Ghana Life: Encounters with the snakes of Ghana
In the 1970s, the veteran curator of the University of Ghana’s reptile house in Legon, near Accra, proudly told visitors that he had taken part in a study of Gold Coast snakes led by George Cansdale. , later from London Zoo. and famous for his BBC TV animal shows of the 1950s. “We found,” the curator would say, “seventy different species of snake, fourteen of which are venomous.” Although it may seem that only twenty percent of snakes in Ghana pose an immediate danger to humans, most encounters seem to involve the venomous species, or at least that’s what it seems in retrospect.
In early 1982, the revolutionary government of John Jerry Rawlings mandated that there should be a National Farm Day where everyone was expected to devote all their time on the land to some practical farming task. The Technology Consulting Center (TCC) of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, had recently purchased a large plot of land a few miles from the university campus on which it was intended to demonstrate no-tillage agriculture. So, on the appointed day, all the staff at the center showed up ready to clear the bush and prepare the land for cultivation.
The work began, but it was not long before the cry went up that a snake had been killed. Fearing that inexperienced farmers would leave their tools behind, the director yelled that there was only a one in five chance that the snake was venomous. ‘No, no,’ shouted the seasoned farmers, ‘this one is dangerous,’ and they hastened to bring the carcass back for inspection. In fact, it had been a very dangerous creature, a Gaboon viper with a short, thick body and a horned head, considered the most venomous of all Ghanaian snakes.
The visitor from Gabon met his end off the KNUST campus, but many other venomous snakes made their home on campus and had close encounters with students and staff that ended in no harm to either party. Many of these events involved green and black mambas transiting among the many flowering trees and shrubs with the sole intention of rapidly climbing into the copious foliage of their new abode.
One of the most memorable encounters on campus was recounted by Professor Fred Abloh, head of the Building Technology Department. Eager to demonstrate the good qualities of his low-cost construction techniques, the professor had erected a one-story structure in which he provided himself with a new office. Shortly after moving in, Fred returned to his office and found a cobra curled up in the chair behind his desk. ‘I turned to run out the door,’ he recounted, ‘but the reptile moved much faster; He was through the door before he could reach it! Needless to say, the professor was soon reinstated in his former office in the permanent multi-story faculty building.
Perhaps the most likely to hold a bite cam from an encounter with a night viper. These were reputed not to slide when disturbed, but to stay put. As a consequence, they were often trampled in the dark. Although not usually life-threatening to an adult, a night viper bite could seriously harm a small child or animal. Unfortunately, the dog that kept his home in the stables of the university horse society died of a night viper bite despite the prompt and earnest efforts of the university veterinarian.
Some men have faced greater danger with a happy result. At the University of Ghana, the curator of the reptile house used to show visitors the long scar on his right arm. He came from a self-inflicted machete cut. “He was up in a tree trying to catch a green mamba for Mr. Cansdale,” he recounted, “when he turned and bit me on the hand.” So I cut my arm to suck out the poison.
