Aka Pygmies Research Paper

The Aka Pygmies are an egalitarian people of the northern Congo and southern Central African Republic. They are one of several pygmy groups living in the Ituri rainforest, including the Mbuti and Baka. Their stature is small, rarely taller than five feet, which enables them to navigate the thick tropical rainforest and allows their body mass to dissipate body heat more efficiently. The Aka are transitional hunter-gatherers, meaning a large percentage of their diet is from domesticated village products (Bahuchet 1988). They are known for their extensive hunting skills, rainforest knowledge, father parenting involvement, and their love of dancing and polyphonic singing. The Aka speak their Bantu language, diaka, plus 15 other languages of surrounding

This area runs from east to west along the Equator and is more than 6,000 km (3,700 m), Cameroon and Gabon are to the west, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rift Valley are to the south. The capital of the CAR is Bangui and Brazzaville is the capital of ROC. This is the second largest rainforest in the world and covers most of the Congo River Basin and west coast of Africa (Haggett 2002). The Congo River is the second largest river in the world and runs along the borders of the ROC and DRC. For over a million years the Congo River has deposited rich mineral sandy sediments; however, the soil is poor due to the amount of rainfall that washes away the rich mineral deposits (Congo Republic Dashboard; Haggett, 2002). In the Aka territory, there are at least eleven distinct ecological zones (B. S. Hewlett 1994) with great variety of approximately 10,000 plant species unique to the region; elephants, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorilla and 400 other mammal species; 1,000 bird species; 700 fish species; various invertebrates and species of caterpillars, termites, snails; sweet fruit, seeds, tubers, wild yams, fungi, and honey (Haggett