Displacement and discrimination devastating forest dwellers
Across the forests of central Africa, forest peoples have lived by hunting and gathering for millenia. But in the past few decades their homelands have been devastated by logging, war and encroachment from farmers.
With expansion of protected areas in response to these problems, their livelihoods have become increasingly impossible and their strong ties to their forests are under strain.
The ‘Pygmy’ peoples of central Africa are traditionally hunter-gatherers living in the rainforests throughout central Africa.
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| © Salomé/Survival |
The term ‘Pygmy’ has gained negative connotations, but has been reclaimed by some indigenous groups as a term of identity.
Primarily though, these communities identify themselves as ‘forest peoples’ due to the fundamental importance of the forest to their culture, livelihood and history.
Each is a distinct people, such as the Twa, Aka, Baka and Mbuti living in countries across central Africa, including the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda and Cameroon.
Different groups have different languages and hunting traditions. Although each community faces different threats and challenges, racism, logging and conservation are major problems for many, all contributing to serious health problems and violent abuse.
Current estimates put the population of the ‘Pygmy’ peoples at about half a million.
Central to the identity of these peoples is their intimate connection to the forest lands they have lived in, worshiped and protected for generations.
Jengi, the spirit of the forest, is one of the few words common to many of the diverse languages spoken by forest peoples.
The importance of the forest as their spiritual and physical home, and as the source of their religion, livelihood, medicine and cultural identity cannot be overstated.
Traditionally, small communities moved frequently through distinct forest territories, gathering a vast range of forest products, collecting wild honey and exchanging goods with neighbouring settled societies.
Hunting techniques vary among the forest peoples, and include bows and arrows, nets and spears.
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| © Salomé/Survival |
But many communities have been displaced by conservation projects and their remaining forests have been degraded by extensive logging, expansion by farmers, and commercial activities such as intensive bush-meat trading.
Few have received any compensation for the loss of their self-sufficient livelihoods in the forest and face extreme levels of poverty and ill-health in ‘squatter’ settlements on the fringes of the land that was once theirs.
In Rwanda for example, many Twa people who have been displaced from their lands earn a living by making and selling pottery.
Now this livelihood is threatened by the loss of access to clay through the privatisation of land and by the increasing availability of plastic products.
Begging and selling their labour cheaply have become the only options left to many displaced and marginalized forest peoples.
A fundamental problem for Pygmy peoples is the lack of recognition of land rights for hunter-gatherers coupled with the denial of their ‘indigenous’ status in many African states.
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| © Salomé/Survival |
Without nationally recognised rights to the forest lands on which they depend, outsiders or the state can take over their lands with no legal barriers and no compensation.
Those communities who have lost their traditional livelihoods and lands find themselves at the bottom of ‘mainstream’ society – the victims of pervasive discrimination affecting every aspect of their lives.
