned that had magic spot” where the group spotted “a male go- the infant been able, he would have “come to rilla in his savage haunts” that “didn’t know his [his human] arms for comfort” (In Brightest Afri- part.” The lone male did not afford Akeley and ca, 215–24). Here the prey ceased to be an object Herbert Bradley the opportunity to “defend the of science, but rather a mother and a son brutally ladies heroically from threatened death,” to per- killed by savage men (Akeley and the guide). Ake- form feats of masculine prowess. Rather, as if to ley reaffi rmed the remorse clearly shown here af- confi rm Akeley’s creed, the animal with “huge, ter he shot another female gorilla mistaken for uncouth, slouching shoulders” remained motion- an “immature male.” However, he consoled him- less as Bradley shot the animal in the neck. But self by reverting to scientifi c jargon to avoid guilt. when the gorilla proved to still be alive and ran The knowledge that the female was a “splendid off, Bradley shot him again, killing him (Bradley large specimen” absolved him of murder despite 114, 116; Akeley, In Brightest Africa 225, 229). his observation that the mother gorilla left a baby Akeley’s recounting of Bradley’s killing of the “crying piteously” but unscathed (In Brightest Af- ape upheld the image of the gorilla as noble king rica 215–24). In his description of his gorilla en- of the jungle. Akeley commented that the animal counters, Akeley endowed the gorillas with fea- had shown no sign of aggression; it just sought tures and emotions reminiscent of human family to escape and made no sound as the men gunned interactions to reinforce notions of human–goril- it down. He lamented, “it took all one’s scientifi c la similarity. ardour to keep from feeling like a murderer” (In The making of the “death masks” for the go- Brightest Africa 229–30). Akeley’s use of the term rillas also contributed to the humanization of murder is important here, as only humans could the gorilla family. Dating back to antiquity, death be victims of murder, as understood by Ameri- masks were literally impressions taken of the de- cans. Great white hunters customarily did not re- ceased’s faces, often in an attempt to secure the fer to the killing of animals or faunal specimens sensation of the last breath and stare upon a while on safari as murder. Yet, Akeley viewed the sticky and pliable substance. The death mask had act of slaying a gorilla as murder, even as he took mystical qualities, capturing for posterity the im- solace in knowing that the gorilla had not been print of death upon one’s countenance. Cultures killed for sport, but rather to advance science. designed this ritual for humans as part of the rite Mary Bradley also remembered seeing the of passage of dying and transition. Akeley’s deci- gorilla being shot and it subsequently “plunging sion to create death masks of the gorillas symbol- down the slope.” She stated that she would “nev- ized an initiation of them into the human family er forget the humanness of that black, upturned and into a cultural practice that had been reserved face.” The gorilla’s face concealed no ferocity, as for man. However, the death masks may have its “normal expression was of a curiously mild served another purpose. They could have been and patriarchal dignity.” The animal only seemed used to recreate the dimensions of the gorillas’ vicious when its mouth was open. Decrying any faces for comparative analysis with humans—al- sentimentality, Bradley wrote, “you could see in though there is little evidence that this was Ake- that face a gleam of patient and tragic surmise, ley’s purpose. What is interesting is that Akeley as if the old fellow had a prescience that some- never mentioned making death masks of other thing was happening in the world against which animals killed while on safari. his strength was of no avail—as if he knew the After completing the death masks, Akeley so- security of his high place was gone.” She mused journed into the forests of Mt. Mikeno, where that the animal had “been indeed the King of he secured four more gorilla specimens and shot the African forests,” capable of crushing or “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 329

