of hunter-gatherer studies and usually conceive of Pygmies as ..... 128) describes
a “small colony” of Pygmies living near the court of King Munza c. 1870.
do not quote without author's permission
When Pygmies Speak: toward an indigenous model of development in equatorial Africa
Robert Moise
NOT TO BE QUOTED, CITED, OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
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Introduction During the late 1990s in southeast Cameroon, a Baka Pygmy woman who is a nganga (diviner/healer) had a vision. Her vision spelled out the future role that Baka would play in the national life of Cameroon and was recounted to me as follows. The first president of Cameroon was a Muslim from the north (Ahmadou Ahidjo). The second president of Cameroon was a Beti, from the south (Paul Biya). The third president of Cameroon will be a Baka. Since President Biya is still in power, it remains to be seen if the woman’s vision will come to pass. Yet regardless of its outcome, the sense of aspiration that it articulated, the sense of agency in relation to the wider world that it presumed, made perfect sense to local Baka. In fact, they gave a great deal of credence to both the nganga and her vision. Given this, one might expect to find a similar sense of agency expressed in the writings of those outside professionals – scholars, development and human rights workers, etc. -- whose task it is to understand, describe, and provide assistance to the equatorial African peoples referred to as “Pygmies.” 1 But this sense of agency is conspicuously absent from their writings. A major reason for this is the way in which these professions construct the identity of Pygmy peoples. Contemporary scholars who write about Pygmies are heirs to the intellectual tradition of hunter-gatherer studies and usually conceive of Pygmies as “hunter-gatherers” (“foragers”). According to this tradition’s founding paradigm, the two key factors which distinguish hunter-gatherer societies from other types of societies lie in the domains of economy and residence: they engage in food “collection” rather than “production” and their residential pattern involves greater mobility, as they move in response to seasonal fluctuations in natural resources (Lee 1979, Lee and Devore 1968). Yet this economic and residential pattern is also thought to be associated with a relation to the natural environment that is much deeper and more intimate than that enjoyed by societies practicing other forms of economy (Bird-David 1990). As a result, the natural environment is considered to loom very large in the lives of hunter-gatherers. Not only does it regulate economy and residence, it gives rise to bodies of cultural practice which regulate social life in various ways -- providing mechanisms to resolve conflicts, prevent inequalities, promote social equilibrium, etc. – as well as provide spiritual sustenance (Hewlett 2009, Kisliuk 1998, Turnbull 1961, 1965b, 1968, Woodburn 1982). In this way, the natural environment is considered to engender a habitus (Bourdieu 1977) which provides for most all their material and social needs. In keeping with this model, Pygmies are imagined to be unconcerned with events unfolding, or resources circulating, in wider regional environments and content to live within the natural and cultural frameworks of their “forest cocoon” (Bahuchet and Guillaume 1982). 2 Their focus is considered to remain entirely local: concerning themselves with life in the forest and interacting with outsiders only to enter into “symbiotic” relations of exchange with neighboring Bantu “farmers.” In addition, this presumed isolation is considered to provide them with a sort of “immunity” from history: their relation to it being one of unending cultural reproduction as long as social isolation
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is maintained and, rather than being the creation of human beings, their history is something simply inherited from the past (Wilmsen 1989b). Development and human rights professionals operate out of similar constructions of Pygmy identity, in that they also see them as forest-oriented bearers of a long-standing cultural tradition. Yet their constructions include an additional element, due to the different role they play in relation to Pygmy peoples. Whereas scholars focus on exploring the contours of a cultural tradition that sheds light on early phases of human history, they are concerned with the current material and social conditions of its bearers. Because the conditions of Pygmy lives are fundamentally different than those of other equatorial peoples, Pygmies are perceived as occupants of an inferior social position, which easily allows them to become victims of the machinations of the powerful. Whereas the key trope in scholarly constructions of Pygmy identity is Pygmies-asisolated-representatives-of-a-cultural-tradition, in development and human rights constructions it is Pygmies-as-victims-of-the-powerful (COOPI 2006, Hewlett 2009, Jackson 2003, Lewis 2000, IRIN 2006, Rupp 2003, Tremblay 1985, Woodburn 1997). As such, they are seen as being in need of outside assistance to gain access to modern resources and negotiate their position vis-à-vis the wider world. Given such constructions of identity, it is not surprising that there is little space in the discourses of development, human rights, and hunter-gatherer studies for the active engagement of Pygmy peoples with wider regional frameworks, their interactions with historical processes, or for their pursuit of paths of individual achievement, not to mention the forms of agency that result in individuals becoming leaders of nations. Yet an additional obstacle to outsiders gaining a grasp of the kinds of agency that at least some Pygmies take for granted is that all of these identity constructions have their origins in the universalist ideological frameworks of the modern era -- Western notions of modernization