This is a true story! Sent to me by my Mother. :)
In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. On a hike through the bush,
he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed
distressed so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's
foot, and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe
worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The
elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him.
For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually
the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the day's
events. Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the
elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu
were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground, then
put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe
summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right
up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk
around one of Mbembe's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him. Probably
wasn't the same elephant.
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