South Africa's extraordinary baboons

The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) has a special place in the South African past, as reflected by the stories of two of our most famous primates, Jack and Jackie.

- Mike Burgess

Baboons fascinate us due to their genetic proximity to ourselves, reflected not only through similar physical attributes, but also intelligence.

Maybe unsurprisingly, therefore, baboons abound in South African literature and historiography, but two stand out: the story of Jack the signalman baboon of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape during the late 19th century, and the story of Jackie, a baboon that served with the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment (also known as the Transvaal Regiment) during the First World War (WWI) from 1914 to 1918.

THE SIGNALMAN-BABOON

James Wide, a guard for the Cape Railways at the Uitenhage railway station, had the nasty habit of jumping from one moving train to another. Because of these antics, he would sadly lose both his legs below the knees after falling under a moving train.

Although devastated, as not only did he lose his legs but also his job (that had demanded swift mobility), Wide adapted by constructing wooden pegs for legs and was soon hobbling around on crutches.

The Cape Railways then offered him an alternative job as a signalman, and he promptly constructed a type of go-cart that he steered with a hand lever to get to and from work.