The Baka Pygmies of Cameroon
A race of hunters and gatherers, the Baka pygmies, found in Cameroon, live alongside various Bantu farming ethnic groups, with whom they trade goods.
With an average height of 1.5 meters, the Baka are, strictly speaking, pygmoids rather than pygmies. However, in everyday usage the term “pygmy” is used.
The exact number is difficult to determine, as a semi-nomadic group, they roam the rainforest taking temporary residence in specific areas that offer rich game and natural resources, but estimates range from 5,000 to 28,000 individuals.
They occupy forest ecology and exploit the gifts of nature or the ecosystem. Important trading relationships have developed over the years between Baka hunter-gatherers and neighboring Bantu cultivators. However, this relationship has been one of tolerance and has been characterized by hostility. The situation has been caused by the condescending attitude and derogatory comments with which the Bantu describe their pygmy neighbors, seeing the Baka as belonging to them, victims of racism and exploited on the plantations as cheap labor.
One of the most important differences between the Baka pygmies and their Bantu associates is the fact that they owe their entire existence to the natural resources that nature has endowed with their habitat, the tropical forest.
Like other pygmies, the Baka are culturally, linguistically, and physically different from their Bantu neighbors.
They live in huts called mongulu, which are single-family houses made of branches and leaves and almost always built by the women. After preparing a frame of thin and very flexible branches, the freshly collected leaves are adjusted to the structure. After the work is complete, other plant materials are sometimes added to the dome to make the structure more compact and waterproof. In addition to the Mongulus, the Baka also build rectangular huts made of leaves or bark, just like the other ethnic groups, only they use mud and wood.
The Baka know the variety of forest foods, animals and the specific seasons in which these products can be easily found. Of the different seasons that these pygmies experience each year, the three-month period of prolonged heavy rains 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 wander for several months gathering food. The men perform the most prestigious but certainly most dangerous job of supplying meat for the group through hunting and trapping. The women load possessions in baskets and follow their husbands.
The types of hunting that are carried out in the jungle are with bows, poisoned arrows, crossbows, spears and traps. Contrary to what happens in other pygmy cultures, the Baka are unaware of the use of hunting nets. The forest animals killed are various species of primates, artiodactyls, rodents, etc., which are hunted at night. They set traps near watercourses to hunt crocodiles, which are often killed with spears.
Searching for food in the forests is one of the most important activities for the survival of the group, collecting yams, fruits, mushrooms, but in some seasons of the year it is possible that they find small animals, such as termites and caterpillars.
Carried in baskets by the women, the products reach the camp and are shared by all the families.
Hunting is one of the most important activities, not only for the provision of food but also for the symbolic meanings and prestige traditionally attributed to it. Skilled hunters are highly regarded and highly regarded, especially if they specialize in the most rewarding and meaningful game activity: hunting the big elephant.
Massive deforestation these days deprives the pygmies of essential natural resources for their biological and cultural survival. Unfortunately, due to declining prey numbers and less frequent expeditions into the forest, hunting today does not provide the Baka with an adequate supply of animal protein, leading to serious nutritional problems, especially in children.
With inadequate nutrition and health problems, many live a peaceful life maintaining a strong cultural identity and marking the boundaries between their form of culture and that of the other ethnic groups in the jungle.
Of all the aspects of nature that surround the Baka pygmies, they perceive the rainforest as the most valuable force with which they interact.
The typical baka pygmy will not leave his forest home even for an ultra-modern palace in the city.
They have a deep knowledge and understanding of the forest and its products, including the healing power of the plants, and are indeed keepers of a huge natural pharmacy. Therefore, his whole life is occupied with the well-being of his forests.
“We are born and raised in the forest; we do everything in the forest, gathering, hunting and fishing. Now, where do you 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 they are encouraged to participate in all community music making. There is music for ritual purposes, music to convey knowledge, stories and the history of the Baka people, and music for pure enjoyment. This community musical creation constantly helps to strengthen the bonds between the individuals of the groups.
Baka Music is perhaps best described as harmonic bursts of yodeling, intertwining in a dynamic and rhythmic manner. It is quite mesmerizing and the ambient forest setting makes the overall effect mesmerizing.
Inspired by the magical rhythms and melodies of the Baka people, British musicians Martin Cradick and Su Hart founded Baka Beyond in 1993 after visiting tribal villages.
They recorded an album “Spirit of the Forest” under the name Baka Beyond which brought them worldwide recognition. Since then, the band has grown into a dynamic multicultural live show with album sales of over a quarter of a million copies.
They have played WOMAD in the UK, US and Czech Republic and at the Glastonbury Jazz Stage; 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. His tracks are often heard on television soundtracks, particularly on nature shows on the BBC and have been nominated for BBC Radio 3 World Music listeners awards.
Says Su Hart: “The first thing that drew me in was the incredible song of the birds, the women gather before dawn to sing, enchant the animals of the forest and ensure that the men’s hunt is successful. Songs and dances by the Baka for healing, rituals, to keep the community together and also just for fun”.
With the continued help of Martin and Su, they were invited to play at local festivals, weddings, and funerals in Cameroon. After recording their album “Gati Bongo” in 2000, they decided on 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 phenomenal singing to concerts and traditional music.
Giving it back to the Baka
Baka Gbine is one of the few groups that make sure to put as much into the culture as what they take out. Royalties earned from the sale of the albums are funneled 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 gain land rights and recognition as Cameroonian citizens, as well as funding their own medical center and a House of Music. All of these steps help protect the Baka culture, the forest environment, and the unique lifestyle of hunter-gatherers.
Roger Harrabin reports
The biggest threat comes from a road into the rainforest that has been improved by the Cameroonian government with funds from the European Union.
The World Bank and the African Development Bank refused to finance the upgrade.
They said it would speed up logging and hunting of endangered species. But the EU handed over the money without doing any environmental assessment.
Steve Gartland, the World Wide Fund for Nature man in Cameroon, says the inevitable is now happening.
“Road construction programs tend to push development into forested areas. As soon as forest areas are opened up, poachers move in, leading to depletion of wildlife and deforestation,” he said.
Sixty percent of Cameroon’s forests are already being logged.
Some companies destroy the forest by bribing their way around laws that allow only select mature trees to be felled. Others seem to play by the rules, felling only the occasional large tree.
Forester Jean Francois Pagot admits that the most valuable species are being depleted because they are not 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 more difficult to obtain other meat spells since poachers began using the EU road to sell their catch from the forest reserve.
One baka said: “They killed elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, panthers, buffaloes, deer, all in the reserve.”
European Union (EU) taxpayers are funding the conservation of wildlife in this reserve, as well as paying for the road that makes life easier for poachers.
The EU is now funding anti-poaching education projects. But hunting wild animals is too profitable for some to resist. Conservationists say it’s a typical problem caused by the EU’s aid programme. They say aid from Brussels is often mismanaged and hurts those most in need, like the Baka.