It is about 10:50am on a Thursday when we arrive at the recently inaugurated Ellen DeGeneres facility in Musanze District. The imposing facility is located within about 12 kilometres from the Volcanoes National Park that is the home for over 300 mountain gorillas, which are listed among the world’s endangered species. The weather is cold, as is often the case in the volcanic region. The New Times got exclusive access to the facility, just a day after popular American television personality, Ellen DeGeneres announced on her show that the centre was finally open, four years after it was conceptualized. The centre, whose primary role is to help in the preservation of mountain gorillas, was built in memory of renowned gorilla conservationist, Dian Fossey who was murdered in Rwanda in 1985. Kinigi is arguably Rwanda’s major tourism hotspot, mainly owing to the gorillas. Before you enter through the stone-built gate with letters inscribed in black reading, The Ellen Degeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, your eyes are welcomed by three imposing structures with a round roof, standing sparsely across the landscape. This is where four years ago, the American TV host Ellen DeGeneres and her partner Portia de Rossi decided to build the campus in order to contribute to gorilla research pioneered by conservationist Dian Fossey. Did you hear the news?! The Ellen Campus of the Fossey Fund is open! 🎉❤️🦍 🎥: @theellenshow & @massdesignlab; @savinggorillas @visitrwanda_now @falconscg @_FDI_ @ioelephants @natgeo @omahazoo @clemetzoo @columbuszoo #Happy4thbirthday #bignews #conservation #weneedgorillas pic.twitter.com/A2KPLC77Hb — The Ellen Fund (@TheEllenFund) February 1, 2022 Inside the campus, the first the building hosts the reception area and a gallery, where you are welcomed by a prerecorded video of Ellen DeGeneres herself. In the gallery hall there are visitors here and there, a mixture of researchers and tourists visiting the facility. The day is quite cloudy; you can hardly see the stony tops of Sabyinyo volcano in the background by looking through the glass windows of one of the buildings. It starts drizzling seconds before our interview with Felix Ndagijimana, the country director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, who is also the substantive custodian of the new facility. “The campus has three main buildings,” says Ndagijimana, as he takes us around. These majorly built with stones and timber, he says at the beginning of the interview. Across the campus’s magnificent landscape over 250,000 plant species have been planted to “beautify this campus”. “First, there’s the conservation gallery, a public gallery where people can visit and learn about gorillas and about Dian Fossey herself,” Ndagijimana explains as he delves into the different sections of the campus. In the gallery, portraits of Fossey with gorillas form the centerpiece in the main hall. Each photo is clearly captioned both in English and Kinyarwanda. Other elements of the gallery include skeletal portrayals of a gorilla and a human, which show their natural proximity of the two. We have artefacts from Dian Fossey, some of which are her personal effects, Ndagijimana says. We also have games in this gallery that people can play to understand gorilla behaviour. On one of the other stands, there are numerous snares formerly used by poachers in the past. Walls are lined with other details about the Dian Fossey Gorilla Funds activities and park rangers. In the gallery, theres also a 360-degree theatre. A lifetime of conservation activism The second building is the Research Centre. It also hosts the offices of the campus staff, an herbarium, a gorilla skeletal lab and a genetics lab, where researchers and scientists do their daily work. According to Ndagijimana, the labs will enable scientists and researchers to better understand the mountain gorillas as a species. Then, theres the Education Centre. This is where well be doing all our education training and capacity building activities, he says. It also has meeting rooms, a computer lab, a library, classrooms and two units where students will stay while they do research in the national park or on campus, he continues. Rwanda’s years-long conservation efforts have served mountain gorillas well. And the journey continues. For Ndagijimana, the new Ellen DeGeneres Campus comes to “help us amplify the mission of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.” He adds: The mission of the campus is to inspire a lifetime of conservation activism. This campus has components that will allow us to really accomplish our mission, which is to protect and conserve mountain gorillas in their habitats in Africa. Prior to her murder, Dian Fossey spent years in Rwandas tropical rainforest studying gorillas and their behaviour. The Fossey fund has continued her work to this day. “I want [Dian’s] legacy to continue to help the gorillas in the country of Rwanda, which is such a beautiful country, because she had such an impact on me when I was a little girl,” DeGeneres said recently as she announced the campus’ official opening. Over 250,000 plant species are growing up in tthe campus landscape. Portraits of Dian Fossey take center stage in the gallery. The conservation gallery is adorned with elements that explain Dian Fosseys conservation journey. The newly inaugurated Ellen DeGeneres Campus is located in the foothills of the Virunga Massif in Musanze District.
