Different cultures have weird foods that can be irritating to some countries. What if you traveled to a country and the only kind of food sold happens to be Monkeys?
Would you eat monkeys? The sight of a man feasting on monkey meat can be disgusting to many Kenyans but not so for resid
ents of this central African country.
Less than five years ago, scientists in West Africa warned that eating monkeys could lead to the rise of deadly viruse
s that will be hard to cure. In fact, they warned that the continued consumption of monkey meat could cause the next human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
In 2013, a year after this alarming warning, West Africa suffered the most widespread outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in history. The virus, which scientists claim is animal-borne, has caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in West Africa and the larger sub-Saharan Africa.
Although it has never been scientifically proven, researchers believe that the stubborn recurrence of the Ebola virus in African countries is largely due to the consumption of bush meat, with monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, and bats being common.
According to the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ebola is caused by a virus of the Filoviridae family, genus Ebolavirus.
The organization says the virus can cause disease in humans as well as nonhuman primates, such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees, putting those who are fond of consuming monkey meat at a high risk of contracting the virus.
Monkey meat has been a delicacy for the Congolese since time immemorial and features prominently in meals. The sight of a man feasting on monkey meat can be disgusting to many Kenyans but not so for residents of this central African country.
Monkey meat has been a delicacy for the Congolese since time immemorial and features prominently in meals. Monkey meat is all over town, from market places to restaurants and roadsides. You can have it as nyama choma, boiled, or fried.
And as they say, if you go to Rome, do what the Romans do. I sampled monkey choma on the roadside but the stuff could not go beyond the mouth.
For Mr. Nguero Bobando, a resident of one of the neighboring communities, he feels it is an ordinary delicacy and is a must-eat, especially during special occasions.
He says, “I have been eating monkey meat since childhood. I like it so much that any meal without it would be incomplete,” he tells me. He adds that if he does not eat the meat for a week, he gets seriously sick.
According to Mrs. Salma Bobando, who sells the meat on Brazzaville streets, a whole monkey can fetch between 20,000 to 40,000 francs (Sh2,800 to Sh5,600), depending on the season. She says the meat can also be sol
d in smaller pieces.
The pieces fetch different prices, depending on the part of the monkey.
During dry spells, hunters, mostly based in northern Congo, find it difficult to get the animals and that means prices shoot up. When the meat arrives at the market, residents scramble for it. “The hunters shoot them dead and then bring the carcasses to the market,” she says.
While monkey meat is po
pular among the Congolese living here, Mrs. Bobando says it is not so for chimpanzee and baboon meat.
“The meat from those animals is not liked by city residents but some tribes in the north love it,” she says. In Kenya, women from certain ethnic communities are barred from eating some kinds of meat.
Monkey meat, also known as likaku in Lingala, is eaten by men, women, or children. Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian athletes and others from other countries who saw monkey meat being sold in the open in Brazzaville immediately stopped ordering meat at the athletes’ dining hall.
Scientists now are worried that new and deadly viruses could be spreading among communities that consume monkey meat in Africa. They argue that the deeper poachers go in to the forest and the more primates are consumed, the more people will be exposed to unknown viruses.
Poverty has often been cited as one of the primary reasons why many Africans continue to consume monkey meat despite the obvious danger of contracting deadly viruses. Most families in the majority of communities where this practice is widespread live on less than $1 per day, so they do not have access to other affordable, less risky, and sustainable sources of protein.
In countries, such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Central African Republic, civil wars have left many people destitute and desperate for survival, so they resort to hunting wild animals for food.
Most of them say monkey meat is tender and juicy. Additionally, many parts of West Africa are prone to tsetse fly infestation, making it hard for people to keep domestic animals for sustainable meat supply.
But as much as the populace is to blame for the bush meat crisis in some parts of Africa
, governments and other relevant bodies have to find better ways of sensitizing people on the dangers of eating wild meat to keep them from continuing this dangerous practice.
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