Tom Hays, AP, November 24, 2007; 10:04 PM
From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.
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.
The case “appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product,” defense attorney Jan Rostal wrote in a pending motion to dismiss. “Unfortunately, it represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America.”
{snip}
The case dates to early 2006, when federal inspectors at JFK Airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes from Guinea.
They were addressed to Manneh and, according to a flight manifest, contained African dresses and smoked fish with a value of $780.
{snip}
According to the agents, she initially denied ordering any bushmeat from Africa or ever eating it while in the United States.
But after she consented to a search, the agents came across a tiny, hairy arm hidden in her garage.
“Monkey,” she explained, claiming the arm was sent to her out of the blue “as a gift from God in heaven.”
Federal prosecutors hit Manneh with smuggling charges that accused her of violating import procedures and suggested she was a menace to man and beast alike.
A criminal complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals.
More ominously, the complaint warned of “the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.”
Defense attorney Rostal has countered by accusing the government of picking on a poorly educated immigrant.
Her client’s only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.
{snip}
Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.
{snip}
Manneh is already serving a two-year sentence in state prison for trying to run over a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband, Zangar Jefferson. If convicted of the federal charges she faces up to five more years in prison and deportation.
{snip}
Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings—all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh’s supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.
The statement was vague about how the meat is obtained, but explains that it always arrives dried and smoked. Once blessed by a pastor, “we usually prepare it by cooking it for several hours into a stew,” they said.
For them, the exotic import is more than just food.
“We eat bushmeat,” they said, “for our souls.”
Original article
(Posted on November 28, 2007)
Comments
Lets hope her soul gets deported!
Posted by at 6:51 PM on November 28
I like seeing issues like this and the Micheal Vick case come up - those hardcore PETA leftists don’t know who to support. Is it the animals or the oppressed minorities eating them and/or using them in vicious sport?
It wouldn’t be long before even these pinkos are sickened by diversity, just for different reasons than the rest of us.
Posted by ZKR at 7:27 PM on November 28
Guys, stop laughing. Have pity for these multiculturalists. They believed that the USA was indeed a free country. They brought here their great culture, which African name I cannot pronounce, yet the scientific name is philanthropy or in English is love of fellow-men. To express the love to their neighbors they eat them. Now the ignorance of white people prevents the multiculturalists from cultivating African humanism on our soil. By forbidding the gourmands to eat us, we push them to eat their other close relatives − the monkeys.
Please, I beg you, Americans, let them eat monkeys; and if they want to eat each other, I am ready to help.
Posted by alex at 9:42 PM on November 28
Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.
What religion is that exactly? Bushmeat is something black africans eat because they are faced with starvation and lack any skill at all at husbandry. People eating it in the food wealthy west, do it as an affectation. To show they are different from (and rabidly reject) western civilization. But another way. A starving person in africa would drop a baboon arm immediately, if offered a steak.
Posted by at 11:41 PM on November 28
The illegal importation of bush meat will work itself out in the not too distant future. There simply will not be any more bush meat to import. This makes me wonder about the security at our zoos though. I can see zoo-raised bush meat getting on the menu.
Posted by Drew at 12:33 AM on November 29
“Bush meat” is considered a rare treat for many rural Africans.
I remember some years ago reading that some poachers had actually eaten an endangered gorilla. Chimps are occasionally eaten by these poachers. Animal lovers take note. Those diversity liberals who say “all cultures are the same” should share a wild African lunch with these folks sometime.
Posted by Sardonicus at 9:27 AM on November 29
I could make a killing selling fake “bush meat” to gullible Africans in NYC. I’ll just use roadkill, which we have plenty of in New Jersey. All that stuff probably tastes like chicken anyway!
Posted by at 1:12 PM on November 29
She’s been here for 25 years and she’s still eating monkey meat? Her defense is a failure to “grasp western atittudes”.
I guess it takes some people longer to adapt than others.
Posted by Wotan at 2:36 PM on November 29
ZKR, re your comment above: I predict the minority (black) cause will win, if it’s that versus endangered species/environmentalism. In the left’s hierarchy of victims, blacks occupy the highest and most exalted position, trumping feminist issues, class issues, global warming, and every other cause dreamed up by everyone from Karl Marx to Al Gore.
Perhaps deep down inside these left-wing types understand that concern for wildlife is a “white” thing, and that if your primary goal is the importation of black Africans, those environmental principles will have to give way from time to time.
Posted by Dave at 3:20 PM on November 29
“her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.”
And this is exactly why this woman must be deported immediately. Why was she even allowed to immigrate here?
As for monkey meat being critical to her religion, then perhaps she would be happier back in Africa. Who in their right mind would allow this person entry into the USA?
Posted by multi culti no more at 6:42 PM on November 29
This is just one short step from cannibalism.
And for African blacks, an even shorter step.
Posted by voter at 7:37 PM on November 29
Previous poster wrote:
“I like seeing issues like this and the Micheal Vick case come up - those hardcore PETA leftists don’t know who to support. Is it the animals or the oppressed minorities eating them and/or using them in vicious sport?”
Actually, anyone who has friends into “animals rights” can used these news stories can be a useful “teaching moment.” When the M. Vick situation broke, I made sure all my vegetarian/vegan/PETA friends aware of the situation — with special attention to the RACIAL angle. I’d send them the news item, introduced by a few (not-too-inflammatory) remarks of my own about, say, other black celebs defending dog-fighting as “ain’t no big thang” and point out that blacks (and mestizos) view animals VERY differently from whites.
We need to make these (mostly young) idealistic types understand that their issue does NOT involve all races equally: that dog-fighting is almost exclusively a black problem; that cockfighting is almost exclusively a mestizo problem; and that NOBODY BUT AN AFRICAN would ever eat monkey meat. And any time some environmental type starts whining about the destruction of our natural resources, remind them that the best way to preserve America’s natural beauty is to limit immigration.
There are a lot of people out there with a lot of “pet causes” (no pun) and personal crusades — not just animal rights, but also environmentalism and other trendy topics — who need to be aware of the importance race plays in their cause. If you sent them e-mails that were just straight-up race-realism, they’d write you off as just a bigot — and maybe even write you off forever. But if you send them something about a subject that concerns THEM, and then demonstrate that the main offenders are NOT white people, they’re much more likely to listen. You might plant the seeds of white racial awareness that might blossom in a year or two.
Try it, my friends. It sure beats eating those tiny, hairy arms.
Posted by at 9:38 AM on November 30
This is probably exactly how the AID’s virus came about in the first place.
Posted by at 12:39 PM on November 30
Just what Christian sect demands eating monkey meat at Christmas?
Posted by at 4:45 PM on November 30
“Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings—all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh’s supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.The statement was vague about how the meat is obtained, but explains that it always arrives dried and smoked. Once blessed by a pastor, “we usually prepare it by cooking it for several hours into a stew,” they said.For them, the exotic import is more than just food.“We eat bushmeat,” they said, “for our souls.”
Just what bizarro sect of protestantism is this? Do they play with rattlesnakes too?
Posted by at 4:48 PM on November 30
“Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings—all are occasions for eating monkey.”
I note that these are supposed to be Christian holidays. Just what sort of “Christianity” is this? And “blessed by a pastor”? What kind of pastor?
This illustrates very well the futility of converting these people to Christianity. They take your religion and then turn it into a devil cult that you would never recognize.
Posted by at 11:56 PM on November 30
Isn’t this what they call CANIBALISM?
Posted by A Question? at 10:09 AM on December 1
