Mbuti People of Africa



Mbuti People of Africa

Introduction

Belonging to the African rainforest, pygmies are one of the most famous tribes living in the Ituri Forest in northern Zaire. These people are one of the oldest native people of Africa and are known to be the first inhabitants of this region who were later joined by the farmers and ranchers. These pygmies are basically hunter-gatherers. The largest group of these people are the Mbuti which further has three different cultures namely basua, efe and asua, each with its own different dialects. Apart from these there are other groups too like the Twa along the border, CWA which live in the forests and savannas around Lake Kasai. Despite of continous interaction with neighbouring tribes and various colonists,pygmies maintain their own culture that is according to their beliefes,languages and traditions.The overall population of the pygmies is not exactly known, but the estimates say that the population is about 150,000. Mbuti population is estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 which means it is an area with low population density and Mbuti have about less than one person per 4km squares. The people of Mbuti are significantly smaller in size than the people who are living in the savannas; the small body structure allows efficient movement in all parts of the forest as compared to the taller people.

Discussion

Since the forest, of Ituri is a tropical rainforest, so the amount of annual rainfall in this is high which ranges from around 50 to 70 inches. The high rainfall maintains a moist and humid environment, apart from the high rainfall there are rivers and lakes present in this area thus this region remains moist almost throughout the year. The dry season is comparatively very short in duration, which ranges from one to two months. There are several environmental problems that people of this area face for e.g. disease is widespread an also it spreads rapidly, killing humans as well as plants and animals which are the main sources of food for people living in this area. Sleeping sickness, which is also, known as trypanosomiasis or African sleeping sickness is the disease that is carried by the fly tsetse and it is fatal. Apart from that too much of rainfall and the droughts reduces the supply of food greatly

The villages that the Mbuti's live in are categorized as the bands, and each family unit has a hut which it uses for its living.Mbuti live in bands which are relatively smaller in size, the number of people vary from 15 to 60 people When the dry season starts these people leave the village and starts moving towards the forest for the establishment of camps, this is also a way through which these people increase their search for food supply as more and maximum land is used. Each village is separate from other groups of people, the houses that they make are circular, smaller in size and also provisional. The construction of these houses is way too much different from ...