The Revealed

Category: About the project, Activities of The Revealed, Book of gorilla fairy-tales, CD with gorilla stories, Cameroon | Date: Jun 04 2009 | By: therevealed

Miroslav Bobek, 4 June 2009

“She’s playing the young quite well! And the peacock, too…” producer Honza Jiran noted when choosing an actor for the French rendition of the gorilla fairy tales among 10 short-listed native speakers with more or less extensive acting experience. He eventually selected the one who interpreted the young and the peacock so nicely - Mélanie Ruppe.

After the success of the gorilla story book among schoolchildren in Cameroon (see Related Links in the category Book of gorilla fairy-tales) we decided to record a French rendition of the same as another way of helping children in Africa realise that gorillas deserve protection and that they, too, can help. (We should note that many people in Central Africa continue to perceive wild animals, including gorillas, as nothing more but a source of meat… I remember how surprise children in a forest village were to find out when browsing our book that a gorilla can have a name just like a human.)

We prepare a publication of the book of Gorilla Stories for Congo. Without public subvention we can not develope this idea further. We would be glad if you contribute to achieve these efforts.

• The Revealed charitable account finances protection of western lowland gorillas and educational activities in al countries where this subspecies of gorilla lives in the wild. To support the cause, you can send your donation to 555 555 552/0800, IBAN: CZ35 0800 0000 0005 5555 5552 or donate through wildlifedirect.

In January this year, Czech Radio Leonardo’s studio was busy for several evenings with the production of the fairy tales in French. Mélanie twittered like baby gorillas, rumbled in the role of Shina, swaggered like the peacock, and was getting desperate when Jan kept asking her to repeat certain parts over and over again. For instance, he was never satisfied with her rendition of ducks. I dare say both Mélanie and Honza sometimes regretted getting involved… It took another three weeks to edit the spoken word, an mix it with music and sound effects. At the end of March, we were leaving for Central Africa with CDs containing nine gorilla fairy tales.

• Listen to a story about Frightened elephants in French! Download

We provided the CDs to schools and wildlife protection organisations in Cameroon and the Central African Republic we work with. Most importantly, Petra Hanzelkova was to hold negotiations with CRTV, the Cameroon national radio and TV broadcasting company in the country’s capital Yaoundé. If a nationwide radio network aired our fairy tales, it would mean our effort was really fruitful and money from the Revealed account was spent meaningfully. “I spoke to the programme director, Mr. Francois Bingono Bingono,” Petra once said after returning from negotiations. “They are happy to broadcast our fairy tales!” Mr. Bingono Bingono played the CD an found it so captivating that he turned away all visitors: “Not now! I want to hear how this is going to end!”

Besides the Cameroonian national radio, several regional stations in the country as well as at least one radio station in Congo have expressed their interest. Our aim is to provide the recording royalty-free to any station that meets our special criteria: they must operate in a country where gorillas live in the wild. We hope listeners would be enchanted by Mélanie’s voice as Mr. Bingono Bingono, who said at the end: “The girl is so good at acting!”

Browse the book of gorilla fairy tales: French version English version.
If you are interested in our book of Gorilla Stories, please, contact us: odhaleni@rozhlas.cz.