Mamie Manneh never lost her desire to celebrate rituals by eating monkey meat, even though she moved from Liberia to New York city many years ago.

The Houston Chronicle reports that “now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with meat smuggling, and touching on issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation.”

In 2006, federal inspectors at JFK airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes addressed to Manneh. Upon opening the box, inspectors discovered what West Africans refer to as bush meat; skulls, limbs and torsos of non-human primate species.

Three days later, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents knocked on Manneh’s door and asked to make a search of her property. They soon discovered the severed hairy limb of a monkey’s arm. Manneh explained that she had received it out of the blue as a “gift from God in heaven.”

Some of Manneh’s supporters, who are West African immigrants, have rushed to her defense claiming that monkey meat is delicious food and plays a vital role in their religious ceremonies.

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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