Don’t Kill Lebialem Green Monkeys!
Somewhere deep in Lebialem’s rainforest, a Green Monkey and her baby perch high up a tree branch. Dawn threatens at any moment to rush up from the horizon and set hunters and other predators stirring.
The Green Monkey known locally as ‘Nkeh’ is a prized ape hunted and killed for its meat and heart for rituals. During the day, they move in groups of about fifteen. The monkeys live on bananas, cocoa, monkey cola, palm nuts, pear and maize, which are some of the crops we cultivate in our communities as a means of livelihood. This has sentenced the Nkeh to death in the hands of our parents who see them as destructive co-habitants in the forest.
The Nkeh seems to know that it is a special monkey as it is hunted for the dinner table, for totems and its heart. These attributes have greatly increased the demand for the Green Monkey and the hunting rate. A Green Monkey can go for as much as 15,000 francs cfa depending on its size.
Scarecrows with frightful colours like white, red or black cloths erected in different parts of a farm don’t scare these animals anymore because they have discovered that the scarecrows are a deception. Having monitored the activities of farmers in this area, they know exactly when to visit the farms and can differentiate farmers from scarecrows. So they won’t visit farms rigged with scarecrows because humans are always around, but they rob farms in the forest even with scarecrows. This cleverness of the Nkehs has left farmers with little choice but to visit their farms as early as 5 am when the monkeys begin foraging for food. As they land down from their tree homes, they are often surprised by bullets from the hunters’ guns with at least two of them killed in each outing.
As children, we go out to the farms to guard our crops against Nkeh while our parents are still sleeping. And as we interact with the Nkeh, their behavior, agility, beauty and lifestyle become increasingly fascinating to us.
One of the fascinating things about the Nkehs is their defence mechanism against predators that kill them for food. Since the Nkehs are commonly hunted by other animals at night while they sleep, they find refuge on tree tops, defecate in their palms and hold the feaces till morning before dropping it for fear that the killer animals would trace them by the scent of their feaces.
The Nkehs are harmless and we love them. We and conservationists just wish people could stop hunting and killing them. They only feed on our crops because we invade their habitats with our farms. We cut down trees which are their domiciles, leaving them homeless. They won’t visit our farms in and around the communities if we plant scarecrows in them, but they will keep destroying those in the forest because that is their home.
The Nkeh may just be a wild animal for some people, but it is our pride and inheritance, they make us unique. We really hope that someday our parents will understand this and our friends; the Nkehs, will be comfortable in their habitats.
We are mobilizing the other kids to join us in protecting these monkeys and conserve their habitats. It’s a big challenge but we are determined.
Njifua & Tazi
10 year-old Class Six pupils of the Lebialem Forest Area
