, who carried out groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania and mountain gorillas in Rwanda, respectively, were Louis’s protégés.
A charismatic man with big hands and a handsome face scarred by the sun, Leakey proved adept at securing publicity for his causes, and for himself. His biggest publicity coup came in 1989, when he presided over the burning of twelve tons of poached elephant ivory. It was the world’s first public ivory burning, and Leakey had conscripted Kenya’s President, Daniel arap Moi, to light the pyre.
The environmental journalist Delta Willis, a friend of Leakey’s, told me, “The pride he felt for the beauty of his birthplace was contagious. He once announced, ‘I am from Kenya,’ the way you or I might say, ‘I won first prize.’ He spoke the melodic Kiswahili beautifully, just as his father had spoken Kikuyu.” Leakey had come of age among a dwindling British colonial class; when Kenya won its independence, in 1963, he was still a teen-ager.
Leakey’s uncompromising nature and his sense of purpose could not always be reconciled. John Heminway, an American author and filmmaker who knew him well, told me that Leakey had decided early that “making friends wasn’t essential, but making a difference was.” He seized every opportunity to leave his mark. In 2015, after years of criticizing the K.W.S. as corrupt, Leakey returned as the chairman of its board.
Men are called 'mercurial', women are called 'emotional', 'difficult' and 'unlikeable'.
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