VISITING PATTERNS OF TWO SEDENTARIZED CENTRAL AFRICAN HUNTER-GATHERERS: COMPARISON OF THE BABONGO IN GABON AND THE BAKA IN CAMEROON

Abstract

Many groups of central African hunter-gatherers called Pygmies have sedentarized recently. They sometimes suffer discrimination by their neighboring farmers, because of general indifference from the governments, and because they do not adopt the modern state system. However, a different situation is seen among a group of the Babongo Pygmies in southern Gabon. The social disparity between the Babongo and their neighboring farmers is rather small. A comparison of the visiting patterns of the Babongo and the Baka in southeastern Cameroon demonstrated that (1) the Babongo and their neighboring farmers visited mutually while the Baka and their neighboring farmers did not, and (2) the Babongo visited the town frequently but not the Baka. Political, economic, and social situations in southern Gabon make the Babongo unique among the Pygmies, in that they have come to participate in the modern social system.