Relations
The Baka live relatively symbiotically with their Bantu neighbours. They often set their camps along roadsides to better facilitate trade; the Baka provide forest game in exchange for produce and manufactured goods. Nevertheless, exploitation of the Baka by other ethnic groups is a grave reality, especially since the Baka are still largely unaccustomed to the cash-based economy. Non-Baka sometimes hire Baka as labourers, for example, but pay them virtually nothing for a full day's work. Or, conscious of the tourism potential, some non-Baka arrange visits or stays in Baka villages or arrange Baka guides for visitors to forest reserves, often with little compensation to the Baka. Rates of Baka-Bantu intermarriage are also on the rise. Baka who marry outside their ethnic group typically adopt the lifestyle of their non-Baka spouse.
The Baka are among the oldest inhabitants of Cameroon and the neighbouring countries. Their semi-nomadic lifestyle has persisted largely unchanged for thousands of years, despite the fact that during colonialism, the Baka's prowess at elephant hunting prompted ivory-hungry German and French overlords to force them to settle in roadside villages where their talents could be more easily exploited. The government of Cameroon, while stopping short of forced settlement, has attempted to maintain this policy through government incentives and regulations such as mandatory schooling for all children. However, the Baka largely resist.
Today, the greatest threat to the Baka way of life comes from competition for the forest. This is from multinational logging, mining and plantation interests; expansion of plantations due to a growing population of refugees and unemployed migrant workers. As the forests disappear, the animals and plants upon which the Baka rely vanish as well, yet so far the work of conservation groups such as WWF may have worsened the situation by not taking into account the Baka's role in maintaining forest diversity and turning groups of Baka subsistence hunters into persecuted poachers.
Read more about this topic: Baka People (Cameroon And Gabon)
Famous quotes containing the word relations:
“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity ... of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.”
—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
“Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)