The Fear of Monkeys - The Best E-Zine on the Web for Politically Conscious WritingWhite-Throated Guenon - Issue Forty-Two
The Fear of Monkeys
Get To Know

White-throated Guenon  from Christiano Artuso The White-Throated Guenon, also known as the red-bellied monkey and the red-bellied guenon, is a diurnal primate that lives on trees of rainforests or tropical areas of Nigeria and Benin. They are usually frugivores but insects, leaves, and crops are also in their diet. They usually live in small groups of four to five individual monkeys however, there have been groups of 30 discovered, and in cases, some males wander alone. They are arboreal, living in moist tropical forest and the wettest parts of dry tropical forest, however they can also be found in secondary bush and old farmland. Males weigh from 3.5-4.5 kg and females weigh 2-4 kg. Females give birth to one offspring, which is a factor of decreasing population. They were once considered extinct due to constant hunting for the fur of their unique red belly and white front legs, but a small group was subsequently found near the Niger River in 1988. They are still considered an endangered species due to their decreasing population. They are present within Nigerian forest reserves and sacred groves in Benin, but hunting and logging restrictions are difficult to enforce or nonexistent. They are one of the species that live in the Guinean Forests of the West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot.

   


A Made Boy

by

Jeffrey Zable

 

Being conferred as a Made Boy was the highlight of my life.
I walked among my classmates like royalty--the girls especially
treating me like a king, offering me the best part of their lunches.

If we were playing basketball on the schoolyard, the other team
members never put their hands up when I was taking a shot. And
when lining up to return to the classroom if I wasn't initially in front
they would know to move behind me.

Even the teachers treated me special when they learned that I had
made the grade. Not once did I get less than an A on my report card
except for that one time I almost burned down the classroom during
a science experiment, provoking the teacher to give me an A-, which
led to their not only being fired, but never seen again . . .


Jeffrey Zable is a teacher and conga drummer who plays Afro-Cuban folkloric music for dance classes and Rumbas around the San Francisco Bay Area. His poetry, short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies. Recent writing in Former People, Ariel Chart, Kitchen Sink, Third Wednesday, Untitled Writing, Beatnik Cowboy, Tigershark, The Nonconformist, Misery Tourism, Uppagus and many others.

 

All Content Copyright of Fear of Monkeys