The Jane Goodall Institute, Tanzania (July 2017)

As many of you may know, Dr. Jane Goodall, renowned for her studies on wild chimpanzees and world-wide involvement in conservation and animal welfare, lives in Bournemouth in the United Kingdom. Obviously, I don’t have to introduce to you who Dr. Jane Goodall is (there are many who have already done this; simply google her name and you can find lots of information in case you want to know more), but I can tell you this: for a long time, Dr. Jane Goodall has been one of my heroes. I find it fascinating that one person can achieve so much in a lifetime, has such dedication and persistence in achieving her goals, and forms and inspiration to so many people. Certainly to me, she is a massive inspiration, both in my work and in my personal life.

As by chance, I happen to also live in Bournemouth these days; I moved here for my PhD study in primatology (in chimpanzee landscape use, to be exact). One day, I got the opportunity to meet with Dr. Jane Goodall while she was at home (somewhere in between her 300 days of travel a year). We had a long talk about all kinds of things, and it was truly amazing. What a beautiful, kind, and inspiring person, and what a great honour for me to meet her. She is travelling all over the world to help save our planet and all its species, and is inspiring people to never lose hope, to never give up. She strongly believes that everyone can make a difference, no matter how small, and every little bit helps. I find this truly inspiring.

During our talk, I mentioned that I was going to Tanzania soon for my PhD fieldwork season in Issa Valley, Ugalla. Upon hearing this, she suggested that there were some interesting people there for me to meet while I’m there. As such, I got into contact with Mr. Freddy Kimaro, the executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in Tanzania, and Dr. Anthony Collins, the director of baboon research in Gombe Stream Research Centre of the JGI and good friend of Dr. Jane Goodall. I agreed to meet with them once in Tanzania. Again, just like Dr. Jane Goodall herself, they were the most kind and inspirational people. They told me all about their work, their current projects and the (conservation) challenges they are facing. They were also very interested in my PhD project, especially the modelling part, so we had some nice discussions about this as well. Mr. Freddy Kimaro also introduced me to some other people from JGI, amongst others to Mr. Japhet Jonas Mwanang’ombe, the programme coordinator of Roots & Shoots in Tanzania. As you may know, Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is a youth service programme, whose mission is “to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs, and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, other animals and the environment” (more information and this citation on https://www.rootsandshoots.org/). It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with all these amazing people!

Sign of JGI in Dar es Salaam. © K. L. van Leeuwen

While I was at the Issa field site, I got an email from Dr. Anthony Collins. He had spoken to Dr. Jane Goodall, and she had suggested that I could perhaps do a presentation for some Roots & Shoots students. Maybe, I could form an inspiration for especially the young girls among them. Also Mr. Japhet Jonas Mwanang’ombe and Mr. Freddy Kimaro thought this was a good idea. Dr. Anthony Collins asked me whether I would be up for that. Wow! What a great opportunity and what an honour! I think it’s safe to say that I was extremely happy after receiving this email! Of course, I would love to do this presentation, so the arrangements began. The presentation had to be about myself, which I found quite difficult at first. It’s totally different than a ‘normal’ scientific presentation. I decided to talk about my life, my studies, my motivation, my fieldwork experiences so far, and my love for primatology and doing fieldwork. I included lots of pictures and videos to my PowerPoint, to make everything interactive and nice to look at.

My actual presentation was in the afternoon of July 24th, in Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania). Unfortunately, Dr. Jane Goodall couldn’t be there for my presentation, but I did get the chance to meet her in the morning. What a coincidence that we were both in Dar es Salaam at the same time! Lucky me! :) I joined Dr. Jane Goodall to a presentation at Cordoba Girls Secondary School, an Islamic school for girls. Not surprisingly, Dr. Jane Goodall gave a very inspirational and motivational talk to the girls; they were all extremely impressed and grateful. The girls also told us about their Roots & Shoots initiatives and projects, and showed us that they were all really involved in making this world a better place. They also made a song for Dr. Jane Goodall and sang it to us! It is truly inspiring to see such young girls showing some much dedication and persistence. They can truly form an example for many people across the globe! As part of the programme, I also quickly introduced myself to everyone and told them a little bit about my research and fieldwork, together with some other ‘guests’, including Dr. Anthony Collins and Mr. Japhet Jonas Mwanang’ombe.

Group picture at Cordoba Girls Secondary School. Introducing myself to the audience at

In the afternoon, it was time for my own presentation, this time at another school: Chang’ombe Secondary School. I was a little nervous to begin with, but that quickly disappeared after seeing all these friendly and enthusiastic faces coming into the room. I think there were around 100 children present at my presentation, all between 13 and 18 years old. I don’t think I have ever had such an interested audience during a presentation. They were all really into it and paid much attention to everything I said. I think they liked it! :) After the presentation had finished, many people asked questions about all sort of things. I think there was an hours’ worth of questions, which was great! I enjoyed these questions so much! Everyone was asking very intelligent and well thought-through questions, and it was great to discuss with them about many topics. We not only talked about my studies and motivation, but also about chimpanzees in general, about conservation, and about evolution. It was fantastic. I really hope that it was as inspirational for them as it was for me! As part of the programme, some people also gave a short talk about their initiatives. Unfortunately, this was all in Swahili, so I couldn’t really understand it all, but as far as I got, it all sounded very stimulating! We finished the afternoon by having some drinks and biscuits together, and by taking group photographs and ‘selfies’.