and universal development, modern ideals of universal equality, universal histories divided into technological stages, etc. Although these ideological frameworks work perfectly well for certain purposes, they have limited utility as analytical tools to construct “models of” behavior and “models for” intervention in the local settings of equatorial Africa (Geertz 1973d). In particular, since they fail to pay sufficient attention to local cultural and historical realities, as well as local agency, they are unable to articulate the ways in which Pygmies have engaged with wider regional environments through time to pursue their own goals -- a key issue for both the theory and practice of Pygmy development (Blaser, Feit, and McRae 2004, Escobar 1995, Ferguson 1990, Haugerud 2003, Maliqalim-Simone 1990). Elsewhere (Moise n.d.), I have developed an alternative model of Pygmy identity that is rooted in the cultural and historical realities of equatorial Africa and provides an alternative reading of Pygmy identity and history. It posits that, rather than remaining in social isolation, Pygmies have always been engaged with the historical transformations occurring in wider regional environments. When these have offered opportunities, they have sought to take advantage of them and, when these have imposed constraints, they have attempted to avoid them through a strategy of social and physical distance. In addition, rather than being disempowered victims or timeless hunter-gatherers lacking agency, Pygmies have always been resilient and creative entrepreneurs who are perfectly willing to pursue their own goals in wider regional environments, whenever opportunities
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arise. This explains why some Cameroonian Baka can easily imagine themselves becoming the president of their country. In this paper, I explore the implications of this model for issues surrounding Pygmy development. In the first section, I outline the model’s underlying principles and illustrate its enduring nature by drawing on historical data from the pre-colonial era. In the second section, I employ the model to examine the relationship of Baka to a contemporary development project in Cameroon and describe how they transformed the project’s original structures into their own vision of their future. In the final section, I make use of these insights to outline the features of an “indigenous” model of development and suggest what kinds of interventions could be undertaken on behalf of Pygmy peoples at local, national, and international levels. An alternative model of identity The model of Pygmy identity I employ in this paper is based on four cultural principles: autonomy, entrepreneurialism, mobility, and creativity/play. These serve as modes of being-in-the-world and as principles for individual and collective action. In addition, they inform how Pygmies relate to other peoples and respond to historical constraints and opportunities. Autonomy When one lives among Pygmy peoples, one is easily struck by the extremely wide latitude there appears to be for acceptable social behavior. As long as people do not encroach on the autonomy of others, they can “do pretty much what they want” (Hewlett et al n.d.:11). This sincere appreciation for the “sheer qualities of individuality” (Myers 1986a:177) manifests itself in a range of forms of individual character, a marked flexibility in how individuals face the challenges of social life, and an appreciation – indeed celebration – of individual eccentricity. The principle of autonomy is perfectly consistent with this wide latitude for acceptable behavior. The autonomy of the individual is regarded as inviolable, as something that is almost sacred and cannot be transgressed. It is the fundamental commitment to individual autonomy within Pygmy political culture that precludes the emergence of power relations in any aspect of political life (Moise 2003). The principle of autonomy thus serves as one of the cornerstones of Pygmy political culture and informs political process at all organizational levels (Moise n.d.). Within Pygmy residential groups, those with authority (leaders, elders, etc.) have the right to give advice, which is listened to respectfully by others, but the actual decision whether or not to follow it always rests with the individual; in the face of directives from those with authority, individuals maintain a universal right of refusal (Dodd n.d.:12, 1984:5, Moise 1992). By the same token, the social units that Dodd (1984:6, 30) refers to as “segments” (usually termed “camps” in the ethnographic literature) always retain their autonomy as units of decision-making for residential arrangements: no matter how large residential aggregations may become, it is always up to the members of a segment to decide where, and with whom, they will live. In the pluralistic social fields of the wider region, the pursuit of autonomy plays a critically important role as a response to
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constraints imposed by other social groups and historical conditions. Ever since the rise of Pygmy social inferiority – a historical process likely to have occurred at different times in different places, but which was ubiquitous by the later phases of the pre-colonial era – Pygmies appear to have distanced themselves from violence, domination, and mistreatment by using the forest as a refuge. Whether to put some temporary distance between themselves and the machinations of their Bantu alliance partners or to permanently escape the predations of inter-tribal warfare and slave-raiding, the forest has long served as a realm of political refuge, a space of collective autonomy (Bertaut 1943:92, Deschamps 1962:136, Hewlett 1991:29, Turnbull 1961, 1965b, Van de Sandt 1999). Entrepreneurialism “Entrepreneurialism” is the term I employ for the active pursuit of resources and/or knowledge, which often requires flexibility, the forging of alliances with others, and migration across various sorts of boundaries. One manifestation of entrepreneurialism is the pursuit of paths of individual achievement based on the acquisition of knowledge. If individuals’ pursuits are successful, this leads to their assuming the roles of nganga (diviner/healer) and/or tuma (master hunter). If they attain mastery of these roles, they acquire prestige – among other Pygmies as well as Bantu. If they end up excelling in these roles, they can gain considerable regional renown. 