For those who consider their light soup, okro or palm-nut soup incomplete without goat meat, or go to a "chop bar" where there is no goat light soup on the menu, the advice is for them to eat enough of the meat before they travel to Elubo in the Jomoro District of the Western Region. This is because at Elubo, goats are, in effect, "out of bounds." No one can rear or slaughter goats there, or cross the River Tano with them. The punishment for flouting this unwritten order is death. According to some of the indigenous people of the town, it has been a taboo from time immemorial for anyone to rear, eat or cross River Tano with a goat into the town. They emphasised that people who dared to bring the animal to Elubo "paid dearly for it" and the animals only lived for less than three hours and died. To satisfy their curiosity the news team drove through the corners of the town but the only animals they saw were dogs, sheep and other domestic animals, but not goats. Throwing more light on the tradition, the head of Nsuna Clan, Ebusuapenyin J. B. Mensah, said there were gods in the rivers and the forests surrounding the area and in African tradition, there were certain practices the gods did not like, thus the people were compelled not to do anything that would disturb the gods. According to him, since their migration from Noe, a town in Cote d'Ivore in 1767 led by the then chief Angofi, the Tanor River had demonstrated that goats should not be kept in the town. He says those at the other side of the river, for their part do not consume antelope meat, since their gods hate that. To drive the point home, the Ebusuapenyin cited a case when there was a big funeral in the town. Some of the visitors sent live goats to the town for the funeral. When they were told that goats were not allowed in the town by the gods they laughed it off but within three hours all the goats had died. ''It is a taboo, for wherever you have the Tanor River flowing, you cannot bring a goat near it. We have respected this custom from time immemorial, but the present generation thinks it is a fallacy. I can tell you that African traditions and values are still alive and potent," he added. Ebusuapenyin Mensah also told the story of a settler who in the recent past operated a "chop bar" in the town. He used goat meat to prepare the soup. When he was told that the river did not like the animal, he did not bother. "He made a lot of money and became famous but when the gods struck, all the money he and his family made from the chop bar went into hospital bills and pacification and some of them even died," he reported. "I can give you more examples, but the long and short of it all is that here at Elubo, goat is out of bounds, period". Some of the townsfolk maintain that there are traditions in every town and these are what the people identify with. "One thing we must not forget is that animals play very important roles in our lives. Every animal has a way of protecting people, thus if a particular animal has done something to save us, the people have no choice but to consider that animal as sacred and protect it even at their peril," they maintain. "Tradition is tradition we must respect it. That is what makes the people of Africa unique," they said. Source: The Mirror