Marcellin Agnagna's Mokele-mbembe sighting at Lake Tele, 1983

Spring 1983. Marcellin Agnagna, a zoologist at the Brazzaville Zoo, led the first Congolese expedition to search for the Mokele-mbembe. His team came from the Ministry of Water and Forests. Agnagna knew the ground. He had joined Roy Mackal on expeditions in 1980 and 1981, alongside J. Richard Greenwell. Those trips gathered many native reports but no sightings, and ended with a sober verdict: "there is only anecdotal evidence." In April 1983 the Congolese team reached Lake Tele, in the Likouala Department between the Sangha and Oubangui rivers. They would stay in the area for about two months.

1 May 1983. Approximately 2:30 PM. Agnagna was at the lake with his guides from the village of Boha. Then they saw it. A large animal, moving out into the water. In the account attributed to Agnagna, it had "a wide back, a long neck, and a small head." The neck was about 2 meters long. The head was thin and reddish, held about 90 cm above the surface, with "crocodile-looking, oval eyes and a thin nose."

It was about 275 m from the shore. Some versions say about 300 m. The group waded roughly 200 feet into the shallows toward it. The animal stayed partly submerged, only its neck and head above the water. "The animal had become aware of our presence and was looking around as if to determine the source of the noise." For about 20 minutes it looked from side to side. Almost as if it was watching them.

Agnagna judged it a reptile. But "not a crocodile, nor a python or a freshwater turtle."

Agnagna had a Super 8 cine camera. He filmed. The footage did not develop properly. His explanation changed. First, he said that in his excitement he forgot to remove the lens cap. In a 1984 interview, he said the camera had been set to macro instead of telephoto.

The expedition brought one more lead. Elephant hunter Immanuel Mongoumela had reported a huge trail, and he took Agnagna to the spot. Fresh tracks were found there. Mongoumela said he had seen the animal three times since Mackal's expedition left.

Paleontologist Donald Prothero called the account "suspicious." He noted that "critical details of Agnagna's account have changed and none of it was supported by other witnesses." The lens cap and the macro setting became the prime example.

Redmond O'Hanlon travelled with Agnagna in 1989 and wrote Congo Journey. He concluded Agnagna was a hoaxer who used the Mokele-mbembe to attract paying explorers. He found that many local people regard the creature as a spirit, and he put the sightings down to elephants swimming with their trunks raised. Then there was Operation Congo, William Gibbons' expedition of December 1985 to early 1986. Its British members said Agnagna did "little more than lie, cheat and steal (our film and supplies) and turn the porters against us." A Congolese court ordered him to return the items.

Agnagna went on to head the Ministry for the Conservation of Fauna and Flora. His sighting lives on in Mackal's A Living Dinosaur?, in Abominable Science! by Loxton and Prothero, and in decades of cryptozoology writing. Recent writers argue he should not carry more weight than the Americans who set the terms of the search. The film that might have settled it all came out blank.