strangling a lion or capturing an elephant.” Un- tion, similarly they killed apes to produce scien- like Akeley, Bradley indulged in fl ights of fan- tifi c knowledge about race. These were necessary cy, seeing the gorilla as it had been in the public evils. Yet Akeley rejoiced at seeing other goril- mind—a beast capable of unfathomable violence las disappear “none the worse for having met (116–17). More noteworthy, not only did she an- with white men.” And, Mary Bradley proclaimed: thropomorphize the ape, Bradley bolstered the “There is no reason for keeping the gorilla on the image of the gorilla as the masculine progenitor, game lists.” She argued that it was too “valuable” who knew he must step aside for man to assume and “rare” to be hunted and killed. She called his right/rite of having dominion over the ani- for the creation of gorilla preserves and offi cial mals. Such thoughts on the role of gorilla in the (e.g., colonial) protection of the gorilla, so that it order of things did not follow the slaying of the would not “go the way that so many great beasts female apes. It appears that the African forests have gone—the way that all are going fast now were also a man’s world. in Africa.” After estimating that Mts. Mikeno and During the day, the men worked on preserv- Karisimbi might contain seventy-fi ve to one hun- ing the gorilla for the museum (Akeley, In Brightest dred gorillas (In Brightest Africa 235), Akeley, like Africa 231). Later that evening, in a moment of Bradley imagined a vanishing Africa (Akeley, In curiosity, the Wazungu (whites) of the safari party Brightest Africa 235; Bradley 132). The gorilla had sought communion with the dead gorilla. In an become a symbol of a by-gone age in Africa; a exercise of quasi-cannibalism, for in their minds tangible link to man’s primordial past that only the gorilla was a long lost relative, or at best a conservation could save. With a heavy heart and cousin to the “savage” African, they cooked the a full bag of specimens, the group departed for meat and ate a little as a lark, fi nding it “fi rm and the White Friar’s Mission (Akeley, In Brightest Af- sweet.” Mary Bradley noted that she “couldn’t get rica 235). over the family feeling of sampling grand-uncle Africanus” as they feasted in ritual over the body of their “primitive cousin” (Bradley 118, 121), A Sanctuary for All Times the evolutionary father fi gure. It is worth not- ing that Bradley genders the ape as male. They The meditations of Akeley and the Bradleys did not “sample” the mother; as in the Freudian while on safari underscored Akeley’s campaign to family romance, it is the body of the father/male lobby the Belgian Government to create a gorilla fi gure that is cannibalized. Interestingly, the Afri- sanctuary in the Lake Kivu district. Upon return- can porters refused to eat the meat.6 In her nar- ing to the United States, Akeley appointed him- rative, Bradley reveals that the racial assignments self the protector/savior of the vanishing gorilla. had been reversed. The stereotypical cannibalis- Through lectures and literary output, he cautioned tic Africans—images of whom propped up the a complacent America that the gorilla in Africa colonial project and legitimated Belgian empire- would go the way of the many species that once building in the Congo—expressed repulsion at roamed North America. He attempted to mobi- the prospect of eating the ape, while the civilized lize as many followers as possible behind his mis- whites appeared nonplussed. sion by corresponding with noted scientists, intel- As if taking in the enormity of eating “un- lectuals, and foreign dignitaries. More importantly, cle” Africanus, members of the safari party con- Akeley’s politics of preservation reinforced impe- templated their role in hunting gorillas. Remi- rialist rhetoric that presented the “Empire” as be- niscent of the colonial/imperial enterprise, they nevolent protector (Ranger 221–22). justifi ed their shooting of fi ve gorillas for science Akeley’s terminology used to describe the as destruction in the name of improvement. As place where his simian friends would thrive re- Europeans destroyed the Congo rainforests to fl ects the importance he assigned to the project. ship rubber to the West to support industrializa- In one of his earliest correspondences regarding 330 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

the gorilla reserve, Akeley termed the area where thousands of hunting licenses to Europeans and the gorillas would be protected a “reservation.”7 Americans to hunt the gorilla and thus, helped fa- In conservation discourse, the British tended to cilitate the “disappearance” of the gorilla in less use the term “preserve.” Thus, Akeley’s use of than a century.9 this word is crucial in that it reveals his Ameri- The Belgian government sympathized with can sensibilities. During his lifetime, a reservation Akeley’s plan, for as early as 1901, it had issued a (in terms of land) defi ned a place where the gov- decree to regulate hunting in its African territories. ernment placed Native Americans in an attempt King Leopold II began to envision the creation to “protect” them from the onslaught of civili- of a national park based upon the model of Yel- zation. The reservation system rhetoric attempt- lowstone National Park. However, it was after the ed to downplay the real politics behind its incep- death of the king and the transfer of ownership tion—to claim fertile and productive land from of the Congo to the Belgian State that Prince Al- native peoples under eminent domain and visions bert (after traveling to the Congo in 1909) recog- of Manifest Destiny. However, some white advo- nized the necessity for creating reserves to protect cates of the reservation system did indeed view fl ora and fauna. Unfortunately, the Great War pre- it as the only vehicle with which the “dying” cul- vented the prince from realizing his dream. After tures of Native Americans could be preserved a trip to the United States in 1919, to visit Amer- and where “tribes” could live in some autonomy ican national parks, King Albert revived Leop- away from the government. In paternalist rheto- old’s plan to create a wildlife refuge in the Con- ric, white Americans construed Native Americans go (Parc National Albert 10, 12, 14). Thus, Akeley’s as an endangered species, much like the buffalo desire to protect the gorillas of Kivu correspond- of the Great Plains (Berkhofer 166–74). Similar- ed with a long-held desire of the Belgian royals— ly, some Europeans in the early twentieth centu- a desire that cast the regents (alive and postmor- ry argued for creating reserves for “endangered” tem) as benevolent imperialists in the eyes of the tribes in Africa. Members of the Royal African Western world.10 Society and the Congo Reform Association advo- After securing additional support from scien- cated for the protection of the so-called Pygmies tists, scientifi c institutions, and government pleni- as deforestation in the rubber regions of the Con- potentiaries—the AMNH, Robert Means Yer- go River Basin and other imperial projects threat- kes (a psychologist at Yale University and affi liate ened to undermine their lifestyles.8 In calling the of the National Research Council in Washington, gorilla preserve a reservation, Akeley made the DC), the National Geographic Society, Baron de Indian tribe and the gorilla band interchangeable. Cartier de Marchienne (Belgian Ambassador to His implications were clear. On a reservation, the the United States), and James Gustavus Whiteley “primitive,” be it man or animal, would be pro- (Consul of Belgium)—Akeley still faced obstacles. tected from and by the white man. The gorilla sanctuary was not a foregone conclu- Akeley considered the reservation a sacred sion. Setting aside valuable land in a colonial terri- place, as he romanticized the refuge as the gorillas’ tory would require support from the Belgian elite “sanctuary for all times.” The reservation would and business community. Whiteley sent copies of be a place of worship, where a biological research Akeley’s articles on the gorilla to government of- station would attract would-be congregants. The fi cials and “personal friends.” These men had to gorilla would be safe from white hunters. Howev- be convinced that it would be in the best interest er, Akeley realized that such a place could not exist of the empire to save the gorilla. As a result, Ake- unless the colonial government of the region saw ley’s narratives of the gorilla expedition began to the imperative for protecting the gorilla. For mil- appear in more print media, including The World’s lennia the gorilla endured and now it faced extinc- Work, which claimed a wide readership in Ameri- tion, according to Akeley. Ironically, he sought co- ca and Europe. Eventually, his gorilla tales would operation from the same government that issued be published in his book, In Brightest Africa. Reve- “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 331 lations of slaughtering safaris (of course not con- As the Belgian government’s decision to cre- ducted by Akeley) and dire predictions of the ate a gorilla preserve gained international cover- disappearance of teeming bands of gorillas culmi- age, other nations seized on the opportunity to nated in images of vulnerable, docile, family-ori- promote preservation of rare African fauna. The ented primates preyed upon by man. The haunt- (London) Times published an article on the disap- ing image of seeing man’s distant relative (one key pearance of the rare game in Africa, and praised to the missing link) obliterated by civilization vali- the British government and societies (like the So- dated the expensive undertaking to create a goril- ciety for the Preservation of Fauna of the Em- la preserve.11 pire) for furthering the movement for game pres- The frenzy to obtain a fi rm commitment to ervation. The paper also credited the British the gorilla sanctuary (as it was being called in late for initiating the movement to protect the go- 1922) left a bitter taste in the mouths of many rilla. Upon reading the article, Akeley requested hunters and governments. Akeley’s