THE MYTH OF MY VILLAGE AND THE MONKEYS

Lagwa my village comprises of lagwa and umunokwu, each community having eight kindred’s, is located in South East part of Nigeria and popularly known for monkey's reservation. They have lived with us for over 300 years ago. Our forefather by name Agwa was the first man who ever lived in this land with his wife called Agwawunma, he was a great hunter and a famer, one day he went hunting leaving his beloved pregnant wife at home as usual, when he came back the wife told him how hungry she was but the monkey's came to her rescue plugging and dropping lots of fruits for her, that she ate to her satisfaction.

Agwa went to the farm and hunting again leaving the wife Agwawunma at home as usual, when he came back the wife unfolded same story telling him how generous the monkeys were to her. Agwa was intrigued and made a decree that from that day nobody should ever hunt or harm the monkeys, if they could be that benevolent to man then they are welcomed for a peaceful coexistence.

The specie we have here is called sclaters, the scientific name is called (Cercopithecus sclateri) it's a rare species that could be found only in South east and South South zone of Nigeria, It’s rare to find this species in other countries of the world which has attracted many scholar's from far and near especially USA and Europe.

The monkeys are intelligent, smart, observant, they could be stubborn and destructive to farm products especially palmfruits, due to the animalistic tendencies in them that would always prevail. They are friendly but could be violent if pushed to the wall. Mystery: When any of them dies, they carry the corpse, dig the ground with their claws or nails and bury them. Then due to the familiarity with the people they could go right inside the kitchen pick an egg and drink up the content, they love any edible fruit but bananas are their favorite as they relax cross their legs and enjoy what we suffer to plant and watch grow either for personal consumption or for commercial purposes without remorse.

Hahahahha! So funny right, but they don't care after all what are friends for if not for the inconveniences. When they see strangers they will start displaying all kinds of acrobatic probably to entertain the person. When they are been chased by strangers and they see anyone from lagwa, they run to the person for refuge or safety, if they are been chased in the neighboring villages by hunter's, they always have this instincts that would always direct them to run to the house of any daughters of Lagwa living in that village for refuge, the woman will protect them and when the heat is over, she would open the doors for them to journey back safely to their domain or colony. Severally I have rescued them from neighboring hunters who don't spare them once they cross the land mark's to neighboring village's looking into their eyes you would see tears showing escape from death. If anyone from the community consciously or unconsciously kills any monkey, then the person have to bury the corpse accordingly. A man from the village once killed a monkey and ate with the pregnant wife, when the wife gave birth, the baby was just a replica of a monkey.

It would interest you to see that these monkey's could also Walk on top of the water in any stream within the community, so if you are chasing them and they see any river close by, believe me they are gone especially if you are a hunter, I think they could achieve that with the kind of claws they have. They can climb even the tallest tree in the forest and can jump from that distance down to a smaller tree.

They are very smart and have a unique way to create awareness if they Sense danger which keeps everyone of them at alert, "Kuum Kuum!" is the sound from the Big ones while "kikikikiki!" is the response from the rest as they take to their heels. What they hate is seeing a man with a gun and the worst is hearing the sound of a gun or anything that sounds like a gun, they would run as fast as their legs could carry them, and if mistakenly their offspring’s fall off, they would mobilize immediately for the rescue even at the face of danger. Based on my own observations they operate in hierarchy where by the bigger ones stay at the Frontline taking the lead while the others follow as they move to a safer place after observing carefully and ascertaining the safety of the road . They are really funny at times, one day I was just watching them as they were on queue jumping from an overhead tank down to a roofing sheet that was half fixed and it will swing them just like a pendulum swings. I noticed they were having pleasure from the swing, they all took turns and go back to queue again. Now even humans at times find it difficult to maintain orderliness in some situations, but they did. They are called Enwe Lagwa by the indigenes, meaning monkeys of Lagwa.

They are so caring among themselves that sometimes I watch them scratch each other's back and sometimes even carefully remove debris or lumps from each other's eyes. The female ones always Carry their young offspring’s under their tommy while the little mama now hold tightly as they journey for the day’s activities. If they are given the opportunity to talk, I think they won't hesitate to contest supremacy with man as I can see their faces sometimes showing the expression that they are been marginalized, just imagine monkey's! There is this Forest reservation where they settle as their colony, lots of fruits in there that were seen to be harmful to man, but seeing the monkey's eating them means man could still have a bite from them. Recently I saw a different specie among them maybe it escaped from the zoo nearby or from a far forest, it looks more wild yet they accommodated the intruder and I think his comfortable living among his new found friends as I have seen them repeatedly having fun.

The images are the best I could get for now as it took me time to capture them myself, subsequently it will be better.
Nevertheless this has created room for tourists and students especially zoologist, and a source of revenue to my community as well.
Please don’t hesitate to reach me if you need more analysis about the above!
Wishing you all a blissful day ahead!