Stany Nyandwi

Stany tells this very personal story to a translator. It’s about how he learned to care for chimpanzees in his native Burundi as a young man. Eventually he had to escape or risk death or recruitment to be a soldier in the civil war between Hutus and Tutsis. Working with the Jane Goodall Institute he continued working with and learning about chimps. Goodall called him the chimp whisperer, a name originally bestowed on her. Lacking a formal education he was often overlooked for jobs he was probably the most qualified for given his immense experience and uncanny abilities with chimps. This book is Stany’s opportunity to describe his extreme poverty, his dismay at being passed over by those with a degree, his sadness over wrongs done to him, but also his deep love of family (many brutally killed in Burundi), and Christ. Told simply this is ultimately a feel-good read while learning an immense amount about chimps. I enjoyed it a lot but it’s probably not for everyone.… (altro)

Stany Nyandwi is a village farmer from Burundi. In 1990, when the country along with Rwanda was caught in a brutal war between Tutsi and Hutu, he fled, by luck landing a job working for an Australian mentor to care for orphaned chimpanzees. He found a gift, every chimpanzee action, movement and sound communicated something, and he sought to understand. He was successful and the trust chimps placed in him earned him the title of a chimpanzee whisperer. Any book about chimpanzees is going to be interesting because they are endlessly fascinating. I found Nyandwi's life story less interesting, though respectful for what he accomplished starting from so little. There is also a documentary about Stany, I think it would be better to see him interacting with chimps. Stany seems a bit lost towards the end, he wants to keep advancing but is limited by his lack of degrees and torn between a global lifestyle visiting sanctuaries, versus living with his family and farming in Burundi.… (altro)