ITURI FOREST

French Fort de L'ituri, tropical rainforest in central Africa that forms the northeastern section of the huge tropical forest covering about two-fifths of Congo (Kinshasa). The area of the Ituri is approximately 24,300 square miles (62,900 square km). The northern and eastern limits of the Ituri Forest are defined by savanna and fertile highlands, respectively, but its boundaries to the south and west remain poorly defined. The forest climate is hot and heavy with permanent humidity, and it swarms with life. The trees reach heights of 170 feet (52 m), and their crowns are so close together that they intertwine to obscure the sky and the sun. Countless epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants and draw moisture and nutrients from the air and rain) serve to darken the undergrowth. The forest is relatively level in its northwestern reaches, whereas toward the south and southeast its contours are much more rugged. It is watered by the broad Ituri River and its tributary, the Epulu, whose wide basin forms the heart of the forest. The rivers are fed by frequent rainfall, the annual precipitation being about 75 inches (1,900 mm). The forest soil is both rich and friable, the vegetation itself providing the thick layer of humus necessary for its survival. Animal life characteristic of deep equatorial forest is abundant. Among the most notable species is the okapi (a mammal related to the giraffe). Elephant and forest buffalo are plentiful. Efe camp in the Ituri Forest, Democratic Republic of the Congo The forest is inhabited by two entirely different peoples, Bantu-speakers and Pygmies, who maintain a symbiotic relationship. They meet at regular intervals, mainly to trade, and often celebrate ritual ceremonies in common. The forest plays a very small part in the Congolese national economy, its inhabitants being virtually self-sufficient. The Congo River basin and its drainage network. French Fort de L'Ituri dense tropical rainforest lying on the northeastern lip of the Congo River basin in the Central African nation of Congo (Kinshasa). Situated between 0 and 3 N latitude and 27 and 30 E longitude, the precise geographic limits of the Ituri are poorly defined, especially along its southern and western extensions. The Ituri is bounded to the north and northeast by savanna and in the east by the fertile highlands of the Western Rift Valley, while to the south and west it is contiguous with the lowland rainforest, where its rivers drain into the Congo River. The total area of the Ituri Forest is approximately 24,300 square miles (62,900 square km). The forest, which is inhabited by both Bantu-speaking and Pygmy peoples, owes its name to the Ituri River, which flows east-west across the forest into the Aruwimi River and thence to the Congo. Additional reading An early work on the Ituri Forest is Henry M. Stanley, In Darkest Africa, 2 vol. (1890, reissued 1913), the tale of his 18-month journey up the Congo River from its mouth, across the Ituri Forest, and across Tanzania to the coast. Colin M. Turnbull, The Forest People (1961, reissued 1984), contains a beautifully written popular account of the lives and feelings of Mbuti living in the central Ituri Forest, emphasizing the importance of the forest to their subsistence, ritual, and spiritual life. David S. Wilkie, Hunters and Farmers of the African Forest, in Julie Sloan Denslow and Christine Padoch (eds.), People of the Tropical Rain Forest (1988), pp. 111126, summarizes how agriculturalists and Bambuti have adapted to their tropical forest habitat. Robert C. Bailey, The Efe: Archers of the Rain Forest, National Geographic, 176(5):664686 (November 1989), is a well-illustrated article by an anthropologist who lived in the region for three and a half years. Paul Schebesta, My Pygmy and Negro Hosts (1936, reprinted 1978; originally published in German, 1934), is one of the first true anthropological studies of Pygmies and their relationship with agriculturalists. Robert C. Bailey and N.R. Peacock, Efe Pygmies of Northeast Zare: Subsistence Strategies in the Ituri Forest, in I. De Garine and G.A. Harrison (eds.), Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply (1988), pp. 88117, studies in detail the diet and subsistence ecology of the Efe and discusses the difficulties of living in the tropical forest and the implications for the health of forest-living peoples. