13_baka

This film, made for Channel 4 Television, is about the Baka Pygmies and their life in the tropical rain-forest in Cameroon. It is divided into four parts, The Journey, Home, The Scandal and The Arrival and sets out to present the Baka through the strong personalities of three central characters: Likano, a man in his forties, Deni, his young wife, and Ali, their son. Through them we experience what it is to experience life as Baka-from the internal politics of the village to the richness of the rain-forest. The film, made by a film-maker experienced in making wildlife films, looks at the plant and animal life of the forest as well as many aspects of Baka life and culture: the gathering of edible insects and fruits, hunting and fishing and the scaling of tall forest trees for honey; and music, folk tales and healing dances. All of this is worked into a story line which is followed from its first intrigue to its climax with the arrival of the Forest Spirit in a major ritual and the birth of Deni's third child.

The strength of the film lies in its photography and in the empathy created by its narrative style. Baka focuses on character development in a way that is usually reserved for fiction films. The film crew, who are not anthropologists, prepared for the filming in a classic anthropological manner, spending two years with the Baka and using the first six months to learn about the culture and language before they began to film. This intensity of involvement with the community is what in part made it possible to film character development.

On another level, the film makes a strong statement about the vital life of the rain forest and the dependence of the Baka on the forest. In the light of the current world-wide destruction of rain-forest, the film conveys an important political message.

The film is recommended for undergraduates, graduates, and general audiences, for anthropologists, naturalists, and others interested in gender, botany, and ecology. It was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Prize in 1988. Catalogue numbers, (VHS and U-Matic) Pts 1 & 2: RA/VHS172 £8; Pts 3 & 4: RA/VHS173 £8.

G. Althabe, 1965. `Changements Sociaux chez les Pygmées Baka de l'Est-Cameroun'. Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 561-92.

L.L. Cavalli-Sforza (ed.), 1986. African Pygmies. Academic Press, Orlando.

R. Dodd, 1986. The Politics of Neighbourliness. Unpublished paper precirculated and presented to the Fourth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, London School of Economics.

K. Higgens, 1985. `Ritual and Symbol in Baka Life History'. Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 100-106.

L. Silcock, 1988. Baka, People of the Rainforest. Channel 4 Television, London. [Booklet to accompany the film available for £2.95 from Baka: People of the Rainforest, PO Box 4000, London W3 6XJ.]

H.V. Vallois and P. Marquer, 1976. Les Pygmées Baka du Cameroun. Série A, Zoologie, Tome C, Editions du Muséum, Paris.

J.C. Woodburn, 1986. `Social Dimensions of Death in Four African Hunting and Gathering Societies'. In M. Bloch & J. Parry (eds.) Death and the Regeneration of Life. Cambridge University Press.