Fox-Owned National Geographic Uses Gorillas as Cover for Exploitation of Congo

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Fox-Owned National Geographic Uses Gorillas as Cover for Exploitation of Congo

Dateline— December 1979, Karisoke Research Camp, Rwanda—Dian Fossey opens a letter from the editor of her book, Gorillas in the Mist, and learns that National Geographic Magazine has decided to “put a hold on Fossey news.” (Source: Letter from Anita McClellan to Dian Fossey. December 14, 1979; McMaster University) The magazine and its board of directors decreed that Dian Fossey was a wild card who would stymie plans to support tourism in the realm of the endangered mountain gorilla. The Boston cocktail circuit of celebrities and mainstream news media luminaries wanted someone who would work against the interests of the African people and develop a gorilla sanctuary which would function as an economic resource for conservation interests—all under the guise of “science.” The result would be hordes of tourists invading native lands and gorilla habitat. Fossey had all but eliminated poaching for antelope species and trade in gorilla parts by this time. The fuss was all about money and strategic interests, and the mantra of National Geographic that Africa was too wild, too uncivilized and too black to manage its own affairs.

Fossey would spend the rest of her days fighting for “active conservation,” while National Geographic Magazine slowly cut off her funding. Dian Fossey wrote that “Africans are the backbone” of conservation efforts, realizing that without the support and protection of “Africans for Africans,” there was little hope for either species.

There are de-classified diplomatic cables from Fossey’s time which indicate outright collusion between Melvin Payne, then President of the National Geographic Society, Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, and Rwandan Ambassador, Frank Crigler to remove Fossey from Rwanda. A smear campaign was underway to discredit her so that money-making “conservation” schemes could be implemented by the African Wildlife Fund (AWF) and the colonialist Mountain Gorilla Project...