3 A second common manifestation of entrepreneurialism is the pursuit of resources in wider regional environments. When historical conditions are favorable, individuals seek out access to regional resources and the methods they employ are: (1) migrating to locations where they can access them, (2) adopting whatever productive modes are needed, and (3) forging alliance relations with whatever outsiders are useful. It is this form of entrepreneurialism which best embodies the “profound aspirations” that Althabe attributes to certain Pygmy individuals (1965:592). Mobility In the hunter-gatherer literature, the term “mobility” is used primarily to refer to two types of movement: (1) migrations to access natural resources and (2) the fission of residential groups as a means to resolve social conflicts. Here, I employ mobility in a much broader sense to refer to movements that bridge various boundaries – geographic, economic, social, etc. Such mobility is often a counterpart to entrepreneurialism, as various forms of entrepreneurialism frequently involve the crossing of boundaries in the pursuit of one’s goals. Creativity and play The creative skills of Pygmies are widely celebrated and have brought them renown at local, regional, national, and international levels. The principle of creativity is manifested at the level of the individual by story-telling, comedic performances, graphic arts, and so on. Its primary manifestations at the collective level are polyphonic ensemble singing, music, dance, etc. (Arom 1973, Arom and Renaud 1977, Kisliuk
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1998). This cultural principle is also closely linked to the principle of “play,” which is illustrated by the tendency of Pygmies to take seemingly practical objects, events, and activities and “rework” them in the realm of play (Huizinga 1966, Pred and Watts 1992). *
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The ethnographic material I present in the next section provides several examples of how these four cultural principles inform individual and collective action in relation to wider environments. Yet these principles did not suddenly emerge in the contemporary era. Rather, they have informed how Pygmies have related to wider environments, and made history, over large spans of time and space. In order to provide a sense of their enduring quality, and their broad geographic spread, I first provide case material from across the equatorial region during the pre-colonial era. In particular, I focus on two key examples of entrepreneurialism in relation to regional environments: the alliance relations Pygmies forged with pre-colonial sovereigns and their engagement in the ivory trade during the late 19th century. Relations with sovereigns In many equatorial states, Pygmies played a key role in the life of the kingdom. In oral traditions, they were invariably represented as “first comers” who had a fundamental part in the founding of the polity (Chretien 1981, Klieman 2003, Seitz 1993, Vansina 1978). As such, they were considered intercessors to the spirits of the land and guardians of the sacred powers of the kingdom. Given this symbolic significance in royal ideology, their participation in rituals of enthronement, annual rituals of renewal, and other rites was essential (Abega n.d., Seitz 1993, Vansina 1978:55, 121, 1990:56). This ritual role ensured they enjoyed close ties with sovereigns, but they also took advantage of this relation to perform a range of other services for them. In addition to providing forest products and acting as personals assistants, they enriched the life of the courts with their aesthetic skills, acting as singers, dancers, musicians, bards, and comedians to entertain the court and its visitors (Lewis and Knight 1995:23-27, Schweinfurth 1874:126--130, Seitz 1993:262-267). The range of services they provided to sovereigns and the courts earned them a special status in pre-colonial kingdoms that resulted in extremely benevolent treatment (Kagamé in Lewis and Knight 1995:26, Schweinfurth 1874:146, Seitz 1993:228-264). Given that such treatment was in strong contrast to the social inferiority they experienced elsewhere, at least in the later phases of the pre-colonial era, Pygmy entrepreneurs appear to have actively sought out alliances with royals once centralization created opportunities for them. This is indicated by the ubiquity of their ties to ruling groups throughout the region -- in the kingdoms of Kuba, Tikar, Loango, Rwanda, Urundi, Bushi, Butembo, Mangbetu, and possibly others (Abega n.d., Battel [1610] in Ravenstein 1901, Kleiman 2003, Schweinfurth 1874, Seitz 1993, Vansina 1978). In addition, there is documentary evidence for specific cases – from the dawn of the 17th century to the late 19th century – of such entrepreneurialism: Barimba Pygmies in the Loango kingdom bypassed local Bantu to establish alliance and trading relations with representatives of sovereign power (Battel [1610], in Ravenstein 1901:59, Klieman 2003:194); Bacwa Pygmies in the Kuba
