Tagarchief: Africa

Children in the Mbendjele BaYaka society: diet, foraging, and acquisition of skills and botanical knowledge

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A research report by Prof. Dr. Karline R. L. Janmaat (Instituut voor Biodiversiteit en Ecosysteem Dynamica, Universiteit van Amsterdam) on master thesis work carried out by Jorin Veen in 2019-2020.

Modern hunter gatherers need a wide variety of skills and knowledge to collect and consume the available resources. It has been hypothesized that the extended juvenile period in humans has enabled us to acquire these skills and knowledge. To study this, we focused on Mbendjele foragers in the northern part of the Republic of Congo. They live in semi-nomadic egalitarian societies, where food items are widely shared on demand. The children are known to start foraging independently from a young age, offering a unique opportunity to study their diet, foraging behaviour, and acquisition of skills and knowledge.

Research team on way to the forest. On a boat on the beautiful Motaba river together with – from left to right – prof. dr. Karline R.L. Janmaat, Moise Dzabatou, Bryndan O.C.M. van Pinxteren, and Merveille Dzabatou.

            Before data collection, the informed oral consent of the children, together with that of their parent(s) and/or caretaker(s), was obtained. In total, 27 children were accompanied during their foraging trips over a rainy period of six months in 2016 (March – August) and during a dry period of five months in 2019 – 2020 (November – March). The data were collected using a combination of a GPS and a voice recorder. In addition, the botanical knowledge of 17 children was tested using pictures of several parts (fruit/seed, leaf, trunk, bark) of foraging-related plant species known to produce edible fruits or seeds.

Flowers as hair decorations. After a full day of collecting fish, some of the girls decided to decorate their, mine, and Bryndan’s hair with flowers.

            It was found that the children spent most time collecting and eating fruits and tubers, with other food items such as caterpillars and honey being highly seasonal. Interestingly, the results indicated that boys spent more time collecting fruits (and honey) whereas girls spent more time collecting tubers (and fish). This resembles a sexual division in foraging behaviour previously observed in adults. Since sharing is a key value in this society, equal proportions of fruits and tubers were eaten by both boys and girls. Finally, the botanical knowledge of the children improved with increasing age, indicating a learning curve of the different foraging-related plant species during childhood.

            These results will, hopefully, provide new insights in the diet and foraging behaviour of modern hunter-gatherers and their acquisition of foraging-related skills and knowledge. In addition, I hope that it will contribute to the protection of the unique lifestyle of the Mbendjele themselves. Almost, if not all, Mbendjele are currently residing in logging concessions. This will most definitely reduce the available wild resources, which probably explains that more than half of their contemporary diet consists of agricultural foods.            

Specifically, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Karline Janmaat and Bryndan van Pinxteren for their major contributions, and Haneul Jang and Vidrige Kandza for data collected in 2016. Additionally, I would like to thank Moise Dzabatou and his daughter Merveille Dzabatou for local help with transport and translations. Also, the University of Amsterdam, Max Planck Institute, and the Institut de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles (IRSEN) have contributed. Eternal gratitude goes towards the Mbendjele themselves, for welcoming me in their camp, letting me learn their language and participate in their highly valued dance and music activities. Finally, I would like to thank Treub Maatschappij for enabling this research and valuable personal experience. Like the Mbendjele would say: Esengo ike!

Disclaimer: Informed oral consent was obtained of the children and their parent(s)/caretaker(s), both for participation in the research and the use of their pictures. For further use of the pictures, permission has to be asked to Prof. Karline Janmaat and Jorin Veen.

Wild food plants used by Baka people in southeast Cameroon

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Prof. Dr. Tinde van Andel (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

The Baka (Pygmies) are former hunter-gatherers, living in the tropical rainforest near Lomie, southeastern Cameroon. The goal of the van Andel et al. expedition (1 April-25 April 2019) was to collect botanical vouchers for the edible forest plants that were reported earlier during interviews by postdoc Dr. Sandrine Gallois on wild food collection and dietary preferences among Baka in the village of Le Bosquet. The fieldwork has been completed: we collected 104 botanical vouchers of wild edible plants from secondary and primary forest. We matched all Baka names mentioned during the previously conducted interviews, with the exception of four species. These are collected at the moment by Gallois herself, after she received field training in the collection, documentation and preservation of ethnobotanical specimens by the applicant.

Van Andel and Heger discuss with Baka field guides in the forest. Picture: S. Gallois.

We (van Andel, student Heger and Gallois) also collected several edible species that were not in the preliminary database. A total of 11 different wild yams were collected, and eight different Irvingia species. Our results show that the Baka make ingenious use of the Central African rainforest, characterized by large-fruited trees adapted to dispersal by large, ground-dwelling mammals (elephant, chimpanzees, gorilla’s, etc.). Many of these large fruit species, some with unpalatable flesh, are cut open to obtain the seed kernels, which can only be consumed by humans after long and complicated detoxification techniques, such as roasting, soaking in running water, smoke-drying, etc. These seed kernels are rich in proteins and fats, and form an important component in the Baka diet.

Student Heger interviewing Baka informant, van Andel pressing specimens in the background. Picture: S. Gallois.

We made sure to include field assistants of different age, gender and specializations (e.g., healers, hunters, grandmothers), which allowed us to document several types of ritual food: specific plant species only eaten by elephant hunters, post-menopausal women or small boys after their circumcision ceremony. Most of the wild food species are collected in primary forest, and we documented several edible species that have not been previously documented as eaten by humans in the literature (e.g., roots of Palisota barteri, stems of Anchomanes difformis and seven species of edible ferns). As all Baka are now somehow involved in agriculture, we could not make a distinction in wild plants use between farmers and true hunter-gatherers. However, the botanical variety of wild-gathered food plants remains very high, even though people now also spend time in cultivating cassava and bananas. Unfortunately, illegal logging of Baillonella toxisperma (Sapotaceae) and Diospyros (Ebenaceae) in the area deprives the Baka of some of their most valuable sources of edible fruits and oil. The Baka villagers requested our help in writing a book on their wild food plants, to which we agreed.

Fresh kernels of Klainedoxa gabonensis (Irvingiaceae) , one of the most frequently consumed wild seed species around Lomie. Picture: S. Gallois.