The Mbuti: Keeping the Peace: February 2014

Source:
Feltner, Molly
2011 Mbuti Pygmies: The Forest is Eerything. 4.59 minutes. YouTube, February 20.

Background Information

The Mbuti hunter-gatherers are part of the ethnic, indigenous group pygmy, located in the Congo region of Africa. They have lived in the Ituri Forest for thousands of years, and may even be the earliest natives of Africa. During the 19th century, explorer Henry Morton Stanley came to the Congo and his exploration resulted in Colonial exploitation. Bantu villagers, whose lives were based on agricultural near the Mbuti, were forced to migrate from their land to the edge of the Ituri Forest where the Mbuti resides. With years of contact, the Mbuti and Bantu eventually created a strange relationship that has helped them both survive, which resulted in acculturation. In their activated ignorance, both groups view the other as inferior, but somehow work together remain sustainable. The Bantu see the Mbuti as a good source for cheap labor. The Bantu are too afraid to go to the forest to hunt, so they depend on the Mbuti for meat, whereas the Mbuti depend on trade with the villagers for crops and other supplies. Although the Bantu have assumed authority over the Mbuti, the Mbuti feel that they have no obligation to the villagers.

From 1964 to 1970, the Simba Rebellion occurred, which directly affected the Mbuti and villagers. The rebels came to the Ituri form the west along roads that were built as a result of the Belgian colonial period where the colonists came and developed on land that had been untouched for decades. The rebels first tries to assert their authority in the region, but they were not organized and government forces followed them, causing many of the Ituri’s people to be slaughtered due to the disorder. Some Mbuti fled with their villagers during the rebellion, helping them in the forest which they knew so well. Others associated themselves with the rebels or government soldiers and fought.

The rebellion greatly affected the history of the Ituri and political authority was disrupted. There was a reduction to the population and many had to relocate while the forest opened to new people. The government tried to settle Mbuti as
farmers in villages along the roads, but failed because the forest is their home.

Now the Mbuti’s skills in forests are taken advantage of and they have had to adapt to different lifestyles. Instead of living in peace in the forest, they are hired by timber businesses to identify and cut trees, guide and scout for illegal prospectors and elephant hunters, and, in the interest of commercial traders, hunt and deplete the local wildlife populations.

Sources:

Hart, John A. and Terese B. Hart

2010 The Mbuti of Zaire. Electronic document, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/democractic-republic-congo/mbuti-zaire, accessed February 24, 2014.

Turnbull, C.

1983 The Mbuti of Zaire. Electronic document, http://www.qvcc.commnet.edu/brian/saroviak/mbuti.html, accessed February 24, 2014.

Vision

The iCross-Cultural Citizen Project’s vision is to create an online cross-cultural space for students, professionals, and youth to learn and exchange cross-culturally sensitive information about contemporary indigenous experiences. From that outsider student’s perspective, we will try to theoretically explore possible collaborative solutions to problems that affect the indigenous populations of our planet. Finally, we hope for the future creation of a space where indigenous youth can share their experiences and their realities with us for real mutual collaboration to take place.

The Mbuti: Keeping the Peace

Mbuti in their forest

Monday, February 24, 2014

Mbuti Pygmies: The Forest is Everything