descriptions that Whiteley write a letter to the Times “so that of indiscriminate killings of gorillas were met the Englishmen will have the facts and not run with acrimony and suspicion. In order for Ake- away with the idea that they have done the whole ley to advance his cause he had to furnish indis- trick.” Akeley pledged to arm Whiteley with “a lot putable proof that the numbers of gorillas in of facts” for him to include in the letter.13 This the Kivu district were rapidly depleting and that matter was crucial as the Belgian government greedy white hunters were at fault. In his plea for had yet to state exactly what actions they would the primates, Akeley casually noted: “If being take on behalf of the gorilla sanctuary.14 Never- molested by man would make gorillas ferocious theless, in a letter to editor of the Times, White- and aggressive, these animals should have been ley picturized the “sanctuary” that would be “a excessively dangerous, for within a very short sort of Garden of Eden where animals [would] time the Prince of Sweden had shot fourteen live in peace, amid their natural surroundings, of them, and Barns had killed several more. The without fear of man.” More importantly, he con- very animals that I followed had probably heard fi rmed that the idea for the sanctuary was “fi rst the guns of these other men” (In Brightest Afri- suggested” by Akeley and that the plans for the ca 216). Noted popular magazines and science preserve would be carried out in accordance with journals quoted Akeley’s statements in articles, as Akeley’s wishes.15 well as his estimation that fi fty to a hundred go- By 1925, the Belgians had issued the Roy- rillas were left in the region. These publications al Decree to establish the park. It named the pre- elicited harsh retorts. serve “Parc National Albert” (a.k.a. Albert Nation- For example, the Swedish charged Akeley with al Park), which comprised the mountains Mikeno, being a hypocrite for criticizing the Swedes col- Karisimbi, and Vissoke. In the zone, the colonial lecting of fourteen specimens and Barns’ shoot- government outlawed the “killing, capture or pur- ing of “several more,” when he himself had shot suit,” and hunting of the gorillas, as well as that of fi ve gorillas. Wils Glydenstople of the Royal Nat- any other wild animal, unless the latter was killed ural History Museum in Stockholm went to great in “legitimate self-defense.” The park would be pains to list the specimens collected and their sub- guarded by a combination of a conservation corps sequent use in the museum, as well as the Swedes’ and a corps of “special native police.” Insightfully, securing of the requisite rites and permissions to Akeley had argued early on that the protection of hunt in the Congo. He disparaged Akeley’s state- the park required the cooperation of the Africans, ments as “inaccurate” and motivated by jealousy. which could “be obtained through giving care- Interestingly, never in the letter did Glydenstople ful thought and considerations to their needs and dismiss the need for a reserve; rather, he refuted rights.”16 Akeley observed: “[T]he natives of this the claim that the Prince was part of the slaugh- region have disturbed the gorillas very little, nor tering safaris endangering African wildlife.12 have the gorillas disturbed the natives. Certain it 332 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

is that the gorillas got along very well till the white ity to “blacks” on the evolutionary scale. In di- men came along with guns.”17 orama they presented a fi ctionalized image of Although the creation of the fi rst offi cial go- the peaceful human family, obscuring the brutal- rilla sanctuary was a success, some scientists felt ity and randomness associated with the securing that the decree to create the park “proved to be of them as specimens. In reading the diorama, it insuffi cient for allowing for the perfect scientif- seems as if the safari party came across a fami- ic development of the institution” that would be ly, a father, mother, perhaps a daughter (the iden- dedicated to studying and protecting the gorilla. tities of the two females are indistinguishable), Thus, Akeley and Belgian J. M. Derscheid, nat- and a child at play—despite the fact that the sa- uralist and professor of science at L’Université fari party observed the gorillas traveling in bands Coloniale D’Anvers would conduct a recon- with one or two males and disproportionately naissance of the volcanoes within the park and more females. Mary Bradley wrote: study the life and customs of the Kivu gorillas. In 1925, the party set out for Africa, this time with a team of landscape artists and “prepara- tors” (taxidermists). Armed with funding from fi lm magnate George Eastman, AMNH trustee Daniel E. Pomeroy, and