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kingdom treated local chiefs and functionaries “with profound disdain” while maintaining intimate ties to the royal court (Seitz 1993:227, Vansina 1978); Schweinfurth (1874:127128) describes a “small colony” of Pygmies living near the court of King Munza c. 1870 (also see Mounteney-Jephson 1891:201, 367); Lewis and Knight (1995:23) refer to Twa communities who serve specialized functions in the Rwandan court; and Lewis (2000:19) describes various Twa clans in the Bufumbira region who succeeded in becoming important figures in the royal court (see plate 1). Relations to regional trade Additional evidence for Pygmy entrepreneurialism and mobility in relation to wider environments comes from accounts of the late 19th century which attest to the widespread movement of Pygmy individuals and groups toward regional trade networks to participate in the ivory trade. For the area of the Lulonga River, a major area of ivory production, Harms notes that Pygmy elephant hunters “moved frequently between the Wambala and Mompono districts, a distance of about five hundred kilometers” (1981:42). Evidence of Pygmies trading for their own accounts in various areas of the equatorial region suggests that such individuals were part of a phenomenon that appears to have been fairly widespread by the latter part of the century – Pygmy groups who were independent of local Bantu, were directly connected to regional trade networks, and who made use of these connections to attain economic and political autonomy (Grenfell in Johnston 1969:145, Stanley 1885:46-48, Stanley 1890:99-106, Trilles 1903:407, Ward [1890] in Schultz 1986:2). A case from the Ituri gives a sense of this entrepreneurialism at the level of the individual, but also illustrates its regional character. An entrepreneur in the Ituri As A.B. Lloyd, a British missionary, was traveling through the Congo Free State in 1898, he met a Pygmy leader in the Ituri who provided him with an account of his “country:” it took seven days to walk from east to west, six days from north to south, and included settlements of about forty leaders, some of which reached the size of 200-500 inhabitants (1907:264-269). The leader and his companions were well-integrated into regional trade networks, as indicated by the iron bracelets and necklaces they wore, the alliances they maintained with Zanzibari traders, and the ivory they sold to Lloyd (Parke 1891: pl’s 13, 16, see plate 2). In addition, the leader was well-traveled -- being fluent in Batoro, a language from western Uganda, over three-hundred kilometers to the east – and entrepreneurial enough to seek Lloyd out: he followed the missionary through the forest for six days before introducing himself. Clearly, this leader was well-traveled and entrepreneurial. He knew this entire “district” (Vansina 1990) and probably maintained alliance and trading relationships with peoples far to the east, as indicated by his fluency in Batoro (also see Parke 1891:402). In addition, he travelled for six days to establish contact with a European stranger. His co-residents benefitted from his entrepreneurialism – as attested by the trade goods they possessed – but they did not appear to share it, as suggested by the fact that none of them
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spoke Batoro. Through his expansive social networks, he was acting as a mediator between regions, social groups, and trading spheres. At the same time, he and his fellow leaders occupied a district composed of a large number of interacting residential groups spread across a large expanse of territory. The fact that some of the settlements he describes are also large (up to 500 individuals) suggests a direct relationship to regional trade -- in the era of ethnography, one finds Pygmies inhabiting such large settlements primarily when there is a particular economic opportunity in the area (Ichikawa 1978:182, Pedersen and Waehle 1986:9-10, Tanno 1976:132-133, Turnbull 1961, Waehle 1986:407). Examples of other regional movements centered around the ivory trade in the eastern part of the forest (MounteneyJephson 1891:371-372, Stanley 1890:99-106) suggest that this was likely the case here as well. The model-in-action: Baka as authors of their own development Having described my model and detailed its historical precedents, I turn to an ethnographic example of Baka interaction with a development project from my field research in the Lomié region of Cameroon. I divide my discussion between what I call the “formal sector” of development and its “informal sector.” That is, I first describe the goals and structures of the development agents who set up the project and then examine the ways in which local Baka transformed its structures to create their own “society of the road.” The formal sector of development: efforts of the Catholic church to “liberate” Baka Under the auspices of implementing the Cameroonian government’s policy of Pygmy integration, the Catholic church established a project in 1975 to help foster the development of Baka Pygmies in the East province (Hewlett 1990, Ministère des Affaires Sociales 1982, Moïse 2003, Tremblay 1985). 4 The state’s approach to Pygmy development was to transform them into “productive citizens” that contributed to the national economy (Hewlett 2000:385), but the approach of the Catholic mission differed significantly. The sisters in charge of the project considered Baka to be the "slaves" of Nzimé and thought their development could only be achieved if their independence was secured first (Bretin-Winkelmolen, personal communication). Economic independence was to be achieved through the adoption of agriculture and the elimination of exchange relations with Nzimé, while road-side settlement and schooling were to facilitate the development process. To achieve these goals, the project proposed a massive resettlement program: all of the Baka residential groups in the region were to be resettled in three large mission settlements. 5 Moving to the settlements was encouraged by the Catholic sisters, but another important factor in its realization was the efforts of a Baka leader, Ndumbé. He carried out his own campaign to bring Baka to the road, in which he visited all the residential groups in the region, discussed his ideas with leaders, and made speeches in their camps. His argument was that it was time for Baka to: begin farming, in order to be independent economically; live by the road, in order to "know the world;" and go to school to learn French, in order to be able to hold their own in the national society (Ndumbé, personal
