Indigenous Baka number 30-40,000 and live in the southern and southeastern areas of Cameroon. They are associated with, among other local communities the Bagando Bakwele, Knonbemebe, Vonvo, Zime and Dabjui farmers. About 4,000 Bagyeli and Bakola live in the southwest, and are associated with Bulu, Ngoumba, Fang and Bassa. Most Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola still rely on hunting and gathering to secure their livelihoods, and even though some also cultivate annual crops, often on the lands of these Bantu patrons, the majority still rely on the forests. Many local communities recognise them as “people of the forest,” who their ancestors found when they arrived.

Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola in general retain many aspects of their forest-based culture, including non-hierarchical social structures coupled with community recognition for individuals’ special skills, relatively small communities, an aversion to social conflict, proximate planning horizons and, to those from “outside”, an opportunistic circumspection. For almost all Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola, their forest is their ancestral home, their reliable grocery, the root of their existence, and their customary right, and forests throughout Cameroon’s southern forest zone are dotted with their favoured hunting and gathering grounds and their hidden sacred places. Their primarily hunting and gathering lifestyle combined with subsistence trade is associated with high physical mobility, which means that they can be difficult to locate at certain times of year, and their places of work and home are rarely accurately recorded - most are literally off the map.

Cameroon’s indigenous forest communities’ geographical and social isolation has enabled many of them to retain their forest-based culture since pre-colonial times, while the world around the forest has undergone radical changes. The same applies to indigenous hunter-gatherer communities who have established permanent villages for cultivation outside forests, since the vast majority of them are also completely marginalised from civic and government structures in Cameroon. This socio-political marginalisation reflects the gross discrimination that Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola face when they leave the security of their forest and communities, where they are powerful and relatively secure, for the amenities of the roadside or neighbouring local villages, where they may be mocked, cheated, and unfairly treated by government and civic authorities. This unsavoury treatment means that many Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola prefer to stay in the security of their forest community and to remain uninvolved in the “affairs of the village.”

Indigenous forest peoples' isolation also means that most of them still have almost no access to modern health care, or formal education, and most are unable to speak and read French, the official language that dominates the forest zone in Cameroon. Until recent moves by the Cameroon government and NGOs to enable formal registration few of these people had their own identity cards, and almost all were absent from official census data and electoral lists. Thus they have been unable to stand up to powerful outsiders who sought to abuse their rights and the forest remains an important refuge.

Despite a long history of trickery and persecution by people entering the forests to extract resources such as rubber, wildlife, timber, minerals, and data on the flora and fauna, Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola in general are very open to outside influences. Their traditional forest coping mechanisms, however, are proving unable to protect them from the increased demands on forests in which they have lived for aeons. Since the introduction in 1994 of Cameroon’s new forest law there have been significant investments by donors in Cameroon’s protected areas network to support older parks and to establish new conservation “planning regions”. This has been extensively documented in WRM Bulletins (see WRM Bulletins Nº 67 and 73). Campo Ma’an, Boumba-Bek and Lobéké National Parks were all established by the Cameroon government with donor support since 1995 and all overlap the traditional lands of Baka, Bagyeli or Bakola.

The fact that these communities were “off the map” when the parks were established has led to a situation where their forest rights, and hence their right to isolation are denied through the application of non-discretionary rules to protect endangered flora and fauna. Many of these new rules undermine indigenous peoples’ hunting and gathering lifestyles, even though their rights to resources and to “traditional sustainable use” of them are protected by national and international legal provisions, and international agency guidelines. Current plans by Conservation and donors (see detailed TRIDOM article at http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Cameroon/still.html ) threaten to widen this pressure to cover huge “landscapes” covering much of the Congo Basin, and this will place further burdens on communities no longer able to isolate themselves.

By: John Nelson, Forest Peoples Programme, E-mail: johnnelson@blueyonder.co.uk , http://www.forestpeoples.org

- Using avoidance to maintain autonomy. The Mbendjele Yaka in Northern Congo-Brazzaville

The Mbendjele Yaka "Pygmies" live in northern Congo-Brazzaville. Mbendjele claim shared ancestry with other forest hunter-gatherer groups in the region such as the Baka, Mikaya, Luma or Gyeli. The Mbendjele calls all these groups Yaka people. Outsiders frequently refer to these groups as Pygmies, and occasionally members of these groups do too. They are forest-living hunter-gatherers considered the first inhabitants of the region by themselves and their farming neighbours, the Bilo. Each Mbendjele associates her or himself with a hunting and gathering territory they refer to as “our forest”. Here, local groups of Mbendjele travel between ancestral campsites in favoured places where they will gather, fish, hunt and cut honey from wild beehives depending on the season and opportunities available. From time to time Mbendjele camp near Bilo villages to work for money or goods and occasionally make small farms. In spite of this, Mbendjele value forest activities and foods as superior to all others.

