A HALFWAY SIGN   

 

February 12, 1977

 

     Today, about noon, I entered the fabulous Ngorongoro Crater.  Ngorongoro was once a gigantic volcano, perhaps taller than Kilimanjaro. When the volcano collapsed, a vast bowl known as a caldera was formed.  Measuring about 18 kilometres across, 250km² in area, Ngorongoro is ringed by an amphitheatre of steep 500 metre-high walls.  It is one of the most perfectly formed – and certainly the most spectacular – calderas on the planet.  There is only one exit and one entry point into and out of the Crater.  So large is it that in spite of its towering rim, which more or less cuts off its inhabitants from the outside world and encloses its own rich and diverge ecosystem, it’s interior still looks like a great plain that to the casual eye could be mistaken for the Serengeti itself. 

     As I write in the campfire light, I can hear the lions’ roars and grunts from seemingly a few stone’s throws away, and the hyenas’ laughter as they perhaps rob a leopard of its kill, and at times, the sound of thundering hooves as zebra and wildebeest are being stampeded by nocturnal predators.

     The crater, self-contained and seemingly untouched by the world beyond, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could have used it as a backdrop for his Lost World.  It symbolizes and epitomized the original African Eden from which Australopithecus had sprung more than 2 million years ago.  Since then, Australopithecus had gone extinct, but not before giving rise to Homo Habilis, which gave rise to Homo Erectus before itself perishing, which then succumbed after gave rise to Homo Sapiens.  And now, a member of Homo Sapiens has made his entrance into the crater, in hopes of one day helping to preserve it for his descendents, and for the descendent species of Homo Sapiens.

     “Just where are we in the history of our species?  Just how primitive or civilized are we in the scheme of things?  Show me a sign,” I asked Raminothna while driving towards the crater in the morning.

     As the jeep had climbed up the crater rim and was about to make our descent, Raminothna caused me to brake it to a momentary stop.  There, next to my window, was indeed a sign, which said that the animals within the crater were protected, and that anyone caught harming any animal and/or its habitat would be prosecuted according to law.  

     “Fifty fifty,” said Raminothna.

     “What do you mean?”

     “Two things.  One good, one not so good.  The good is that your species has advanced some good laws.”

     “And the not so good?  That these laws are not well enforced?”

     “That too.”

     “So, what is the not so good?”

     “That Homo Sapiens is not yet advanced enough to be able to govern itself without law.”

     “What other than law can we govern ourselves by?”

     “Morals, ethics, conscience, love,” said Raminothna.