The Mbuti, commonly known as the Bambuti people is one of the many pygmy groups of people living in the Ituri rain forest in Congo region of central Africa. This group of indigenous people is one of the native communities in Congo region who have preserved their cultural and social practices for a long time. The group has distinct cultural values in terms of language and cultural practices that define their indigenous lives as well as differentiate them from their neighboring communities. This paper discusses in details the cultural existence of the Mbuti people in relation to their social organization, their culture and beliefs as well as the gender relations and division of roles between the genders.
Mode of subsistence
The Bambuti people are foragers and mainly depend on hunting and gathering as their main mode of subsistence. Apart from hunting and gathering, the Bambuti also exchange food stuffs with the neighboring communities who are agriculturalists through barter trade. The process of food gathering involves collecting wild fruits, vegetables and roots such as wild yams. They also collect forest honey for food as well as for barter trade (Mukenge, 2002). The mode of proximity adopted by the Mbuti people is made convenient by their existence in the Ituri rain forest which is a home to many wild and aquatic animals and edible plants.
Social organization
The Mbuti people are organized into small units of nuclear families consisting of a husband, wife and the children. The nuclear families live together in small huts. The people are said to establish their neighborhood whereby they exist in small villages referred to as Bands. This is the largest unit which consist of several nuclear families living together to form a small community (Grinker, 2012). The bands participate together in hunting and gathering spree in dry seasons. They mainly move into the forest together when there is drought and remain together in the villages during rainy seasons because there is plenty of food for the community.
Beliefs and Values
The Mbuti people have distinct cultural beliefs that are shaped by their hunting-gathering lifestyle that take place in the forest. Their core belief is that the Ituri forest is the source of their food and protection hence they sometime regard the forest as their ‘father’ and mother and a sacred place that is highly respected (Grinker, 2012). They perform a special ritual known as ‘Molimo’ in the forest to awaken the forest spirits in cases of bad things such as death. The ritual involves noisy celebrations which are meant to awaken the forest which the people believe it could be sleeping while the bad things are happening to them. The Bambuti also perform other celebrations such as dancing around the fire in other special occasions.
Gender relations
There is an equal treatment of both male and female members of the Mbuti people in terms of decision making as well as the economic activities. The lives of the Mbuti people require both genders to be actively involved in the upkeep of the families though equal involvement in gathering and the family upkeep activities (Butler, 2012). The women are however exempted from activities such as hunting sprees involving the use of arrows and bows with their main activity being cooking and taking care of the children as well as maintenance of the huts while the men look for food.
Conclusion
The cultural way of life is shaped by various social and cultural practices and belief all depending with the people’s mode of subsistence. The cultural organization of the Bambuti (pygmies) people has however been affected by various factors such as the regulations inhibiting mass game hunt and civil wars taking place in the Congo republic. This is likely to affect the socio cultural pattern of this indigenous group of people by altering their cultural setting that has defined them for a long period of time.
References
Butler, R. (2012). African Rainforest People. Retrieved from www.mongabay.com
Grinker, R. (2012). Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin Anthropological Quarterly. Vol. 85 (4).
Mukenge, T. (2002). Culture and Customs of the Congo. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
