A race of hunters and gatherers, the Baka Pygmies, found in Cameroon,
live together with various ethnic groups of Bantu farmers, with whom
they exchange goods.
With an average height of 1.5 metres, the Baka are, strictly speaking,
pygmoids rather than pygmies. Nevertheless, in everyday usage, the term
"pygmy" is employed.
The exact numbers is difficult to determine, as a semi-nomadic
group, they roam the rain-forest taking up temporal residence in
specific areas that offers rich games and natural resources, but
estimates range from 5,000 to 28,000 individuals.
They occupy forest ecology and they exploit the gifts of nature or the
ecosystem. Over the years important exchange relations have developed
between the hunter-gatherer Baka and the neighbouring Bantu
cultivators. However, this relation has been one of tolerance and
characterized by hostility. The situation has been caused by the
condescending attitude and derogatory comments with which the Bantu
describe their Pygmy neighbours, looking upon the Baka as goods
belonging to them, they are victims of racism and exploited in
plantations as cheap labour.
One of the most important differences between the Baka pygmies and
their Bantu associates is the fact that they owe their total existence
to the natural resources which nature has endowed on their habitat, the
rain forest.
Like other pygmies the Baka are culturally, linguistically and physically different from their Bantu neighbours.
They live in huts they call mongulu which are one-family houses made of
branches and leaves and nearly always built by the women. After a frame
of very flexible, thin branches is prepared, recently-gathered leaves
are fit in the structure. After the work is complete, other vegetable
materials is sometimes added to the dome in order to make the structure
more compact and waterproof. Besides the mongulus the Baka also build
rectangular huts made of leaves or bark, just like the other ethnic
groups do, only they use mud and wood.
The Baka, know the variety of forest foods, animals and the
specific seasons when these products can easily be found. Of the
different seasons which these pygmy people experience each year, the
three-month period of prolonged heavy rain is the most important.
During this period when the forest is in its abundance the Baka leave
their permanent villages for the deep forest and for several months
roam gathering food. The men perform the more prestigious but
undoubtedly more hazardous job of supplying meat for the group through
hunting and trapping. The women carry possessions in baskets and follow
their husbands.
Types of hunting performed in the rainforest are with bows, poisoned
arrows, crossbows, spears and traps. Contrary to what occurs in other
pygmy cultures, the Baka do not know the use of hunting nets. The
forest animals killed are a various species of primates, artiodactyls,
rodents, etc, which are hunted at night. They place traps near
watercourses to hunt crocodile, which is usually killed by spears.
Looking for food in the forests is one of the most important activities
for the survival of the group, gathering yam, fruit, mushrooms, but in
some seasons of the year it's possible for them to find small animals,
such as termites and caterpillars.
Carried in baskets by the women, the products come to camp and are shared by all the families.
Hunting is one of the most important activities, not only for providing
food but for the symbolic meanings and prestige traditionally attached
to it. Skilled Hunters are very respected and taken into great
consideration, especially if they specialize in the most rewarding and
significant game activity: The Big Elephant Hunt.
Massive deforestation these days deprives the pygmies of the natural
resources essential for their biological and cultural survival.
Unfortunately, due to the diminishing number of prey and less frequent
expeditions in the forest, today, hunting does not provide the Baka an
adequate supply of animal proteins which causes serious nutritional
problems especially in the children.
With inadequate diet and health problems, many live a quiet life
keeping a strong cultural identity and marking the boundaries between
their form of culture and that of the other ethnic groups in the
forest.
Of all the aspects of nature which surrounds the Baka pygmies, they
perceive the tropical rainforest as the most valuable force with which
they interact.
The typical Baka pygmy will not leave his home in the forest even in exchange for an ultra modern palace in the city.
They have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the forest and
its products, including the healing power of plants and are in fact,
guardians of a huge natural pharmacy. Thus their whole life is occupied
with the welfare of their forests.
"We are born and grew up in the forest; we do everything in the
forest, gathering, hunting and fishing. Now where do they want us to
make our lives? "
Mbeh: Baka guitarist
Baka Beyond/Baka Gbine
Music has a central role in the life of the Baka. From an early age
they have a keen sense of rhythm, as soon as a baby is able to clap it
is encouraged to participate in all the communal music-making. There is
music for ritualistic purposes, music for passing on knowledge, stories
and the history of the Baka people, and music for pure enjoyment. This
communal music-making constantly helps to strengthen the bonds between
the individuals in the groups.