Colonel Daniel B. Wen- tz of Philadelphia, Akeley planned to devote six weeks to studying the Mikeno, Karisimbi, and Vissoke region and to fi lm gorillas on the top of Mt. Karisimbi. Unfortunately, his trip to Kivu would be his last African adventure. Akeley died from complications of a fever suffered in Kivu, where his wife and colleagues subsequently bur- ied him (Parc National Albert 18; Derscheid 15, 23–24; President’s Annual Report 14; M. Akeley 1, 3, 5; Leigh 31, 48, 65–93). The question arises whether those bands Akeley’s death did not bring a halt to the mu- consisted of two or more respectable seum’s systematic study of the gorillas. Although monogamous couples and their mar- assumed leadership of the ex- riageable daughters—maiden gorilla yet pedition, her fi ndings were not the last word on unculled by roving gallants—or whether African primates. In 1929, the AMNH partnered it consisted of a couple of gorilla gen- with Columbia University to sponsor an expedi- tlemen and their respective harems or of tion to examine gorilla behavior and bring back unassorted [sic] and liberally inclined la- specimens of gorillas for anatomical study. This dies and gentlemen … We can only offer expedition was to be wider in scope, encompass- the situation, not the solution. (133) ing the Kivu region (Parc National Albert) and the forests of Cameroon to the east (Rexer and Klein The analogies to “exotic” human sexual relation- 126–27). The search for the key to the origins of ships and virginity were explicit. References to ha- man would continue. rems and polygamy juxtaposed marriages among The gorillas immortalized in narrative and “savages” to monogamous, “civilized” people. Yet subsequently presented in the AMNH Akeley Bradley left some room for the reader to equate African Hall, were part of a band from which gorilla mating with the “bohemian” sexuality of they had been torn. They were “black” moth- the 1920s that embraced the primitive, or with an- ers, fathers, and babies, rarely termed “gorillas” thropological treatises on “savage sexuality.” In- in Akeley’s text, as if to emphasize their proxim- deed, Bradley’s fascination with the sex lives of “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 333

apes and her anthropomorphizing of them could the eating of the slain gorilla’s fl esh in Freudian be seen as a natural history precursor to anthro- fashion—as a rite of initiation—evoking theories pologist Bronislaw Malinowski’s 1929 book The that cannibals ate the fl esh of the deceased father Sexual Life of Savages (Torgovnick 112). Bradley’s in recognition of his patriarchal power, hoping to commentary on the gorilla’s sex life (or possibility transfer that authority to themselves through the of it) allowed her an opportunity to discuss sub- consumption of his body. jects otherwise unsuitable for a respectable Amer- Both Akeley and Bradley’s narratives of the ican woman and to step outside of constructed hunt, however steeped in Freudian symbolism, white femininity. It was clear that Akeley want- were at odds with one another. This is a point that ed to present the gorillas in diorama as a monog- Haraway does not address, perhaps because her amous nuclear family. In showcasing the goril- treatment of Akeley’s gorilla quest focuses on his las qua respectable family, Akeley distanced them narrative. Moreover, Haraway offers us a snapshot from associations with “uncivilized” sexual prac- into 1920s culture and fails to root Akeley’s pur- tices discussed in Bradley’s narrative. Akeley’s go- suit of the ape in a broader historical context— rilla family soothed the white, middle-class mu- one that directly engages nineteenth century dis- seum patrons’ sensibilities and entreated them to courses on race and gender and their impact on join in the fi ght to protect the gorilla. early twentieth-century theories of evolution. Akeley contended that humans had a respon- Bradley, unlike Akeley, was not interested in re- sibility to apes, which were immature humans, deeming apes from popular literary and cultural that is, precursors to humanity proper. For Ake- assumptions about their behavior. The selling of ley, the gorilla was father. Thus, the killing of the the gorilla as the tangible remnant of humanity ape was actually an usurpation of patriarchy—the and Africa’s prehistoric past did not occur without murder of the progenitor so that the man-child tension or casualties. She advocated saving the go- could emerge as leader of the clan/tribe. Using rilla regardless if theories of ape–human mating evolutionary theory, the primitive (gorilla) had to proved untrue. As the narratives of Bradley and be conquered in order for the civilized (man) to Akeley clearly unveil, there was no defi ning con- take his place in the order of things. Read in this