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… Continue reading…
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… Continue reading…
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… Continue reading…
Two very different conflicts that have prevented the Mbuti from living safely in their forest homes in the Eastern Congo came to a head during January. Three weeks ago the World Bank admitted—after a fashion—the long-standing error of its ways in fostering the savage devastation of the nation’s forests. Last… Continue reading…
Mbuti men routinely prepare pieces of cloth out of bark, either for local use or for sale to tourists, and the women decorate them with painted designs, some of which are quite interesting. Cathryn M. Cootner, herself a long-time collector of bark cloths and the former curator of textiles at… Continue reading…
The campaign by the Mbuti and the other indigenous societies of the D.R. Congo against destructive logging that is supported by the World Bank is again gaining attention in the news. The Financial Times reported last Friday it had obtained a copy of a new World Bank document, which is… Continue reading…
The indigenous peoples of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including the Mbuti, have taken their forest preservation campaign directly to the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington. Supported by the Rainforest Foundation and Greenpeace, the leaders of three indigenous organizations in the DRC flew to Washington last week… Continue reading…
An internal investigative panel within the World Bank has just prepared a stinging indictment of the industrial logging the Bank is supporting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The damning report prepared by the bank’s Inspection Panel, due to be discussed shortly by the board of the Bank, was leaked… Continue reading…
An internal investigative panel within the World Bank has just prepared a stinging indictment of the industrial logging the Bank is supporting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The damning report prepared by the bank’s Inspection Panel, due to be discussed shortly by the board of the Bank, was leaked… Continue reading…
During its recent national elections, the government of the Republic of Congo marginalized and exploited the nation’s minority indigenous societies, including the Mbuti, according to some observers. Human rights activists charge that the government did not prepare the indigenous people for the voting. A man from one of the indigenous… Continue reading…
