Discovering the Okapi: Western Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Search for a Rainforest Enigma

The captivating history of the okapi and its symbolic role in science, culture, and conservation.

In Discovering the Okapi, Simon Pooley offers a fascinating portrait of the okapi―an elusive short-necked giraffid with zebra stripes, surviving in the rainforests of central Africa's Congo basin―and unpacks the complicated layers of Western science and Indigenous knowledge that shaped the world's understanding of this unique creature.

Pooley tells the story of the okapi's "discovery" in 1900 by British naturalist Sir Harry Johnston, as well as the overlooked contributions of the Indigenous African people whose expertise made this sighting and subsequent hunt for specimens possible. The book traces how colonial politics and scientific racism shaped early accounts of the animal's study and examines the enduring biases that continue to influence conservation efforts today. The okapi became a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges, revealing complex intersections among biodiversity, cultural heritage, and environmental stewardship. Its precarious existence in captivity and the wild exposes how Western and Indigenous approaches to conservation can―and must―find common ground for its survival.

Simon Pooley is the Lambert Lecturer in Environment at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the coeditor of Histories of Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean and the author of Burning Table Mountain: An Environmental History of Fire on the Cape Peninsula.