sensus on gorilla behavior. Both anthropomor- light, the campaign for the sanctuary was actu- phized the gorilla to their own literary, scientifi c, ally a form of survivor’s guilt. The gorilla pre- and political ends. serve was created out of a sense of culpability in the lamentable, yet necessary death of the evo- lutionary father. This is not Victor Frankenstein Cinematic Simians chasing after his creation—the monster—until he himself dies, but rather the eldest male kill- Akeley and Bradley’s “primate visions” per- ing his father to assume power. After all, Akeley’s sisted in American culture and popular memo- death occurs on the second trip in search of the ry well into the late twentieth century—in fi lm. gorilla, after the sanctuary had already been creat- Two years after Akeley’s death on Mt. Karisim- ed, and not on the fi rst trip during which Akeley bi, the fi lm The Missing Link appeared in theaters. had his “epiphany.” It tells the tale of a white hunter, Lord Dryden, Mary Bradley’s recollection of the goril- who goes to Africa accompanied by his friend, la hunt was equally Freudian, as she painted im- Colonel Braden, in search of the “missing link”: ages of cannibalism and recounted rape fantasies the rumored half-man, half-ape who connects to explain her fascination with the gorilla. Bradley humanity to the great primates of Africa. In this imagined willingly absconding with the evolution- farce, the men believe a pet chimpanzee is the ary father, even as she encouraged her metaphori- missing link, until the hero—a young poet, who cal brothers to kill him for the greater good of the they hired as a baggage carrier—subdues the family (read science). Similarly, Bradley explained “real” missing link. The fi lm, on its surface, is rel- 334 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

atively benign and meant to elicit laughter from she had physically and metaphorically colonized the audience. However, not all fi lms featuring Af- Africa. That now famous encounter disclosed the ricans and apes were so lighthearted. The fi lm In- imperial politics that facilitated the creation of gagi released in 1930 billed itself as a “documen- gorilla sanctuaries in Africa and that consigned tary.” This motion picture featured apes “raping” Africans to “poaching” to survive in the colonial black women, although there is a veiled under- economy. Fossey’s dictum to Africans to leave standing that black women somehow lured these the mountain broke with Akeley’s call for coop- lecherous animals. Since Western culture con- eration between the colonial government and Af- structed the sexuality of these women as innate- ricans—but, jolted a Western collective memo- ly animalistic, it excused apes for feeling sexual- ry of white Americans (both fi ctional and real) ly drawn to them. With the release of King Kong braving the Dark Continent to save Africa from three years later, a “mad” gorilla menaced white itself and for posterity. womanhood. Often read as a metaphorical tale One year after Fossey’s arrival in Africa, Plan- of black men defi ling white women, King Kong et of the Apes (1968) appeared in theatres, re- played on existing stereotypes of the hypersexual fl ecting both Akeley’s simian fantasy and worst ape, and more radically the hypersexual desire of nightmare—gorillas (apes) fl ourished on Earth, black men for white women. However, the lat- unfortunately they have taken on all the mytholog- ter cinematic commentary on gorilla (and black ical characteristics that linked them to stereotypes men’s) sexuality made one thing patently clear— of Africans and “Negroes.” The apes are fero- the white woman did not welcome the primate’s cious, avaricious, and greedy humanoids—missing (black man’s) advances (Comaroff and Comaroff links on a rampage. Worst yet, they hate humans, 98; Munden; Cameron 98, 217, 222).18 The ape- whom they have enslaved. Interpreted by scholar woman trilogy, Wild Captive Woman (1943), Jungle Eric Greene as an allegorical tale of race relations Woman (1944), and Jungle Captive (1944) revealed in the 1960s, the simian world of Planet of the Apes that the white man did not seek the ape-wom- engages the same questions that plagued the early an (black woman’s) embrace. Despite the efforts twentieth century, marked by race riots and lynch- of Akeley and similarly minded naturalists, goril- ings. Can the apes (“Negroes”) and whites live to- las continued to be associated with aberrant sex- gether in harmony? Like Akeley in his gorilla nar- uality and violence in the American imagination. ratives, the screenplay writer mapped onto the Mary Bradley’s simian lover lived on in the Amer- fi lm all the social, cultural, and political concerns ican psyche. of the era. However, Akeley’s vision of the gorilla tri- The simian