Friday, August 24, 2007

Damned Monkeys...

Where's the NOW Gang when you need 'em?

They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops.


And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops.

The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts
Villager Lucy Njeri


They say the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, and the bolder ones throw stones and chase the women from their farms.


Nachu's women have tried wearing their husbands' clothes in an attempt to trick the monkeys into thinking they are men - but this has failed, they say.


"When we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," resident Lucy Njeri told the BBC News website


"But the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. They just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."


In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women, they claim.


"The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said Mrs Njeri.


The Kenyan Wildlife Service told the BBC that it was not unusual for monkeys to harass women and be less afraid of them than men, but they had not heard of monkeys in Kenya making sexually explicit gestures as a form of communication to humans.


I wonder if it would have had something to do with this:

Tomorrow President Bill Clinton begins a six-day, four-country trip across Africa, his sixth visit to the continent since he left office in 2001.
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Coincidence?

I think not.

After all, Monkey see, Monkey do.