Long-term Foraging Expedition and Subsistence of the Baka in Northwestern Congo Basin: An Example of Pure Foraging Life in Tropical Rain Forests

Abstract

While “Pygmy” hunter-gatherers were generally assumed to be the original inhabitants of the central African rain forest, recent studies have proposed the hypothesis that it is impossible to subsist by hunting and gathering alone in the tropical rain forests without some degree of dependence on agricultural products. This hypothesis has been debated among researchers of hunter-gatherer societies in different parts of the world. There have been, however, few studies on this issue that were based on sound data on the actual hunting and gathering life of the forest peoples.

This paper examines the possibility of hunting and gathering life in the tropical rain forest, based on the data obtained from participant observation on molongo, a long-term hunting and gathering expedition, among the Baka in southeastern Cameroon. During the two and a half months of the expedition, the Baka subsisted solely on wild food resources, wild yams in particular, although it was during the dry season when food resources are generally thought to be scarce. The sustainability of such a forest life is examined in relation to the abundance and distribution patterns of wild food resources, hunting and gathering technologies, residential patterns and nomadic life style.