Mbuti people

The Mbuti (Bambuti) are the forest people of the Ituri in Congo, among the oldest continuous cultures of Africa, speaking Central Sudanic and Bantu tongues borrowed from farming neighbours. Short in stature, long in forest knowledge, they hunt duiker and okapi with nets and song, gather honey by smoking bees, and trade meat for plantains with Bantu villagers in a symbiosis older than any state. The forest itself is god, father and mother; the molimo trumpet, sung through nights when the forest sleeps badly, wakes it to kindness. Colonial forced labour, park evictions and the Congo wars have pressed the camps, yet Ituri net-hunters still read elephant paths, and Mbuti polyphonic singing, recorded half a century ago, still teaches the world how humans sound inside paradise. Central Sudanic and Bantu words mix in every Mbuti song. Bambuti camps still move with the seasons of the Congo forest. Several Mbuti groups share the Ituri with farming neighbours.