The Fiema Monkey Sanctuary is a community-protected forest reserve in the Bono East Region of Ghana, near the town of Fiema just outside Nkoranza — famous as the home of two monkey species, the mona monkey and the black-and-white colobus, that live so tamely among the villagers that they are regarded as sacred ancestors. The sanctuary sits in about 1–2 square kilometres of dry semi-deciduous forest and is run not by the Forestry Commission but by the people of Fiema themselves, through a local management committee. Its origin story is the heart of the place: according to tradition, a hunter from Fiema once chased and killed a monkey, and the animal's dying cry so shocked the community — some versions say the hunter himself was struck down or the village suffered misfortune — that the people declared the monkeys sacred and forbade their killing forever. The monkeys are treated as reincarnated relatives, and the taboo has kept the forest intact while surrounding land was cleared for farming. What makes Fiema special is how habituated the animals are. Visitors walk in with a local guide and the mona monkeys in particular come down close — they will take bananas and groundnuts from an outstretched hand, and the colobus, shier and black-and-white with a flowing tail, are usually seen higher in the canopy. The forest itself shelters butterflies, birds and medicinal plants, and the guides — young men and women of Fiema trained as eco-tourism guides — explain the trees, the taboos and the history as you walk. It is one of Ghana's oldest and best-known community-based ecotourism projects, a model often cited alongside the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, which lies in the same Nkoranza area and is the larger, more famous cousin. A note of clarity, because the two are often confused: **Boabeng-Fiema** is the well-known sanctuary shared by the twin villages of Boabeng and Fiema, and it is the one most travellers mean. **Fiema** on its own is the village side of that same protected forest. If you are planning a visit, the sanctuary is roughly 20–25 km from Nkoranza and about an hour and a half to two hours' drive from Techiman or Sunyani; entry is modest, guides are paid at the gate, and the best time to go is early morning or late afternoon when the monkeys are most active. Bring bananas — the guides will show you how to hold them so the monkeys take them gently. There is an Akan proverb that fits the place well: *"Nyame na ɔyɛ nneɛma nyinaa"* — but more to the point here, *"Aboa a wɔnni hɔ no, wɔmmɔ no"* — the animal that is not there is not hunted. Fiema's monkeys survive precisely because the community chose, generations ago, not to hunt them.