Umutama
Est. Date of Birth: 1996
Male
My name is Umutama and I am the alpha male of Ngamba after three years of challenging Kalema. I arrived at Ngamba in November 2000 after being confiscated from a private owner in Burundi. My name means “old one” in Kirundi, the local language in Burundi. While a I am physically very big, I usually don’t throw my weight around, preferring charm and charisma to lead the other chimps. I am respectful of the younger animals and will even let them eat close by. But I can be very agressive when necessary and punish individuals with force which is why I am the current leader.
My Story
Umutama (Its Dangerous being a Chimpanzee)
I never thought for once in my life that I would come from Burundi and become the Alpha male at Ngamba Island, but I am. I came from not being wanted to being a leader. To be honest that wasn’t anywhere in my wildest dreams.
But somehow time has bought me my most coveted desire—being accepted and leadership is the best example of acceptance. But to get here I had to go through some rough patches.
Me and Umugenzi were kidnapped from our families in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and transported to Burundi in reed cages covered with sacks of Posho.
We managed to put holes in the sacks and pushed our hands out asking for help and a man named Costa felt sorry for us and bought us at 20,000 Burundi Francs (precisely 42,558 UGX) from the pet trader.
Sadly Costa didn’t know what to do with us so he asked a friend of his to look after us in Kiriri. But his friend too didn’t know what to do with us so they turned us into pets. What was worse, they kept us separate from each other something which made me so aggressive because I wanted to be with my brother.
They said, they had to do that because I was too aggressive to play with Umugenzi. This situation went on for a while but on 14th July 1999 everything changed.
Someone came to visit us, this person looked at us for long, checking us out while making loud pant hoots occasionally as we replied with glee. It was the first time we saw a pant hooting human.
We got a couple of other people visiting who could pant hoot and before we knew it we were confiscated from Burundi and brought to Uganda into the pant hooting Kingdom of Ngamba Island—a Kingdom I am King to currently.
Our confiscation wasn’t easy but I’m glad we made it here because we found love.
Are you looking for love and acceptance? I guess it’s time you visited Ngamba Island because we found ours there.
1000 Pant Hoots
Umutama.
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