Category Archives: Indigenous peoples

I LIVE HERE — in Lomami’s far out-back

Mangazumbu mama minces no words. The rains have started. The scents are wonderful. Hanging lianas brush fragrant flowers against our faces as the motorbikes speed along brief stretches of dry path. Mostly, though, we are walking ahead or behind the “motos” on our way to Mangazumbu. Half the time we are wading – often knee [...]

Songs for the Forest – above the Congo

When his wife was alive Mayalimingi never lacked a smile and a quick quip. Now he seems to just be waiting. The Ituri Forest is above the Congo. All the water running through its rocks and over its duff, spill into rivers that cascade down the eastern plateau towards the massive Congo River of the [...]

Bicycle Trip to the Top of the World

where a National Park should be. View from the wrinkled brow of an inselberg. The last decade has been hard on the Okapi Reserve. Illegal Miners. Poachers! The elephant population was nearly cut in half during the first years of this century. Even the solitary Okapi was heavily poached. Rosmarie Ruf has been caring for [...]

Down the Congo River: from Ritual Sacrifice to Governor’s Desk

The imperturbable ancestor sat in front of the plantains at the opening of the ceremony. Our last tambiko took place in the village of Masiri, a 6km walk inland from the port village of Lowa on the Congo-Lualaba River. This was a ceremony of the Mituku peoples and the Lengola peoples. Their ancestors know this [...]