Baka Music is perhaps best described as bursts of harmonic
yodeling, intertwining in a dynamic, rhythmic fashion. It is quite
hypnotizing and the environmental forest setting makes the overall
effect fascinating.
Inspired by the magical rhythms and melodies of the Baka people,
British musicians Martin Cradick and Su Hart founded Baka Beyond in
1993 after they had visited the tribal people.
They recorded an album "Spirit of the Forest" under the name Baka
Beyond which pushed them into worldwide recognition. The band has since
then evolved into a multicultural, dynamic live stage show with album
sales of over a quarter of a million copies.
They have played at WOMAD in the UK, USA and Czech Republic and on
the Jazz Stage at Glastonbury; Musica Mondial in Sao Paulo, Brazil and
many more festivals in the UK, USA, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany,
Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as headlining the Vancouver
Folk-Roots Festival. Their tracks are often heard on TV soundtracks,
particularly in nature programmes on BBC and have been nominated for
the BBC Radio 3 World Music listeners awards.
Su Hart says, "It was the amazing bird-like singing that first
attracted me, the women will get together before the dawn to sing,
enchant the animals of the forest and ensure that the men's hunting
will be successful. Song and dance is used by the Baka for healing, for
rituals, for keeping the community together and also for pure fun!â€
With ongoing help from Martin and Su, they were then being invited
to play at local feasts, weddings and funerals in Cameroon. After
recording their album "Gati Bongo" in 2000, they decided upon the name
"Baka Gbine" (Gbine translated means 'help').
The band includes guitarists Pelembir, Mbeh and Zow, percussionist
Masekou, two women - Ybunga and Lekeweh, who bring the phenomenal
singing to the concerts, and traditional music.
Giving it back to the Baka
Baka Gbine is one of the few groups who ensure that they put as
much back into the culture as they take out. Royalties earned by the
sale of the albums are channeled back to the Baka Pygmies through the
UK based charity Global Music Exchange - or as the Baka call it, 'One
Heart'.
This ongoing relationship with the Baka community has helped them
to win land rights and recognition as Cameroonian citizens, as well as
the funding of their own medical centre and a Music House. These steps
all help to protect the Baka's culture, forest environment and unique
hunter-gatherer way of life.
Roger Harrabin reports-
The biggest threat comes from a road into the rainforest which has
been upgraded by Cameroon's government with funds from the European
Union.
The World Bank and the African Development Bank refused to finance the upgrading.
They said it would accelerate logging and the hunting of endangered
species. But the EU handed out the money without making any
environmental assessment.
Steve Gartland, the World Wildlife Fund's man in Cameroon, says the inevitable is now happening.
"Road-building programs tend to bring development into the forest
areas. As soon as you get the forest areas opened up you get the
poachers going in, leading to depletion of wildlife and deforestation,"
he said.
Sixty per cent of Cameroon's forests are already being exploited.
Some firms wreck the forest by bribing their way round laws permitting
only selected mature trees to be cut. Others appear to play by the book
- felling only the occasional large tree.
Forester Jean Francois Pagot admits that the most valuable species are being depleted because they're not being replanted.
He says: "The main reason is the long life of the trees. Some take two
or three hundred years to fully mature - and no timber license lasts
that long - so the diversity of the forest is being eroded."
The Baka are finding it harder to get other sorts of meat since
poachers started using the EU's road to sell their catch from the
forest reserve.
One Baka said: "They killed elephants, gorillas, chimps, panthers, buffalos, deer - all in the reserve".
European Union (EU) taxpayers are funding wildlife conservation in this
reserve as well as paying for the road which makes life easier for the
poachers.
The EU is now funding anti-poaching education projects. But hunting
wildlife is too profitable for some to resist. Conservationists say it
is a typical problem caused by the EU's aid program. They say aid from
Brussels is often poorly administered and damaging to people at the
sharp end - like the Baka.
Donations and help for the Baka pygmies can be found on the following website:
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Donate%20Online
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/where/cameroon/jengi_project/help/index.cfm
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