dystopia gave way to more be- umphed in the end. Primatologist Dian Fossey’s nign primate visions by the 1980s and 1990s. The defi ant cry: “Get off my mountain!” as drama- release of Disney’s Tarzan (1999) featuring a re- tized by Hollywood actress Sigourney Weaver in vamped Tarzan (a dred-locked and tree-swinging Gorillas in the Mist (1988) signifi ed a celluloid ob- wonder) and Jane as impassioned primatologist (a fuscation of the history that brought Fossey and cross between Fossey and Jane Goodall), resusci- those African men to that mountain in 1967— tated a racist novel (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tar- namely, the politics and legacies of imperialism. zan of the Apes) to promote compassion for the A white American woman had the “courage” to gorillas. Conspicuously absent of Africans (a la tell African “poachers” that she had taken own- The Lion King fantasy), Tarzan presents Africa as ership of the Virunga Mountains, in Rwan- a primordial wonderland facing destruction from da, and was protector to its resident gorillas in avaricious Great White Hunters. However, Tar- threat of extinction from them. In claiming those zan is no Akeley. Kerchak’s death scene parallels mountains as her space, Fossey evoked decades that of “grand-uncle Africanus” in one impor- of white notions of privilege in the “Dark Conti- tant way—both left the white man “king” of the nent.” In her own attempt to protect the gorillas African jungle. “GORILLA TRAILS IN PARADISE”: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK 335

Notes Works Cited

1. Carl Akeley to Henry Fairfi eld Osborn, January 18, 1921, A.A31, Akeley, Carl E. “Gorillas—Real and Mythical.” Natural History 23.5 Box 7 Number 42, AMNH, University of Rochester Libraries/ (1923): 429-36. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Hereafter Akeley, Carl E.. In Brightest Africa. New York: Doubleday, 1924. URL/DRBSC), Rochester, New York. Akeley, Mary Jobe. Carl Akeley’s Africa: The Account of the Akeley- 2. Ibid. Eastman-Pomeroy African Hall Expedition of the American Museum 3. Mary’s daughter Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon went on to be- of Natural History. New York: Blue Ribbon, 1929. come the famed science fi ction writer James Tiptree Jr. Fitting- Barns, T. Alexander. “Ngorongoro, the Giant Crater; And the Go- ly, her works explore themes of biological determinism, sexual- rilla, the Giant Ape (Continued).” Journal of the Royal African So- ity, science, and man’s determination to destroy the planet. See ciety 22.88 (1923): 278. Judith Genova (7–9). Berkhofer, Robert F. Jr. The White Man’s Indian: Images of the Ameri- 4. See Andre Battel, Ernest George Ravenstein, Samuel Purchas, can Indian from Columbus to the Present. New York: Vintage, 1978. and Anthony Knivet, The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battel of Leigh, in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (London: the Hakluyt Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory Practice 1977. Cambridge: Cam- Society, 1901). bridge UP, 2004. 5. Carl Akeley to George H. Sherwood, February 28, 1921; A.A31, Bradley, Mary Hastings. On The Gorilla Trail. New York: D. Apple- Box 7 Number 42, AMNH, URL/DRBSC. ton-Century, 1936. 6. As many porters were Muslims, it is possible that they refused to Bulmer, Michael. Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry. Bal- eat the meat because it was forbidden under the strictures of Is- timore: The John Hopkins UP, 2003. lam. Cameron, Kenneth M. Africa on Film: Beyond Black and White. New 7. Carl Akeley, to Robert Yerkes, April 31, 1922, A.A31, B7/F29, York: Continuum, 1994.• CEAP, URL/DRBSC. Collins, Patricia Hill. Fighting Words: Black Women & The Search for 8. For more on advocates for creating preserves for endan- Justice. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1998. gered tribes see P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, “Notes on a Journey Comaroff, John, and Jean Comaroff. Of Revelation and Revolution: Through the Great Ituri Forest,” Journal of the Royal African Soci- Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa. Chicago: ety 7.25 (Oct. 1907): 1–12; N. W. Thomas, “Sir Harry Johnston U of Chicago P, 1991. on ‘George Greenfell and the Congo,’“ Journal of the Royal Afri- Derscheid, J. M. La Protection Scientifi que de la Nature. Brussels: 1927. can Society 8.21 (Oct. 1908): 21–30; and Phillipe Verner Bradford and Harvey Blume, Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo (New York: Desmond, Adrian. The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Dell Publishing, A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub- Reform in Radical London. