Living With Baboons by Gladys Thomas

We lived at the top end of Cardiff Road where the road narrowed. This section allowed only one vehicle at a time to reach the deadend at the top where cars would be turned around. The street on both sides held cosy cottages, some of very long standing, as I remember the outer walls of our house were almost a metre thick. At the top of the road the steep slope of the mountain had an evergreen coverage of tall Australian Eucalyptus and clusters of Pine trees. It seemed a miniature Amazon rain forest! Some of the tall trees were embraced by Morning Glory with its distinctive bright pleasant blue flowers and buds.

From the balconies of our homes we could glimpse the ever-changing colours of the sea, from emerald green to the dark dirty blue so prevalent in winter. We would walk down the narrow_road to where it veered sharply to the right where an immediate panorama of Simon's Bay would confront you. From our balcony we could lookout to check if the fishermen were trekking fish on Long Beach. The mothers would rush down to the beach on such days to buy their fresh fish, especially haarders, from Mr. Cotton.

That was a time when our sons were approachign their manhood. The high school was down the road and during the school holidays they spent their time either swimming or climbing the mountain at the deadend. But one coutd also reach the mountain by following short pathways from our very back doors. Many families lived in this seemingly earthly paradise, happy families contentedly raising their children in this avalon. In the caves of. our mountain lived a troop of baboons. we found them passive animals and we taught our children to respect these human-like creatures. They had trusted us and would even enterour homes in their constant search for food.

It was not unusual to find a baboon sitting on the stop enjoying a loaf of bread, a cabbage, or potatoes or fruit which it had filched. We had often noted that they would not devour everything that they had looted and forget about the children in the troop. Some of the food would be kept back to be taken to the mountain for the anxiously waiting ones.

Early one morning, as I entered my children's room, I found sitting on the bed a female baboon who had a baby suckling her breast. The children were still asleep and I had to call a neighbour from the street to chase the creature from the room. She took one look at my brother and bolted through the open window. They were so scared of the males but treated us females with seeming contempt. We had often discussed this anomaly and felt that perhaps they were able to distinguish between those humans that wore trousers and those that wore dresses.

The children spent many happy days amongst the tall trees. My eldest son had fixed a rope swing to one of the branches of those huge Pine trees. I can remember that if you swung higher and higher you could eventually see the sea on one side and the "Kloof" area on the other. Even the baboons would come down to investigate from their bushy hideouts at the children's antics during such times.

There were also unfortunate encounters with the baboons who got up to some daring tricks. On hot days the younger children would picnic or simply play under the Pine trees. I remember an incident when some of the children came hurrying down the narrow street howling with streaming tears and complained that the baboons in the trees had urinated on them and their picnic goodies. That was a time when we cursed those creatures. The mountain was rocky and through its deep crevasses a natural waterfall coursed through the 'Koof' during the Winter months. During the Summer, however, it was bone dry. Soon after the first Winter rainfall we often laid awake at night, waiting for the sound of the waterfall to begin. At its height it would run with a loud continuous roar with strong foaming currents that would keep us awake. At such times people would say that Winter had finally arrived as the waterfall ended in a strong river flowing through the Admaralty Gardens.

It certainly was a time when people and baboons had come to terms with each other. Like us they also had their family problems. Often, during the night especially, we would hear their fighting and arguments in the mountain caves, the contending roars loudly echoing in the 'Kloof". Even the younger ones, either protesting at the family fights or being chastised for their naughtiness, would howl pitifully in the night. Despite the roars and the high-pitched screechings, in the morning all would be forgiven and they would forage together again. It was in this environment that our children grew up as stable young people.

At one time strange cars and men were riding through our little street and parked at the top of the hill. Men in white coats gestured and spoke anxiously to each other. Our children soon discovered that their interest and purpose was ignominious. They were researchers from a university's medical department and that they had come to trap the baboons in cages. Soon, thereafter, we read in the local newspapers that they would be used in research by the famous heart transplant team.

It was a most traumatic time for the baboons and for us. At night we would hear their heartrending desperate cries for freedom from the cage-traps. They would jump up and down and shake the cages with all their strength to escape but to no avail. My children even told me that they are sure that they saw tears in the eyes of the baboons and that they were really crying.There was nothing we could do! The research must go on for the sake of the transplants. However, because of the protests, the cages were finally removed and the troop soon increased to its former numbers. Once again the children would carry packets of old vegetables and food to the mountain. The baboons knew the spot amongst the trees where it would be left for them.

Some years later other invaders came up our street. This time it was men in safari suits as if they were out hunting a la Hollywood. We were worried as they trampled everywhere, pointing at our homes and making notes on clipboards. Our children were sent to uncover their business and very soon we realised that they were government officials who will be enforcing the Group Areas Act as Simon's Town had been declared for white occupation only.

Perhaps the-most devasting time was when we had to move to Ocean View. Those who were given places in the blocks of flats were not allowed to take their animals with them. And so, on an appointed day, a vet arrived to put down the animals. A massive grave was dug and all our pets were buried there. The children cried their hearts out but there was nothing we could do. After we settled in Ocean View we soon realised that there was no miniature Amazon rain forest, the sea was miles away and out of sight, and no baboons! The nights were deadly quiet at times with either a howling souther-easter in Summer or a rain-lashing northwester in Winter reminding us of home.

It took them a few years but eventually the troop found us by trekking over the mountain via Red Hill to Ocean View. We assumed that they had come looking for us! Soon they were playing hide and seek in the courtyards and even ran up the stairways of the blocks of flats. The children loved their reappearance and as usual teased them endlessly. They would open our garbage bins to enjoy the left-overs of potato peels or whatever other goodies they could find. Once again we were at one with the creatures created by the Almighty.

However, this was a temporary idyll. Their mistake was to extend their foraging territory to where people who did not understand or were prepared to tolerate them. They roamed the streets where the rich were living and found unheard of luxuries and lots of fruit-laden trees.The baboon leader thumped his chest with his strong fists, as if to assert his pride in bringing his tribe to the promised land. But it was not to be! There was certainly lots to eat but they did not know that these people also had guns. Soon the leader was shot dead and then others. They consequently deserted Kommetjie and moved to Da Gama Park while another clan moved towards Scarborough.

 The tribe that had moved back to Simon's Town found that the Pine trees had been cut down and only a few Eucalyptus ones remained, They had been cut down to make way for the development of new homes in their traditional area. The very rich had now encroached and invaded their immemorial territory where they had roamed long before the Strandloopers, the San, the Dutch and British invaders.

This was the troop that had now moved to Da Gama Park. We miss the baboons and their antics and escapades. We were not the only ones that lost their homes! And we did not know that they would be brutalised by those who had taken over their territories. Are they perhaps thinking of some new proclamation to finally rid themselves of God's creatures and removing them to new areas, far from their traditional home?

References

Extracted from the Simon’s Town Bulletin

Thomas, G. Simon’s Town Historical Bulletin. ‘Living with Baboons. ’ (Volume XX,  Number 4, Page 132)