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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
After reading Louis Sarno's book, Song from the Forest, I travelled to Central African Republic to visit the Bayaka pygmies. Landing in Bangui, the capital, it took four days to travel 400 kilometers to the southwest corner of the country where Louis and the Bayaka live. |
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Bayaka
Being forest dwellers, the Ba-Benjelle pygmies know the forest, its plants and animals intimately. They live by hunting animals such as pigs, antelopes and monkeys, as well, as fishing and gathering yams, berries and other edible plants. They see the forest as a generous god who provides for all their needs.
There complex pattern of nomadic life, established over thousands of years, is threatened more than ever by outside influences like politics and commerce, and those who remain live increasingly sedentary lives.* |
Vanishing Bayaka
All people can make a unique and positive contribution to the larger society because of, rather than spite of, their differences.
The main threat facing the Bayaka people is racism. Even though they were living in the forests long before anyone else, the Banu people who share the forests, see the Bayaka as less than human. Governments have chosen to profit from the forests. Big companies buy the land and the Bayaka get thrown out. Bayaka tribes are being illegally evicted from their homes by heavily armed fighters. There must be a better way to save the Bayaka and keep the species of animals in the forests. |
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If a man can't hunt well, his wife may get up and leave.*
In serious cases the culprit may be banned from the clan, but even that is usually temporary.*
At first it may seem rather simple, with a fairly uncomplicated rhythmical pattern provided by the clapping of hands and striking of sticks against one another.*
...the Pygmies are famous for their short stature and adaptation to lie in the rainforest.*
Pygmies are very communal; for example in some tribes such as the Efe, when a nursing mother must leave the camp for short period of time...*
...she will often leave her child with another lactating woman for breast-feeding.*
On YouTube, search "Baskets Central African Republic Doug Spencer".
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Pygmy clans are small with no hierarchy and no division of labour.*
Tribunals, prisons and most forms of coercion don't exist.*
Pygmies are by no means unaffected by 'civilisation'.*
...among the Pygmies everyone is a musician, men and women, young and old alike.*
In fact, it's quite sophisticated in rhythm and form, with lots of improvisation as they perform...*
The children are highly valued and are frequently passed to each member around the camp; therefore they get to know all the band at an early age.*
On YouTube, search "Dance 2 Central African Republic".
Song from the Forest
On YouTube, search "Song from the Forest Doug Spencer" I had the opportunity to speak with Louis Sarno when I travelled to Central African Republic to visit the Bayak pygmies. Louis is an American musicologist and author of Song from the Forest.
He combined recordings of Bayakan music with sounds of their surrounding environment into a two-CD/book package entitled Bayaka: The Extraordinary Music of the BaBenzl Pygmies. A movie based on his life called Oka! was released in 2011, as well as a documentary film Song from the Forest shot in 2013. Louis Sarno died in 2017, he was 62. |
All the men have the same job - hunting - and therefore must have the aptitudes.*
The only form of punishment is exclusion.*
They all participate in singing, clapping, stamping and other rhythmical actions.*
...especially with the drums which accompany their music most of the time and invariably when they are on the eve of a hunting expedition.*
Unfortunately, mortality among children is very high; those who survive into adulthood seem to carry with them extraordinary immunities.*
Due to their basically nomadic existence, Pygmies are scattered throughout the tropical forests of the Congo basin...*
On YouTube, search "Central African Republic Pygmies Doug Spencer".
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*These captions are from Central Africa -- Lonely Planet's travel guide.