Whispering history for future's sake

KOTA KINABALU, Sabah: In 1936, some sensations about Borneo were apparently engendered in New York and a few other cities across America. Osa and Martin Johnson, reputedly the world's first wildlife filmmakers, brought with them a number of Bornean animals to New York. At least one of these animals was resettled at the New York Zoo. It was a huge orangutan, the largest to have been captured alive by that time, and the New York Times reported it to have bent the bars behind which he was held.

The powerful orangutan and those other Bornion animals were handled by a skillful native, Saudin Labotao, who hailed from the interior of what was then British North Borneo. Saudin was likely the first Bornean to have visited America. Saudin was also featured in the famous North Borneo novel, Land Below the Wind, by Agnes Keith, my senior by many generations at the University of California. Keith, an American married to a British official posted to North Borneo, also recommended Saudin to be hired by the Johnsons.