Baka (people)
The Baka , also Baaka, BaAka, Ba'aka , a pygmy people , live in Cameroon , the Republic of the Congo , in the Central African Republic and in Gabon . They speak the Baka , an Oubangi language from the Gbandili-Sere language family .
Society and culture
The social organization is based on patrilineal (male lineage), not always totemic clans . The residence is usually virilocal (the woman moves to her husband's village), but after the marriage it can be uxorilocal for about five to ten years due to bridal service ( mokokope ) (husband moves to the wife's residence). Because of their aptitude (without a formal ruling structure), the Baka solve internal problems among themselves, e.g. B. according to the principle of consensus , through conflict avoidance or witchcraft . In the event of difficulties with external people, they increasingly turn to the village chiefs or the police as state-authorized authorities. This is especially true for difficulties with the neighboring Bantu peoples, such as B. the Bangando occur.
According to their own statements, the Baka used to be exclusively hunters, fishermen and gatherers. After settling down in the 1960s, encouraged by the influence of the government and missionaries, they increasingly turned into small farmers who hunt, fish, collect and / and do wage labor and trade.
The traditional areas of use of the Baka are increasingly restricted by selective logging. The animals and plants they used to live on are disappearing. The survival of the Baka depends more and more on agriculture. Child mortality is high; Out of an average of eight children born to a woman, only four reach adulthood.
Population genetic research has shown that the Baka, like the other Central African pygmies and the South African San , are the direct descendants of the oldest Homo sapiens population on earth.
Others
The last hunters in Cameroon is an arte report from 2012 directed by José Manuel Novoa.
The founders of the British-Cameroonian world music group Baka Beyond , Martin Cradick and Su Hart, have been living regularly with the Baka in Cameroon since 1992. Since 1993 they have combined the yodelling of the Baka with African percussion and Celtic pop music on several CDs.
literature
- D. Boursier: Pöli, mémoires d'une femme pygmée. Paris 1996.
- R. Brisson: Contes des pygmées baka. Sangmelima.
- R. Brisson: Utilization of the plantes par les pygmées baka. Douala 1988.
- Christa Kilian-Hatz: Contes et Proverbes des pygmées Baka. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT), Paris 1989.
- Christa Kilian-Hatz: "Because Komba made the forest for you". The forest in the economy and worldview of the Baka in southern Cameroon. In: M. Bollig, D. Bünnagel (ed.): The Central African Rainforest. Lit, Münster 1992, pp. 65-71.
Web links
- Baka pygmy culture, music and rites with photos and sounds
Individual evidence
- ↑ YS Chen, A. Olckers, TG Schurr, AM Kogelnik, K. Huoponen, DC Wallace: mtDNA variation in the South African Kung and Khwe-and their genetic relationships to other African populations. In: American Journal of Human Genetics . Volume 66, Number 4, April 2000, pp. 1362-1383, doi : 10.1086 / 302848 , PMID 10739760 , PMC 1288201 (free full text).