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. lishing Group Inc., 1992). Genova, Judith. “Tiptree and Haraway: The Reinvention of Na- 9. Akeley to Yerkes. ture.” Cultural Critique 27 (1994): 5-27. 10. The decision to create what would become a national park in Gilman, Sander. “Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconogra- the Belgian Congo did not begin with Akeley. In 1888, Eng- phy of Female Sexuality in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Med- lish explorer Major von Wissmann promoted the creation of icine, and Literature.” “Race,” Writing, and Difference. Ed. Henry a game reserve in equatorial Africa. At the turn of the centu- Louis Gates, Jr. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1985. 223-61.• ry, the International Conference for the Protection of Wild Af- Gorillas in the Mist. Dir. Michael Apted. Perf. Sigourney Weaver. rican Animals was held in London, where Wissmann’s idea was 1988. DVD. California: Universal Pictures, 2004. taken up. Greene, Eric. Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and 11. Wils Glydenstople to Captain A. Gyde, September 14, 1923, Popular Culture. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan UP, 1998. MLJAC (MSS.A342), Box 3 Folder 11. Haraway, Donna. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the 12. Glydenstople to Gyde. World of Modern Science. New York: Routledge, 1989. 13. Carl Akeley to James Whiteley, July 1, 1924, MLJAC (MSS. Iliffe, John. Africans: The History of a Continent. Cambridge: Cam- A342), Box 3 Folder 12. bridge UP, 1995. 14. James Whiteley to Carl Akeley, New York, July 29, 1924, ML- Jungle Captive. Dir. Harold Young. Perf. Vicky Lane. 1944. Universal JAC (MSS.A342), Box 3 Folder 12. Home Video, 1998. 15. Draft of James Whiteley, “A Gorilla Sanctuary,” The (London) Jungle Woman. Dir. Reginald Le Borg. Perf. Acquanetta. 1944. Uni- Times, September 5, 1924, in MLJAC (MSS.A342), Box 3 Fold- versal Home Video, 1998. er 12. Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory. “Henry A. Ward: The Merchant Natural- 16. Albert, King of the Belgians, To all present and to come. ist and American Museum Development.” Journal of the Society 17. Akeley quoted in Albert, King of the Belgians, To all present for the Bibliography of Natural History 9.4 (1980): 647-56. and to come, March 2, 1925, (Copy of translation), Mary L. Jobe Akeley Correspondence (Hereafter MLJAC) (MSS.A342), Leigh, William Robinson. Frontiers of Enchantment: An Artist’s Adven- Box 3 Folder 13, CEA: Correspondence, Gorilla Sanctuary; tures in Africa. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1938. AMNH Archives, New York. “The Missing Link.” Ward’s Natural Science Bulletin June 1881: 8. 18. According to Cameron, copies of Ingagi did not survive. Per- Munden, Kenneth W. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion haps its offensive nature led the distributor to pull the fi lm and Pictures Produced in the United States: Featured Films, 1921–1930. destroy all existing copies of the movie. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1971. 336 JEANNETTE EILEEN JONES IN THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 29 (2006)

Parc National Albert = Nationaal Park Albert. Brussels: 1934. Tarzan. Dir. Chris Buck and Kevin Lima. Perf. Tony Goldwyn, Min- Planet of the Apes. Dir. Franklin Schaffner. Perf. Charlton Heston nie Driver, Glenn Close, Brian Blessed, and Nigel Hawthorne. and Roddy McDowall. 1968. DVD. California: Fox. 2004. 1999. DVD. Disney, 2000. President’s Annual Report. New York: American Museum of Natural Todorov, Tzvetan. The Morals of History. Trans. Alyson Waters. Min- History, 1925. neapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1995. Ranger, Terence. “Whose Heritage? The Case of Matobo National Torgovnick, Mariana. Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. Park.” Journal of Southern African Studies 15.2 (1989): 217-49. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990. Rexer, Lyle, and Rachel Klein. American Museum of Natural History: “To the Gorilla in the Rochester University.” Ward’s Natural Science 125 Years of Expedition and Discovery. New York: H. N. Abrams, Bulletin April 1882: 9. 1995. Warren, Adrian. “Mountain Gorillas.” Accessed on 17 May 2005 Schiebinger, Londa. Nature’s Body: Gender and the Making of Modern http://www/lastrefuge.co.uk/data/articles/gorillas_p2_2.html Science. Boston: Beacon, 1993. Wild Captive Woman. Dir. Edward Dmytrk. Perf. Acquanetta, John Stoler, Ann Laura. Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s Histo- Carradine, and Milburn Stone. 1943. VHS. MCA Home Vid- ry of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. Durham: Duke UP, eo, 1994. 1995. Stoler, Ann Laura.. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power; Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule. Berkeley: U of California P, 2002.