topics: |  africa | anthropology | pygmy | congo

Review

Deep in the Ituri forest of Congo, where tree trunks are the size of
houses, leaves as big as a roof and raindrops the size of lemons, live the
Bambuti pygmies.  Stanley had encountered them, and the Austrian father
Paul Schebesta has recorded his stay with them.  Colin Turnbull works
against many myths in the record (e.g. that the Pygmy music is rather
primitive, that they were dependent on neighbouring tribes Bantu and
Sudanic negroes, for food).  After his proper anthropological visit, he
returns to spend three years with them.  He is struck by the remarkable
democracy and class-less-ness and laughter of the pygmy society.

Running through the forest, "I was the only one whose feet made any noise;
the others ran so lightly that they barely touched the ground but rather
seemed to skim along just above it, like sylvan sprites."

A wife in the sheets

He often shares his hut with some bachelors, and his bed and blanket with
Kenge.  One night, after he crawls into bed:

    I realized that the body beside me was considerably taller than Kenge,
    and very differently shaped.

It was not Kenge, but a woman, Amina, a chief's daughter whom he had judged a
little earlier as the more beautiful of the two daughters of a BaBira (Negro,
non-pygmy) subchief.  She had curled up in his bed, on the half usually taken
by Kenge.  Colin sees this as a political move, and goes through the
consequences should he sleep with her:

    No doubt the chief had in mind the considerable bride-wealth he could
    demand should, by any chance, his daughter bear a mulatto child.  Still,
    it was good of him to send his prettiest daughter.... It would be a
    terrible disgrace to her -- and to me -- if I turned her out, but I
    wanted no part of a lengthy and costly dispute over bride-wealth. ...
    I said "Amina!" once more, a little more sharply, still trying to think
    what a supposed gentleman and scholar should do in such circumstances.

    But Amina was not helping.  She just snuggled closer and said, "Yes, tall
    one?"  Then in a moment of inspiration, I simply said, "Amina, the roof
    is leaking."  And with masculine authority, I added "Get up and fix it."

The next night, he and Amina come to an agreement that she should cook his
food and look after him as a wife, but there should be no complications.
Later when they shift camp, she returns to her fathers'.