Sustenance From Hunted and Cultivated Foods

By Gifty Burrows

An insight into the group and solo hunting practices of the Efe is provided by Bailey and Speth [1]. As a group, they might hunt with spears for large mammals or with bows and iron-tipped arrows for duikers and other mid-size mammals. Alone, a person would use bows and poison-tipped arrows for monkeys or fire bows and iron-tipped arrows from trees to ambush duikers.

Hunting animals such as monkeys cost many lost arrows with the possibility of no reward, as even after a successful hit the hunter would need to know where the carcass might settle; the monkey can travel for another 100 metres before the poison takes effect. Other species with known feeding habits such as the duiker can be ambushed when their spores are seen. Again, despite the help of dogs in this activity, sometimes the animal is lost as it can continue to run for several hundred yards through the dense forest.

Group hunting is strategic and can comprise of 4-30 people circling an area to flush out the prey. After a hit with an arrow, the dogs are called upon to chase the wounded animal until it collapses. Group hunts tend to be preferred as they ensure a return for each individual and are used for the eight species of antelopes, the water chevrotain and six species of duiker. Other animals are also taken, including the genet, mongoose, elephant shrew, monitor lizard, francolin and guinea fowl[2].

Hunting methods are an integral part of the existence of the Bambuti people as they shape how they feed and occupy themselves, and how they organise their communities. The communities who hunt with nets tend to live in larger groups and both genders participate, with women acting as beaters. However, hunting with bows and arrows tends to be a male activity.

Observers have tried to formulate various theories about why different communities chose their preferred methods of net or bow, and if one is more useful than the other. It seems that there are merits in both, and it is possible that over time communities have interchanged their hunting methods. It is thought that as well as hunted food, 60% of the Bambuti’s calories are from agricultural foods which might be foraged and cultivated. This can be influenced by location, seasons and the sociological engagement associated with hunting.

The Bambuti are employed in different methods of labour with some being cash-labourers and others hunting for themselves, trading excesses with villagers for cultivated crops or made items such as cloth and iron implements. As net-hunted meat is likely to be of greater trading value, the excess can be used in exchange for other foodstuffs. This greater return may explain why women are involved in this activity whereas in bow hunting it is more productive for them to work the land in exchange for cultivated food and items It can be argued that though the methods of sustaining the communities may be different, it allows balanced and adequate substance for each community.

The villagers, on the other hand, earn their living by growing food they either consume or use as cash crops, including peanuts, rice and coffee. This co-dependence of agriculture by other tribes along the river systems is longstanding and of mutual benefit. It has been important in enabling hunter gatherers to exist, although in precolonial times such cultivation would have been much smaller with the produce being more likely yams and bananas[4].

A study by Hart and Hart in 1986 focusing on the Mbuti observed that there were fewer plants for 5 months of the year. This meant that food such as forest fruits and seeds were less plentiful, and therefore the animal that might be hunted has lower fat content, and honey is unavailable. However, game meat is available year-round and over time, as natural habitat has given way to agriculture, this has led to more dependence on cultivated foods rich in starch such as yams and sweet potatoes as well as cassavas and plantains. Increasingly, more food is gathered from abandoned sites making up the growing secondary forests which started with colonisation in the 1880s with the progressive depletion of primary forests. The presence of common cultivars is indicative of secondary forests as these are rarely found in the wild.

This change has meant that whereas nutritious wild plants which contain high levels of oils and starch previously tended to be eaten to stave off hunger, less are now consumed because they are harder to gather as they are more widely dispersed. This makes it harder to gather an abundance of one thing, and they are relatively more labour intensive to prepare compared to plentiful cultivated crops. For example, most wild plants gathered by the Mbuti take a lot to retrieve, process and prepare to make ready for eating such as deep-rooted tubers that also need a lot of soaking then boiling to remove toxins.

Seasonality is an important factor year on year. Honey and bee larvae are staples that are preferred to anything else in times of abundance and can be supplemented with meat, fish and occasionally agricultural produce. Fruit is less sustaining as they are made of simple sugars but these and honey are plentiful in June. The forest itself is reliant on plants flowering to coincide with the honey season for insect pollination. Seeds need to germinate quickly to avoid rotting or attack by weevils and rodents.  

More recently, man-made events such as war, displacement and pressures on land as a resource for cash crops have led to changes in the ability of nomadic hunter-gather communities to practice traditional methods.

The culture and traditions of the Bambuti is under-researched and we are undertaking a journey of mutual learning. The information presented is from secondary resources and we open to revision and advice where something can be evidenced as incorrect or out of date. 

Reference

1. Bailey Robert C. and Aunger Robert, ‘Net Hunters vs. Archers: Variation in Women's Subsistence Strategies in the Ituri Forest’ in Human Ecology , Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1989), pp. 273-297

2. Hart Terese. B. and Hart John. A. ‘The Ecological Basis of Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence in African Rain Forests: The Mbuti of Eastern Zaire’ in Human Ecology , Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 29-55: Springer

3. Image of common duiker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_duiker#/media/File:Common_Duiker1.jpg

4. Bailey, R. C., & Speth, J. D. (1991). Conclusion. In The Behavioral Ecology of Efe Pygmy Men in the Ituri Forest, Zaire (pp. 111–120). University of Michigan Press.