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Where to Find Pygmies
Djoum has the feel of a frontier town. Situated right
in the middle of the lush rainforest, it was set up by the
Germans as a base for many deforestation projects that are
still going on today. You reach Djoum through a red piste,
badly maintained and practically unusable during the rainy
seasons. Once in Djoum, you'll discover many derelict buildings,
now pale souvenir of the colonisation era. But there's more
to Djoum than meets the eye: around this small village and
its dirt track road, around 50,000 pygmies still live
today. The original inhabitants of most of the country, they
were driven into the forest a couple of thousand years ago
by various aggressive, taller Bantu tribes, and have
made it their home ever since.
Pygmy People
There are many different pygmy tribes including Bambuit,
Batwa, Bagyeli, and Bayaka. Their names denote
their origin and the prefix 'ba' means people. Hunter-gatherers,
the small in stature pygmies still live off the bounty of
the forest, fishing, hunting bushmeat, gathering fruits and
honey, medicinal herbs and magical potion. They have close
ties with the local farmers who will exchange forest produce
for other crops and goods.
Issues for the Modern-Day Pygmy
Pygmies face many problems as their homes are threatened.
Deforestation, extensive logging, and commercial hunting are
big concerns, as are diminishing natural resources. In Cameroon
the Bagyeli Pygmies livelihood is being disrupted by
an oil pipeline built through their land. They are also routinely
deprived by the government who do not see forest dwellers
as equal citizens.
Until recent times pygmies lived deep in the forest, but
over the last century, as national parks to preserve wildlife
have been set up and as logging concessions have been granted
in the forest, the pygmies have gradually been driven brought
out from the deep forest where they were originally driven.
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