The Tracks of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé
The people around the Congo River Basin have a long oral history of
their people and their lands. Among and intertwined with those
stories are tales of a gigantic beast that lives in the swamps and
rivers of the Congo. Generally it's a harmless beast, uninterested
in eating people, and sticking to a type of liana that grows along
the river. That isn't to say that it isn't dangerous; the tales say
that the Mokèlé-mbèmbé will attack and sometimes kill people and
hippos. Strangely, this area of the lowlands has an unusually low
hippo population.
So the question arises: what exactly is the Mokèlé-mbèmbé? Simplest
answer is that it is the Sasquatch of Africa. The name even means
"one who stops the flow of rivers". There are crypozoologists in
the world who would say that it/they are real living dinosaurs of
the sauropod family still roaming the earth.
They are described as being bigger than a forest elephant with a
long neck, a small snake-like or lizard-like head, which was
decorated with a comb-like frill. They have a long, flexible tail,
reddish-brown skin and four stubby, but powerful legs with clawed
toes.
Not unlike Nessy of Lock Ness fame, Mokèlé-mbèmbé just aren't
photogenic. There are some pictures that claim to have captured the
image of such a creature, but as a rule they are too distant, too
blurry, or too dark. Such obstacles are no deterrent to the
determined. Expeditions to find the Mokèlé-mbèmbé have come home
with photos of footprints and super-sized trails through the
flora.
There is a long history of people encountering the Mokèlé-mbèmbé,
including:
1776 - French priest Abbé Lievain Bonaventure Proyart described the
natural history of the Congo Basin of Africa. He wrote about a
creature "which was not seen but which must have been monstrous:
the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a
print about three feet in circumference."
Photo of Mokèlé-mbèmbé in the distance.
1909 - Naturalist Carl Hagenbeck recounted how two separate
individuals: a German named Hans Schomburgh and an English hunter,
told him about a "huge monster, half elephant, half dragon," which
lived in the Congo swamps.
1980 - An expedition mounted by engineer Herman Regusters and his
wife Kia managed to make its way to Lake Tele, where they heard the
growls and roars of an unknown creature. They also claimed to have
photographed Mokèlé-mbèmbé in the lake, as well as watching it walk
on land through the brush. According to Regusters, the creature
they saw was 30-35 feet long.
1983 - A Congolese expedition led by Marcellin Agnagna, a zoologist
from the Brazzaville Zoo, arrived to Lake Tele. Agnagna claimed to
have seen the beast some 275 meters out in the lake. The animal
held its thin, reddish head - which had crocodile-looking, oval
eyes and a thin nose - on a height of 90 cm and looked from side to
side, almost as if it was watching him. According to Agnagna, the
animal was a reptile, though not a crocodile, nor a python or a
freshwater turtle.
1987 - A piece of blurry video footage filmed by a Japanese film
crew supposedly showing the creature in Lake Tele remains
disputable evidence of the animal's existence. The film is
indistinct and grainy, possibly just showing two men in a boat with
one of them standing upright in the front of the vessel, as is
common in Africa. This has been interpreted as a head and neck, but
this interpretation of the videotape is purely speculative at
best.
2000 - Cameroon, Boumba River, Two Congolese security guards
spotted a Mokèlé-mbèmbé in the water.
Though there is no conclusive evidence that the Mokèlé-mbèmbé are
loitering in the lakes and swamps of the Congo, there are enough
hints to make one wonder. Personally, I think it would be keen if
such a monster were still out there. Improbable as it is that a
beast of such dimension could elude being caught on film for so
long, it isn't impossible. New species are still being cataloged in
Africa—and other parts of the world—though none quite so big.
