Bushmeat in America

A Taste of Baboon and Monkey Meat, and Maybe of Prison, Too
from the New York Times
By ELLEN BARRY
Published: November 17, 2007

It takes strategic thinking to find monkey meat in New York. Best to avoid the word “monkey,” for one thing — start with something innocuous-sounding, like “dry meat,” or common, like “grass cutter,” a rodent similar to the guinea pig. Seek out the proprietors of tiny West African restaurants, or the “bushmeat market queens” who do business out of their homes.

That is, if you can find them. And if they trust you enough to sell it to you.

The market in the United States for bushmeat — that is, the meat of African wild game — is obscured to outsiders and virtually impossible to measure. But most everyone agrees it has grown exponentially in recent decades along with immigration from West Africa, thriving in destination cities like Minneapolis and Atlanta.

A case that came before a federal judge in Brooklyn this week may — some believe for the first time — send someone to prison for importing bushmeat — in this case, pieces of baboon, green monkey and warthog.

No law specifically bans their importation, but Mamie Manneh, 39, of Staten Island, an immigrant from Liberia, is accused of falsely labeling her delivery and failing to obtain proper permits, charges that could bring a maximum prison sentence of five years. Her lawyer has made a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that bushmeat has spiritual significance and Ms. Manneh’s actions were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The case has attracted attention from an array of interested parties. Wildlife conservationists see trade in bushmeat as a grave threat to dwindling species; epidemiologists view it as a dangerous vector of disease.

And many African immigrants, who eat bushmeat cubed and cooked in a stew of onions, garlic, tomatoes and chili pepper, see it as a referendum on a cultural practice. This, anyway, is what brought Frances Yalartai to court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

“They’re coming to catch people for dry meat,” said Ms. Yalartai, 63, who is a member of the same small church as Ms. Manneh. Its members, she said, are so nervous about the case that they no longer attend services.

“People are scared,” she said.

African expatriates like Edward Lama Wonkeryor, a lecturer at Temple University, have long turned to bushmeat as a home comfort: During his earliest trips from Liberia to this country, in the 1970s, his mother would wrap parcels of bushmeat — monkey, bush hog or lion, smoked so it would keep — and slip them into his suitcase. He would save them for events like weddings and christenings, or when he wanted to feel smarter.

“If I were going to take the Graduate Record Examination or the Law School Admissions Test, definitely I would” eat bushmeat beforehand, said Dr. Wonkeryor, who wrote a letter in Ms. Manneh’s defense. “I am really surprised that they are making a big issue out of this.”

Only a tiny percentage of the bushmeat market goes to America. But there is little doubt wild game is flowing between continents in growing quantities, with few controls in place.

Reliable statistics are hard to come by, but Heather E. Eves, director of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, estimated that more than 15,000 pounds of bushmeat come to market in the United States every month, of which only a tiny fraction is intercepted.

As a result, she said, the outcome of Ms. Manneh’s case could set a crucial precedent. “It may sound extreme, but I think we are facing a shift in wildlife populations that has never been seen before,” she said. “That’s why I think this case is so important. Because I think it sends a message.”

Epidemiologists have shown that ebola can be contracted by butchering chimpanzees, and the first human case of H.I.V. probably originated through similar exposure, said Nathan Wolfe, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California in Los Angeles. The growth in global demand for wild game, he said, increases the potential for spreading agents “that could represent serious threats to humanity,” he said.

When Ms. Manneh took the stand on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, with her extended family packing the courtroom, she did not present herself as a global entrepreneur. Though she acknowledged importing dried fish for resale, she stared blankly at the assistant United States attorney, Jonathan E. Green, when he asked if she recognized customs declarations and other documentation.
“Have in mind, Mr. Green, I don’t know how to read or write, and I never went to school,” said Ms. Manneh, who immigrated at 16 and worked for years as a home health aide. She said her daughter and husband generally filled out forms for her, and she appeared confused when he claimed to have a letter from one of her sisters.

“I have 30 brothers and sisters,” she said. “I can barely remember some of their names.”

Later, as he continued his cross-examination, she broke down. “Mr. Green, what do you want from me?” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m at the point of committing suicide.”

Ms. Manneh was identified in January 2006 by customs agents at Kennedy Airport who opened a shipment marked “12 ctn African dresses and smoked fish.” Mixed with those items they discovered 65 animal parts: “skulls, limbs and torsos of nonhuman primate species” as well as a hoof and leg “belonging to a small ungulate, possibly a duiker,” according to the criminal complaint against her. A duiker is a small antelope.

More primate parts were found during a search of her garage.

The case took on a new dimension in February, when Ms. Manneh’s lawyer, Jan Rostal of Federal Defenders of New York, filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the meat provides “spiritual sustenance” similar to the bitter herbs served at a Passover Seder. Though legal methods of importing bushmeat do exist, she argued, most African immigrants are not aware of them, and they are so complex that they amount to a de facto ban.

“Unfortunately for the government,” she wrote, the bushmeat case “represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the ‘melting pot’ that is America.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, cast Ms. Manneh as a thriving businesswoman, “selling traditional African foods to immigrants who undoubtedly miss home,” as Mr. Green put it in his response. He compared the meat to ham, reasoning that the tradition of serving ham on Easter “does not render ham a sacred, religious food.”

Ms. Manneh is currently serving a two-year sentence for second-degree assault, stemming from an episode in which she hit a woman with a vehicle in a movie theater parking lot. In court, she said the woman was her husband’s girlfriend. She has nine biological and two adopted children, among them 10-year-old twins named Cauzious and Corinthian and an 11-month-old boy, Cecret.

She was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder in 2006, according to Ms. Rostal.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Corinthian was fuming. She said she has eaten dried monkey meat, which has the ropy consistency of beef jerky, and does not understand why government objects to it.

Until fairly recently, bushmeat was sold openly in immigrant neighborhoods, said Dr. Wonkeryor, who teaches in the African-American studies department at Temple University. He said the case against Ms. Manneh has made it more expensive and hard to find.

Several immigrants acknowledged interest in the case but were loath to comment on what has become a sensitive issue. One man noted only that a small amount of bushmeat can change the character of a stew, adding a spiciness that is hard to describe.

The Rev. Philip Saywrayne, pastor of Christ Assembly Lutheran Church on Staten Island, said many people in the community are accustomed to carrying small amounts of bushmeat back from Africa. They remain puzzled about what American law allows, he said, and worried for Ms. Manneh.

“What we do is pray,” he said, “and then go along with the lawyers.”