Political tensions simmered between the factions, finally escalating to all out war in 1974.
#The great chimpanzee war series
After a series of violent clashes, the tribe split into two factions: Humphrey’s Kasakelas, and Hugh & Charlie’s Kahana.ĭuke university anthropologist Joseph Feldblum later fed Jane Goodall’s notes into a computer, which showed a series of relationships – apparent politicing and escalations which looked all too human. Two Kahana brothers, Hugh and Charley, saw Humphrey as weak and began lobbying for the top job themselves. The mantle of leadership fell on the Kasakela elder Humphrey a chimp loved by many, but lacking the innate sense of power to be respected by up and coming alphas. Their leader, Leakey a chimp well loved and respected by all, died. In late 1970 the united Kasakela – Kahana tribe were struck by a tragedy. Shakespeare once said uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, I have no doubt Humphrey knew this first-hand.
Our primary source for this tale comes from the primatologist, Dame Jane Goodall, the combatants our chimpanzee cousins.
They once were one large tribe, but a falling out in 1971 set the stage for this guerrilla war (as in the Spanish word for war – guerra – not the ape) The war would only end when a larger, foreign power stepped in, the Kalande. On one side was the Kasakela, the other side, the much larger Kahana tribe from the south of the region. From 1974 to 1978 a vicious, sometimes cannibalistic war raged between two tribes in Gombe National Park,Tanzania.
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