My visit To The Monkey Sanctuary ( Boabeng Fiema)

Life is for the living so live it. It was a cold morning and i set off to meet a group of fellow student doctors to tour the village of Fiema-Boabeng, a twin town. Our journey nearly got cancelled as our bus driver was tired and wanted to retire to bed due to a previous journey he embarked on. It finally became clear and the go ahead message was given as we had a new bus driver to take us to our destination. With chants and melodious music, we drove to Boabeng-Fiema to discover another batch of tourist( a group of teachers ). Now there was a competition as to which group was much more fun to be in. 

Obviously, my group was much fun as students always have something under their sleeves. The best photographer in the group, i started taking my shots on arrival as the rest of the students walked down from the bus. We met the caretaker of the monkey sanctuary whom gave us a tourist guide to lead us on our tour after  doing all due diligence. Our tourist fee was taken care of by the president of the Group Hon. Francis Appiah. 

We set off into the jungle as the tourist guide started to narrate the history of the jungle. Boabeng-Fiema monkey santuary is a 4.5 square kilometer forest reserve which houses over 2000 monkeys. The monkeys are of two different breeds. The white colobus which is quite unfriendly and never comes to the village and the yellow monas who love cooked food. Just as we entered the jungle, the yellow monas started coming around and we fed them with cooked groundnut.

It was really lovely to see these mammals in their natural habitat and still friendly. We interacted with the monkeys and we had the opportunity to video and take pictures with them. 

A Yellow Monas Taking Groundnut from A Tourist

History 

The monkeys are believed to be the custodians of the land as the citizens of the village migrated to meet them in 1826. When the first settlers settled in the land, they decided to go into the forest to find food and upon arrival saw a well carved wood. They took the wood home and the following day, the monkeys followed them into the land to claim the wood. This prompted for rituals and further oracle consultation. It was after consulting the oracle that the first settlers got to know that the monkeys are the real custodians of the land and should be treated as royals. Ever since then, they have lived in harmony with them. 

The monkeys actually have a human representative who is the Monkey priest. He is responsible for the burial service of any monkey who dies. A priestess must be a virgin before she can become one and must be from a certain family line. 

The reserve also has lots of other big trees like the "dadie" and the ficus tree. The ficus tree is a carnivorous tree that feeds and overtake an ongrowing tree. It always has a hole with it where the dead tree use to be. 

Behind me is the ficus tree. 

It was such a wonderful tour and would recommend to anyone who wants to tour around Ghana. Such a green, soothing nice environment to be in.

All Photo credits to @tj4real. Till next time, enjoy this piece.