Length: 100 Minutes Date: 12/01/2012 The core inspiration for the erotic, peaceful and loving life we espouse and try to live here in BonoboVille comes from the actual “Make Love Not War” bonobo chimpanzees. Bonobos (Latin: pan paniscus) are our “kissing cousins,” sharing over 98% of their DNA with us humans who are the only other species that enjoys kissing quite so much. Bonobos swing through the trees as well as with each other, the females are in charge, and (so far) they have never been observed killing each other in the wild or captivity. Seeing these sexy beasts “in action” opens our eyes to a sensuous, playful world without war. Yet they are, alarmingly, on the brink of extinction in their native habitat in the Congo, aka the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Back in the mid-1990’s, fellow bonobo buff and former National Geographic correspondent Sally Jewel Coxe came on my show to tell us about an organization she was forming called the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI). Having just returned from the war-torn Congo (then called Zaire), Sally had big dreams of rescuing and protecting wild bonobos from the deadly bushmeat trade, preserving the Congolese rainforest (rapidly deteriorating thanks to heedless human exploitation), empowering the local people and creating a “Bonobo Peace Forest,” a cooperative conservation network surrounding the wild bonobos that would would work towards all these goals. At the time, with bloody conflicts raging in and around the Congo, Sally’s dream of conservation and cooperation sounded like a pipedream and, without access to their remote jungle habitat, nobody was even sure if there were any wild bonobos left to save. Now, just a little over a decade later, I’m thrilled to report that Sally’s fantasies are becoming reality, and BCI is turning into an international powerhouse of enlightened conservation. Sally and her partners in the DRC are finding tribes of wild bonobos where we had once assumed there were none, educating people about pan paniscus and helping to protect them from poachers, saving bonobo orphans and bringing them to Lola ya Bonobo, Claudine Andre’s sanctuary (see Vanessa Woods’ “Bonobo Handshake“), as well as funding a medical clinic, school and other much-needed services for the poverty-stricken local population. With the help of bonobo lovers like us and conservationists around the world, BCI is making miracles happen right now, so that, maybe, just maybe, we can save our kissing cousins from extinction. Then maybe they can help us save ourselves from the debilitating destruction of lethal human violence, sexual repression, murder and war. This show is dedicated to Sally’s vision and perseverance, and to BCI’s amazing accomplishments thus far and the urgent work that must be done to save the bonobos. The first half is a fascinating interview with BCI-UK’s about bonobos, their extraordinary sex lives, and the work of BCI. Then, revved up from bonobo “class,” the second half explodes into a peacefully riotous BonoboVille sexathon of spankings, stripteases, oral sex, Sybian rides, simian hoots and hollers throughout producer Tasia Sutor’s amazing jungle boogie set, as well as a lovely demonstration of that popular bonobo behavior that primatologists call “genito-genital rubbing,” and which the native Mogandu people call “hoka-hoka” which somewhat resembles human female tribadism or scissoring. Thanks to Condomania and Saran Wrap, all of this “performance erotica” is Measure B compliant—even though LA’s new Measure B is essentially unconstitutional and pragmatically ridiculous. If you’re even remotely interested in bonobos, great apes, evolution, conservation, natural feminism or wild sex, don’t miss this awesome, sex evolutionary show. And please do whatever you can—give money or your time—to support the work of BCI, the bonobos, the rainforest and the future, which we’re all in—bonobos, people and all of life on earth—together. GO BONOBO! {8:(l) Go BCI!
Featuring: Bonobo Conservation Initiative, Kelsey Obsession, Lilly Banks, Lola Ya Bonobo, Lylith LaVey, Natalia Starr, Natasha Star, Tallulah Bygraves, The Bonobo Project, Will Tauxe, Yara