The Forest People

Turnbull begins the chapter by explaining the specific area he is traveling to for this second journey (his first was in 1951) to visit the BaMbuti. The BaMbuti are a tribe of Pygmies that live in the Ituri Forest, located in the northeast corner of the Belgian Congo. Turnbull mentions that the forest is almost exactly in the middle of Africa. He goes on to describe more about the region and its history. The Congo is rife with horror stories known the world over, especially stories about the slave trade and atrocities done to the local populations. Henry M. Stanley’s Dark Continent was one of the early accounts of the Congo. Stanley made three separate treks into the interior: one to find Dr. David Livingston, one to map the central African lakes and the Congo River, and one to relieve Emin Pasha. The loss of life reached into the hundreds from the treks.

Turnbull writes that the forest is violent and dangerous, an inhospitable place for outsiders, closed to those who do not understand it. The Negro villagers do not understand the forest; they have camps and plantations everywhere, yet they cut the forest down and never enter it unless necessary.