Mbuti
New Organization Seeks to Help Mbuti
People living in the greater St. Louis area will have the opportunity, in two weeks, to help raise funds to support Mbuti education, resettlement, and small business projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A charitable organization called the Partnership for Indigenous Peoples (PIPES) International announced on Craigslist that it is holding a sale of […]
Mbuti in a Squalid Refugee Camp
Deodat Mukankusi told a reporter, “we fled our small village in the woods when men carrying weapons invaded it.” She and about 800 other Mbuti have been forced by the seemingly endless fighting in their original home, the Ituri Forest, to migrate to a refugee camp at Kanyaruchinya, south of Goma, in South Kivu Province […]
Mbuti Refugee Stories
“We are like birds,” said the Mbuti woman. “Today we are here, but tomorrow we will move again. Even when someone dies, we have trouble finding a place to bury him.” Ragi Ngenderezi Abulengu was speaking about her life in the Mugunga Refugee camp, on the outskirts of the city of Goma, in eastern Democratic […]
Mbuti Exhibit Celebrates Presidential Inauguration
As part of its celebration this month of the installation of a new president, Dr. Nancy Leffert, Antioch University Santa Barbara is hosting an exhibit that focuses on the Mbuti people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibit, sponsored by the Tribal Trust Foundation (TTF), opened with a reception on Tuesday, March 1, at […]
Discrimination against the Mbuti
Nearly 50 years ago, Colin Turnbull’s wonderful book The Forest People described the fairly peaceful lives of the Mbuti people in the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unfortunately, their living conditions have declined dramatically in recent years. IRIN, a humanitarian news service from the United Nations, carried a story last week describing […]
Bushmeat Trade Threatens Mbuti Society
Not only are the Mbuti threatened by roving bands of armed men, as described in recent news reports, but the people who remain in the Ituri Forest are destroying the fauna on which they subsist. A feature story from the Associated Press on Saturday describes the way populations of numerous mammals, primarily forest antelopes such […]
Mbuti Suffer in Refugee Camps
The Mbuti of eastern Congo are living in desperate conditions, in squalid refugee camps, according to a news release last week from UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Bylined Goma, capital of the North Kivu Province, the story is most depressing: the Mbuti appear to be suffering from the effects […]
Mbuti Seek Designation as Indigenous People
Last Friday the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a press release about the continuing troubles suffered by the Mbuti people of eastern Congo. Its major point is that the Mbuti, identified in the document by their alternate name “Bambuti,” want to be designated as an indigenous minority, as well […]
DR Congo Cancels Logging Concessions
While the capture last Thursday night of Laurent Nkunda, commander of a rebellious army in eastern Congo, raised hopes for peace in that troubled country, a more important story was unfolding in Kinshasa, the capital city. The government has cancelled 91 logging concessions in that nation’s vast rainforests, nearly two-thirds of the Congo’s total. A […]
The Story of Mbuti Stew [journal article review]
In January 2003, some Mbuti men announced that they had witnessed their relatives being killed and eaten by soldiers of one of the warring factions in the D.R. Congo. The allegations of cannibalism during the brutal civil war made headlines around the world. A recent anthropology journal article by Johan Pottier, Professor of Anthropology at […]
