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Jewels of the Jungle Wildlife art exhibition launched
L-R Barbara Hollweg, an international photographer, a man dressed as a chimpanzee, Lewis Hollweg, Barbara’s husband. Photo by EDGAR R. BATTE.
What you need to know:
Caring for chimps. Chimpanzees, like human beings, need medical care and ‘Jewels of the Wildlife Art exhibition’ was aimed at raising funds to construct a clinical ward where they can be treated.
As guests waltzed into Sheraton Kampala Hotel, men and women dressed as chimpanzees interested them in purchasing tickets. Later on, these tickets could win them something, in a raffle draw.
But it was not the tickets that drew guests’ attention; it was the non-verbal communication from ‘the chimps’ that tickled many.
This was at, the launch of the ‘Jewels of the Jungle’ Wildlife Art exhibition aimed at raising funds to put up a medical ward for chimps at Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary.
The art showcased art by two conservation artistes, Taga Nuwagaba, a painter, and Barbara Hollweg, a photographer. Each of the artist’s works portrayed wildlife in a creatively beautiful manner.
“Conservation is not a political manner. It is a personal manner. Nature is not a place to visit. It is a home to live. We need to make people like animals. As an artist, I need to make them likeable, especially the young people who will grow up appreciative of wildlife,” a conservation artist explains.
One of the unique art pieces, which has made rounds on social media, is of a chimp called Madina. She is a promising artist.
“The chimpanzees can be artistic. Some pick interest and are using it as a therapy to overcome trauma. Some have discovered themselves through the art, like Medina,” says Lilly Ajarova, the executive director of Ngamba Chimpanzee Trust which manages the sanctuary.
Medina is one of the many chimps that were rescued and contained in the sanctuary. Ajarova explains that the sanctuary has a clinic but it lacks a private ward, where they can confine a very sick chimpanzee for treatment in a peaceful and quiet environment.
She added that they have got a quotation of Shs8m from a contractor to construct the private ward.
Chimpanzees are given plain papers with crayons or water colours and brushes and some have developed interest, started concentrating and mixing different colours. They gain confidence when they realise they can do something with art.
The sanctuary’s director further explains that young chimps are orphaned and rescued from illegal wildlife traders. “Their mothers have been killed for bush meat and the little ones taken for sale to other countries, as pets. It is difficult to take a chimpanzee from the mother. You would have to take her life before taking her baby,” she adds.
BACKGROUND
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary was established in October 1998 to care for orphaned chimpanzees that have been rescued by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Many of the chimpanzees were rescued from poachers and are unlikely to survive reintroduction to the wild.