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (ed.), African Pygmies (1986), contains technical articles on demography, health status, growth patterns, genetic composition, and other biomedical aspects. Robert C. Bailey Study and exploration The Egyptians knew of the existence of the Pygmies; Pepi II Neferkare, last king of the 6th dynasty (c. 2325c. 2150 BC), had Pygmies present in his court, and they were depicted on Egyptian pottery some 4,000 years ago. The German botanist Georg Schweinfurth, arriving in the Ituri in 1869 from the north, was the first European to see and write about the Mbuti (The Heart of Africa; 1873). Stanley was the first to cross the forest from west to east, following essentially the same route as the present Kisangani to Bunia road. In the 1930s the Jesuit missionary Paul Schebesta performed the first anthropological studies of the people of the Ituri. Since then, many aspects of the behaviour, ecology, and growth and demography of the Bambuti and their villager neighbours have been studied by anthropologists from the United States, Europe, and Japan. Jean-Paul Harroy Robert C. Bailey The economy The forest has not played a large part in the Zairian national economy. Only a fraction of its area is exploited for timber because of difficulty of access. A few gold mines operated before the country gained independence, but extraction is now largely restricted to panning by individuals. Cotton growing has all but disappeared. Oil palm cultivation has declined to such an extent that the area is a net importer of palm oil. The larger coffee plantations are being replaced by small independent planters. An illicit ivory trade prospers, despite rapidly declining elephant populations. There are attractions for a tourist industry, but transportation and hotel facilities are poor or absent. Access to the Ituri Forest is extremely difficult. There are no public transportation facilities. Rivers and streams are unnavigable, and the few existing roads are all dirt and often in poor repair. From the southeast, entrance to the forest can be made from Goma, which lies about 125 miles to the south on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, or from Bunia, which is some 60 miles to the east. From the west the best road is from Kisangani through Nia-Nia. The people Based on their modes of subsistence, there are two principle kinds of inhabitants of the Ituri Forest: the village-living agriculturalists, most of whom are Bantu-speaking, and the nomadic hunting and gathering peoples, often referred to as Pygmies. Neither of these two groups is isolated from the other; in many parts of the Ituri villagers and hunter-gatherers practice a form of mutual interdependence, which includes the sharing of language and many customs. The Pygmies Efe camp in the Ituri Forest, Democratic Republic of the Congo There are four populations of Pygmies, collectively called the Bambuti, living in the Ituri Forest. Each Pygmy population is associated with a different tribe of Bantu- or Sudanic-speaking agriculturalists. The Sua are associated with the Budu (Babudu) on the western edge of the Ituri, near Wamba; and the Aka, of whom few remain, are found with the Mangbetu in the northwest. The Efe, having the broadest distribution extending across the northern and eastern portions of the Ituri, are associated with the Sudanic-speaking Mamvu and Lese (Walese). The Mbuti live with the Bila (Babila) in the centre of the forest. The Bambuti hunt and gather forest resources (meat, honey, fruits, nuts, caterpillars, termites, and mushrooms), which they consume themselves or trade to their neighbouring agriculturalists. In return for these forest products, the Bambuti receive agricultural foods, cloth, pots, pans, ax blades, salt, and other material items not available in the forest. In general, the subsistence activities of men consist of hunting mammals and gathering wild honey. Women supply most of the calories by gathering nuts, fruits, and tubers in the forest or by working for the agriculturalists in the gardens and receiving food as payment. The Bambuti divide themselves into patriclans, each clan numbering between 10 and 100 members and having one area of forest to which it loosely claims exclusive rights. Marriage occurs through sister exchange, whereby a prospective husband must give a female clan member in marriage to the wife's clan before a marriage is fully recognized. In order to hunt and gather in the forest effectively, the Bambuti must remain mobile. They live in beehive-shaped huts, which they can construct in a matter of hours, and they move their camps approximately every three weeks to take advantage of the changing position of edible plants and animals. The Bambuti have few material possessions, no inherited offices or wealth, and no institutionalized headmen or chiefs. Different Bambuti groups use different technologies to hunt in the forest. The Efe hunt monkeys and forest antelope using bows and arrows, and for large game like the buffalo, giant forest hog, and elephant they hunt with spears. The Mbuti use only nets, with which they hunt antelope and other small mammals. The Bambuti are highly skilled musicians, and singing and dancing are important components of their life. Storytelling is highly developed and widely respected by all members of the society. The forest figures prominently in all Mbuti ritual and myth.