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communication). Needless to say, the Nzimé alliance partners of these Baka strongly opposed the idea, but, according to local accounts, they were too intimidated by the Church to resist -- a strong testament to the considerable power that the Catholic church wields in Cameroon, as it is doubtful that any secular development organization could have accomplished such a feat (see plate 3). Given the discursive efforts of Ndumbé and the Catholic sisters, as well as the general dissatisfaction of local Baka with their relations to their Nzimé allies, most residential groups moved into the road-side settlements established by the mission: approximately 1500 individuals moved to Le Bosquet and over 600 moved to Noméjo. Once the project's efforts were under way, a number of problems developed. One of these was a result of the policy of forbidding Baka to continue exchange relations with Nzimé. When it was discovered by project staff that individuals were involved in such exchanges, they were forced to leave the settlement. This caused numerous divisions within residential groups, as some individuals had to move away from their relatives; these events are remembered as particularly painful by some. Eventually, conflicts over allegiances to the project or Nzimé exchange partners, conflicts over theft, accusations of sorcery, and other problems produced an atmosphere of interpersonal strife within the settlements that became intolerable for many. Within two years, about half of the residential groups at the settlements abandoned them and returned to their home areas. For its part, the Church considered its initial scheme a failure. They continued their efforts for those who remained at the settlements, but relaxed the ban on exchange with Nzimé. The informal sector of development: creating the “society of the road” Although this scheme designed by outsiders failed in many of its objectives, it introduced into the lives of local Baka a number of new possibilities, which they then used to fashion their own vision of their future. The first aspect of this was on-going road-side residence: those groups who stayed at the mission settlements remained in the camps they had established, while the groups who left the settlements created road-side camps in their home areas (see plate 4). Second, they all secured some form of alliance relationship with a more powerful outsider who could provide protective functions: for those remaining at the settlements, this role was assumed by the missions and, for those who returned to their home areas, relations were simply re-established with their traditional allies. Third, a more diverse economy was created. The adoption of agriculture was an important feature of the original project and, subsequently, most households created farms of staple foods. In addition, opportunities for wage labor were created by the mission settlements, which became especially important for those living near them. The new economy – based on hunting, gathering, agriculture, and wage labor – was very flexible, in that it offered individuals considerable autonomy in choosing their productive activities on a daily basis. Fourth, in creating a regional social movement (Moise n.d.), Lomié Baka did everything in such a way that autonomy was guaranteed at all organizational levels. Thus, no one was forced to participate in the project, some residential groups sought protection from the missions while others relied on their traditional allies, the mixed economy offered a wide scope for individual choice in daily productive activities, people could travel easily between the forest and their road-side
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villages, etc. In this way, large-scale, collective action was produced at the regional level, but the units of social action – leaders, elders, and members of residential groups -always retained their autonomy as independent actors. As the Baka presence on the road reached a critical mass over time, the road became the place “where the people were” and thus came to be seen as the “proper place to live” by Baka within the region (Dodd 1986:13). In this way, the initial efforts of the project, along with the transformations put in place by Baka themselves, gave rise to a new social formation -- a Baka “society of the road” – which has endured to the present. The society of the road has led to a considerable increase in the access of Baka to modern resources. As part of its original development scheme, the Church established mission-based schools for Baka and, since that time, parents have been sending their children to school. As a result, most Baka in the region now receive at least a basic primary education and, because some of the first generation students then became teachers, most schools are now staffed exclusively by Baka. In addition, their access to health care – although still quite limited – has increased as a result of their proximity to the medical services of the missions and local infirmaries. Furthermore, because they are involved in the cash economy – through wage employment, selling meat, etc. – most now enjoy access to basic modern goods such as radios, petrol lamps, clothes, etc. The society of the road also led to the emergence of a regional social life. The presence of so many residential groups on a single road has created increased opportunities for visiting, drinking, and dancing, which many have taken advantage of (see plates 5-7). In addition, it has occasioned the development, especially among the youth, of certain regional cultural forms – in the realms of dance, music, dress, sports, etc. One example is a regional soccer culture that involves on-going matches between different camps, to which participants and spectators will travel up to eighty kilometers on foot (see plate 8). The society of the road has also provided its members with opportunities for entrepreneurial activity in a range of domains. In the realm of trade, some have taken advantage of increased access to regional trade networks to hunt for outside markets, while others have become traders in petty commodities. In the realm of education, some individuals have pursued their studies to the point of attaining the skills required for salaried employment and many of these have found positions with the mission or other NGOs in the area. In the realm of labor migration, some have made use of the cultural knowledge and language skills that a basic education provides to work as laborers in various sectors of the national economy: logging, the cacao trade, etc. In the realm of national culture, some local soccer teams have competed in regional and national matches, while some local musicians have performed in national arenas. Although limitations of space preclude a detailed account of such entrepreneurialism, the case of a couple individuals can provide a sense of how local Baka have responded to the opportunities provided by life on the road. Life in the cacao trade After finishing school, Laurent was a young man who, like his peers, passed a fair amount of time along the road. Over time, he came to know the crew on a truck involved in the cacao trade and, one day, a supervisor from the company offered him a job loading
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sacks of cacao. His position took him all over the East and South provinces and, when he was not on the truck, he lived in his boss’ compound in the capital city of Yaoundé. The job ended up working out very well for him: he made a regular salary, he traveled all around the region, he had extensive contacts, and he came to know life in the city. He remained employed for seven years, but when he decided it was time to start his own family, he returned to the Lomié region, found a wife, and settled down with the other members of his segment at Noméjo (see plate 9). Although his occupation was a modest one, it was well beyond the imaginings of anyone from his parents' generation. Baka who have engaged in such migrant labor almost always speak positively about it, noting that the terms of exchange and type of treatment they received far surpasses what they experience in the local setting. In addition, such migration gives individuals a much broader perspective on the Bantu world. As Laurent notes: The difference between the Bantu here (in the village) and those in Yaoundé is this. The Bantu here think they are big and powerful. And they don’t consider us as people, like themselves. But in Yaoundé, there’s none of that. I could arrive there and a guy would see me and say, 'What are you sitting there like that for? Come on, let’s go to the bar.' And once we’d get to the bar, he’d say, 'So what are you having?' And I could order a 33, a Beaufort, or even a Guinness and he’d buy it for me – just like that. But here (in Lomié)? You would never see that – NEVER!... In Lomié, the day you come back they show you the work they have for you to do. And then that night they come back and tell you that you better get plenty of sleep, because you’re starting early in the morning. And when the morning comes, they’re sitting right there in front of your door – with the machete in their hands. Another migration story is that of Ngalo Albert, a local musician from east of Lomié. Ngalo Albert and Sous-Makossa After moving to the road, Albert became familiar with Makossa music, one of the major musical styles in Cameroun. He then carved his own guitar from a piece of wood and developed his own musical style, which he calls “Sous-Makossa” (see plate 10). In it, he takes rhythmic elements from Makossa and combines these with traditional Baka vocal styles to create a unique form that he uses to address issues in contemporary life, both along the road and in the wider society: traveling to the city, the loss of traditional knowledge, AIDS, and so on. After gaining a reputation locally, he was taken by some local Nzimé to Yaoundé, where he performed his songs on national TV. While in the city, Albert was impressed by the numerous tall buildings he saw and, after his return, he built the only two-story mud house in the entire region (see plate 11). Conclusion The case material presented here shows the value of using an alternative model of Pygmy identity to understand how Baka in the Lomié region have responded to opportunities in the “formal sector” of development. Yet if such a model is taken
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seriously, what implications does it have for outside efforts to facilitate the development of Pygmy peoples? What might the features of an indigenous model of development be? 6
The local level Pygmy “liberation” Although the replacement of hierarchical relationships to powerful Bantu individuals with horizontal relationships to the citizenry may be an appealing idea, there are several obstacles to its realization. Primary among these is the limited ability of rights conferred by distant, abstract political institutions – e.g., the state, the UN, etc. -- to be converted into ready access to modern goods and services (the fundamental purpose of rights in modern industrialized countries). In equatorial Africa, like elsewhere on the continent, the major avenues of access to modern goods and services are membership in a community and social connections. This is why, in the modern context, Africans are forever searching out social connections. Thus, severing the connections Pygmies have to the powerful is not doing them a service. They are not looking for a life free of connections to the powerful, but for individuals among the powerful who are good connections. Entrepreneurialism At least since the emergence of Pygmy social inferiority and increased levels of violence in the pre-colonial era, the forest has served as a political refuge for Pygmies, rather than simply being the isolated “cocoon” sometimes imagined in the discourses of hunter-gatherer studies, conservation, etc. Yet Pygmies can also exhibit an interest in resources in wider regional environments beyond their forest territories and are often resilient and creative entrepreneurs in developing strategies to access them. Successful Pygmy entrepreneurs are adept at crossing boundaries of all kinds in the pursuit of their goals. They can engage in a range of modes of production, they can forge relations of alliance and exchange with all sorts of outsiders, they can develop skills in negotiating all sorts of environments. Given this disposition and these skills, promoting their development is often a matter of simply providing them with the resources – bodies of cultural knowledge, etc. – which can allow them to access new terrains on their own. Here, education is key as an initiation into the linguistic and cultural life of their respective national societies. Autonomy and flexibility Because of the profound role played by autonomy in Pygmy political culture, any institutional structures created for their development must build in a maximum degree of flexibility to facilitate the preservation of autonomy at all organizational levels. It is only when autonomy is safeguarded that Pygmies thrive. Thus, the failure of the original initiatives of the Catholic mission in Lomié were largely a result of a lack of flexibility in
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the institutional structures it set up to pursue its goals, along with its rigid imposition of modern ideals of universal equality upon the local milieu. In the realm of education, for example, the principle of autonomy has direct implications for how interventions should be managed. Requiring year-round school attendance for Pygmy children removes the ability of their parents to decide for themselves how much contact they want them to have with the forest milieu, which appears to be especially important during certain seasons of the year. This also precludes the children from developing deep relationships with the forest and mitigates against them gaining forest knowledge, which has always been key to Pygmies establishing reputations for themselves, and accruing social value, in the wider Bantu world. One should provide access to education, but let the details of attendance be worked out by individual families. National and international levels One should do everything possible to create an awareness of Pygmies in national cultures. Here, the emphasis should be on them regaining the respect they attained in pre-colonial kingdoms -- e.g., contributing their cultural genius to enrich the life of the polity. Since one of the major avenues to making oneself known and respected in contemporary national societies is creating a presence in popular culture, efforts should be directed at doing this for Pygmy peoples. Sports is one avenue for this, so some sort of institutional structures could be put in place to promote Pygmy soccer players. The most obvious avenue for Pygmies, however, is the creative arts: music, dance, and comedy, as in the past, but also theatre, film, television, etc. Provide opportunities for them to try to develop popular music forms and encourage them to become film and video makers -- if not to the level of Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry), at least let them try to establish a presence for themselves in such arenas. This same strategy can be applied to the international level as well. Because of the global circulation of modern cultural production, Pygmy films, music, pop bands, artists, and soccer stars could all serve to create an increased presence for them internationally, which could only help them gain respect in the national societies from which they come. For example, there is no reason that their various forms of cultural production cannot play a role similar to that played by Australian Aboriginal painting in making a name for Aborigines in the international art world. Rather than simply trying to transform them into “citizens like everybody else,” their cultural and artistic genius should be utilized to earn them respect in national and international arenas. Mobility What Pygmies need is access to resources in two spheres -- the world of the forest and the world of the village/city/nation/global “ecumene” (Hannerz 1989) – as well as the ability to move back and forth between the two. They are not “forest people” exclusively, but true “nomads” who access resources in different spaces to pursue their own cultural goals. In the terms of Cavalli-Sforza and Hewlett (1982), their “exploration range” can be very wide indeed.
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The notion of transforming them into citizens – à la the state’s “integration” model -is about confining them to one space: the idea being that, since the life of the forest is no longer desirable (part of the “primitive” past) or possible (due to deforestation), they must “move into the modern world” and become citizens like everyone else. On the other hand, the “preservationist” model – imagined by conservationists and others -- is about keeping them confined to the forest milieu. In reality, they are true nomads and entrepreneurs who should have access to both. In fact, that is precisely where their strength lies – in straddling environments, taking advantage of opportunities, but always retaining their autonomy and reproducing their cultural genius and sociological uniqueness. They are much more vital as travelers, nomads who can access several worlds, than as sedentary inhabitants of a single one – either the forest cocoon or a uniform modernity.
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PLATES
Plate 1: King Munza (from Schweinfurth 1874)
Plate 2: Group of Mbuti, c. 1902
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Plate 3: Catholic church in Cameroon
Plate 4: Road-side Baka camp, Noméjo
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Plate 5: Drinking Ha, Noméjo
Plate 6: Dancing to Soukous, Noméjo
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Plate 7: DJ, Disco Noméjo
Plate 8: Youth playing soccer, Noméjo
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Plate 9: Laurent (l.) and Jean (r.), with their sons
Plate 10: NGALO Albert playing guitar
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Plate 11: NGALO Albert’s two-story mud house
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NOTES 1
- In this paper, I use “Pygmies” as a general term to refer to the ensemble of ethnic communities living under the regime of the Pygmy identity in equatorial societies. The advantage of this term is that most readers know who is being signified, but the disadvantage is that it is a term created by outsiders that can be used pejoratively in local settings. An alternative term commonly used in the anthropological literature is “huntergatherers,” or “foragers,” but I consider these unsuitable because they employ mode-ofproduction as a basis of identity, when “Pygmies” themselves are extremely flexible in the realm of economy and employ productive modes much more as means to social ends. In addition, because of the intellectual heritage of hunter-gatherer studies, social groups with economies based on hunting and gathering are immediately presumed to possess a complex of social institutions and ideological elements, certain of which I consider to be inappropriate on empirical grounds. As a general term for those societies labeled “hunter-gatherers,” I would personally prefer one that is based on a common mode of being-in-the-world as manifested in certain forms of political culture, as I feel it is this, if anything, which is the distinguishing feature of these groups. However, such a term has yet to appear. In an effort to develop a general term for “Pygmy” groups based on African root words, but which avoid negative connotations, two have been proposed. “Batwa” is the general term used by Klieman (2003), which is a local term used for certain Pygmy groups around the Great Lakes and in central DRC, but is not in general use throughout the equatorial region. Its root, *-tóá, is considered by linguists to be proto-Bantu (Vansina 1990:279) and words derived from this root have been used by Bantu speakers from equatorial Africa south to the Cape to refer to social groups who are autochthonous and/or whose economies are based on hunting and gathering (Schadeberg 1999, Wilmsen 1989b:29-31). Thus, it is overly specific in one sense and overly general in another. The general term employed by Bahuchet (1993a) is “Baaka,” which he develops to refer to a posited prior population that was ancestral to contemporary Aka (CAR, PRC) and Baka (PRC, Cameroon). Despite the particular advantages or disadvantages of either of these terms, they have yet to gain general acceptance so that most readers would know who is being signified. As a result, I employ “Pygmies” as a general term, but use ethnic/language terms (Baka, Mbuti, etc.) whenever possible (also see Waehle 1999:3-4). 2
- The connection of Pygmies to the forest during the era of ethnography has been presumed by most scholars to be a result of their strong connection to the natural environment, but there are also very good historical reasons for it. With the high levels of violence that characterized the equatorial region during the final phases of the precolonial era, the forest served as a refuge for Pygmies. This is made clear in the accounts of virtually every European explorer attempting to make contact with them, in which two key themes predominate: the profound fear Pygmies have of strangers and their use of a strategy of flight to avoid such contacts. Pygmies are invariably described as being fearful, very difficult to approach, and, upon every arrival in one of their camps, it is always deserted, as the residents have just taken flight (Bruel 1911:32-37, Cottes 1911:104, Douet 1914:19, du Chaillu 1871:239-251, Regnault 1911:272, 282, 286,
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Schweinfurth 1874:127, Trilles 1903:418). With the advent of colonization, the harsh measures of the colonial system, as well as the specter of being integrated into colonial structures, provided additional incentives for Pygmies to remain in forest territories at a distance from the world of the Bantu village. Furthermore, there was the potential for harsh treatment by Bantu when they approached their villages, which, in the Lomié region at least, was a strategy to protect the monopoly that Bantu enjoyed over the trade between Pygmies and wider trading networks (Douet 1914). All of these factors provided incentives for Pygmies to avoid the world of the Bantu village and maintain a residential pattern centered on their forest territories for a considerable period of time. 3
- It should be noted how this notion contrasts with that of “prestige avoidance,” commonly considered as a “leveling mechanism” mitigating against the emergence of inequality in Pygmy social life (Hewlett 2009). Although tuma and manganga (pl.) may gain considerable prestige through their accumulation of knowledge, it is the principle of autonomy – more precisely, the right of refusal -- which prevents such prestige from ever being converted into the accumulation of political power. This is not to say that individuals who acquire considerable prestige and regional renown never attempt to use them to “lord over” their co-residents, but that the right of refusal enjoyed by these coresidents prevents such efforts from ever gaining ground (see Althabe 1965: 589-592). In addition, by drawing attention to the forms of prestige that exist among Pygmy peoples, I am not suggesting that these somehow lead to competition among individuals for prestige, as is commonplace in other types of social formations. Because the avenues of achievement that confer prestige are open to all, there really is nothing to compete for; one gains prestige as a man or woman of knowledge purely through the mastery of one’s craft.
4 -‐ The project
was actually established in 1972, but its interventions did not get underway until 1975.
5
- Due to lack of space, I only look at a brief moment (two years) in the mission’s activities, which had gone on for over two decades by the time of my fieldwork in the East province (1998-1999). In actual fact, the mission made several adjustments to their policies which brought them much more in line with the principles of Baka culture. In addition, certain aspects of their approach to development – in particular, their long term commitment to the local setting – resonated with Baka goals much more than many interventions mounted by secular development organizations, which often presume that long-term benefits can be produced through transfers of knowledge offered by more short-term interventions (Moise 2003). Here, I focus on the early errors of the mission simply as an example of the negative outcomes produced by outside development organizations that fail to understand the local milieu in which they operate. My discussion is in no way meant as an assessment, or condemnation, of their efforts over the long term.
6 -‐ The recommendations
included here are simply general principles for development. Due to lack of space, I am unable to provide any significant detail on my suggestions for
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