Kumuka 1993 -- Efe Pygmy Visit, Zaire (D.R. Congo) Pt. 3 /5

This is a video document, 49 minutes in total length, of the interaction between Western adventure travelers and one of the oldest human societies in central Africa.

In June 1993, a group of tourists (American, Australian, British, Canadian, French) on a commercial overland trek (Kumuka Trans-Africa) visited an Efe pygmy camp named "Bandikoda", on the Laya River, in the eastern Ituri forest. This camp was situated a short pirogue ride downriver from the village of Ngeleza, about halfway between Bunia and Beni, in what was then the Haut-Zaire region of Zaire, now Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ca. 1° 16' N, 29° 42' W). On some maps, this river is named "Lowje" or "Loya River", but it is not the "Loya River" in the MSN Encarta World Atlas - that river is situated two degrees further west in the Ituri.

Our guides were Lese villagers, non-Pygmy agriculturalists who exchange their rice, tobacco, manioc and some manufactured articles for meat and honey obtained by the Efe hunters and foragers. The Efe and Lese communicate in mutually intelligible dialects of the KiLese language. The Efe at Bandikoda had become habituated to visits by "mazungus" (foreign tourists, white people), and they graciously permitted five of us to pitch our tents and spend the entire day and night in their midst. The Efe welcomed us with forty-five minutes of singing and dancing, accompanied by drums and honey whistles. There followed some bartering for souvenirs, including the "likembe" thumb piano, the five-stringed "zoma" harp, pounded bark loincloths, and the "asuba" monkey-skin wristband worn by hunters -- the sound of the bowstring snapping against it alerts other hunters in the vicinity.

Some travelers then had designs drawn on their hands and faces by the Efe women -- these took several weeks to rub off! In the afternoon, we joined the males on a hunt through the forest; singing as they went, they triangulated their prey with hunting dogs who wear resonant wooden boxes. The men cover their skins with the yellow powder from a tree before returning to camp. In the evening, we cooked a meal of spaghetti and shared it with our inquisitive hosts.

Further reading -

Grinker, Roy Richard (1994). Houses in the rain forest: ethnicity and inequality among farmers and foragers in Central Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press. [on the relationship between the Lese and Efe]

Wheeler, William F. (2000). Efe pygmies: archers of the African rain forest. New York : Rizzoli. [large format photographs of the Efe on Nduye River, north of Epulu]

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Efe
• Lese
• Ituri
• pygmies
• pygmées
• BaMbuti
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Zaire
• Laya River
• Loya
• Kumuka
• overland

[Shehasnomorals]

@par2765

Shut up moron. There is nothing wrong with showing these people. Why are you ashamed of your own culture?

[par2765]

Fuck You With This Video !!! You Bombo Claat White Trash. Why you don't show your own fucking people in the caves, when they has not been civilised yet ?? YOU BLOOD CLOTH WHITE PEOPLE !!!

[Okarabakropinakra]

They look and speake like the ndyuka of surinam.. 'the land of the ndyuka' watch

Kaadim kaadim mitoolia sibamale sibamale

[orangekush3]

@bella20010 they speak monkey lol

[GuamKomudo]

You're stupid... They're not pregnant, that's what your body looks like when you are starving to death... idk why it does that, but when your body is starving it bloats like that around the tummy.

[GuamKomudo]

You obviously need to learn more about religion before you talk crap about Christians... What we believe is that evey human being has a standard feeling of right and wrong, weather you've never heard the name Jesus Christ in your life and you live in the middle of some jungle in Thailand, you will have a feeling of right and wrong for every action you do or do not do. Not to mention you don't know anything about any of these people and how each one is individually from this video... >.>

[bella20010]

what language do they speak?? coz that language doesnt sound familiar

[superhayriye]

nega

[jazzyazz]

They seem like wonderful people. Doesn't it make you sick when people say we get our morals from the bible?

[IguanadonBlues]

The Efe live in social units of between four to 20 people and live mostly in quickly constructed huts as they move from hunting ground to hunting ground. The main food is largely monkey, duiker and starches such as cassava, rice, peanuts, potatoes and yams traded with their long-term often hereditary partners - the agricultural peoples who live around them.