Negative stereotypes of the Mbendjele are widely held by the diverse Bilo ethnic groups in the region, and often publicly asserted. Typically Mbendjele are said to be chimpanzee-like, backward, impoverished, lazy, disgusting, stupid, and childish. They are regularly segregated from Bilo. They may not eat or drink together with their neighbours, sit together on the same bench, or share a cup or a plate. They may not sleep in the same houses. Sexual relations are forbidden, although they occur clandestinely. Many villagers deny that Mbendjele have any basic human rights, frequently describing them as their ‘slaves’. Some Bilo claimed to have the right to physically abuse and even kill Mbendjele who disobey them.

Despite such negative portrayals, Bilo value their relations with Mbendjele greatly. Mbendjele are essential labourers for the farming economy at key moments such as at harvest. They are considered great herbalists and healers, and genuine ritual experts. Their performance and musical skills are widely admired, and they perform all the major ceremonies of the Bilo. Villagers greatly value the forest foods Mbendjele provide. Wild honey, game meat, especially elephant and pig, caterpillars, seasonal fruit and wild nuts are considered the finest local delicacies.

Questions that approach their relations with Bilo from the point of view of innate inferiority and subordination visibly annoy Mbendjele. The Mbendjele ideal of their relationship with Bilo is based on friendship, sharing, mutual aid and support, and on equality and respect for one another. When Bilo do not fulfil these expectations they can simply be abandoned.

In stark contrast to the Bilo conception of the Mbendjele as their slaves, the Mbendjele consider themselves free from commitment and binding ties. Able to leave and go whenever they like, they will find new friends if they are not satisfied. In this way the Mbendjele exert a pragmatic and tangible power over the Bilo that allows them to resist domination and maintain their autonomy.

Since Europeans first observed them Mbendjele have used this power in their relations with Bilo. Travelling widely in the Mbendjele area in 1906, Bruel described his experiences at the Pomo (Bilo) village Mene on the Ndoki. When he first visited there were many Mbendjele. On his second visit the Mbendjele had all gone and the Pomo were complaining that they no longer got meat or ivory, but that they were frightened to look for the Mbendjele in the forest. Bruel observed that these relations

‘… are voluntary and result from different needs each wishes to satisfy. As soon as relations turn to their detriment, as soon as the Babinga [Mbendjele] think they have reason to complain about their [Bilo] associates, they break the relations, emigrate and often go far away in the forest where they will make new friends.’

Bruel explained that the Mbendjele’s mobility permitted them to maintain their autonomy, and disagreed with claims by other (unnamed) European observers that ‘the Babingas are the serfs of the sedentary populations.’ The same practices are observable today, and perform a similar purpose. Mbendjele that were with Sangha-Sangha Bilo before the 1990s are steadily abandoning them in favour of the Bongili and Bodingo Bilo. They explain that these new partners are more generous and respect them better than the Sangha-Sangha did.

The use of avoidance in hunting and gathering societies is widespread and employed to deal with various problems from food shortages to dispute resolution. The facility with which avoidance is used depends crucially on people remaining highly mobile and not losing access to vital assets when they move. Without fixed assets to guard (such as fields or harvested crops), a hunter-gatherer’s entire household can be quickly packed into a woman’s basket, and new huts quickly, but skilfully built at a new location. Mobility also serves to regulate resource use, by ensuring that when natural resources are low, people move on, allowing resources to replenish.

This ease of movement makes avoidance an effective response to conflict. Rather than suffer a difficult, unpleasant or exploitative situation hunter-gatherers often prefer to move away. Maybe because of internal conflict between members of a camp, or between different camps, or in relation to non-hunter-gatherers. Movements can be permanent when people feel grossly abused.

During my fieldwork in Congo I got to know one such group of Mbendjele. In 1991 Sangha-Sangha Bilo paid Mbendjele to conduct a large three-day Ejengi ceremony for them. During the rite some young Bilo kicked dirt on Ejengi’s food as a sign of their dislike for the Mbendjele. This act provoked a huge brawl in which many were injured and fatalities were only narrowly avoided. One young Mbendjele man was set upon by several Bilo youths wielding sticks, and beaten unconscious.

Ngbwiti and Ekwese were disgusted by this behaviour and decided, along with all the other Mbendjele, to abandon the Sangha-Sangha. Some years later some Mbendjele returned and renewed their relations with the Sangha-Sangha. Ngbwiti and Ekwese never did.

Indeed, they resolved never to return to the ‘suk-suku’ (perpetual argument and fighting) of Bilo villages. They prefer to stay in a very remote area of forest known as Ibamba. Ngbwiti explained to me: