Daniel Smith's Reviews > The Forest People

This book represents me branching out into more nonfiction than I typically opt for in any given year. There are quite a few past years where I read only fiction from start to finish. While I still feel I tend to enjoy the imagination and creativity that can arise in a fiction novel more often, the way this author described the setting in which he lived with a tribe in the forests of Africa was incredible.

There is a lot to learn in this book. It follows anthropologist Colin M Turnbull as he lives with, learns about, and explores the world of a tribe known as the BaMbuti in the Congo region. The book follows what appears to be roughly a year of Turnbull's life (from one "honey season" to the next), although he's somewhat vague about dates and times because he's living essentially completely off-grid. This omission of timestamp information is actually beneficial to this type of book, in my opinion because the author is trying to not only teach us about a culture but to really immerse us in it. The BaMbuti do not use clocks or calendars, so neither does Turnbull. Instead, he carries around a typewriter, stacks and stacks of paper, some medicines, money that is useless for the majority of his stay in the Congo, and not much else. He lives alongside the BaMbuti, and he appears to make a real effort to connect with and participate in their culture, as much as he is allowed by their customs. He witnesses several important rituals and milestones, he documents their day-to-day lives, and he observes and befriends many members of other related "pygmy" tribes. I hesitate to use this word as it's considered offensive now, 65 years after this book was published. Unfortunately, upon doing some research I haven't found a more acceptable term to supplement here, so I will use it sparingly and ensure the reader knows this is the author's original language from a time when it was used as a technical, anthropological definition. The author is describing a subset of the African native tribes who have a diminutive stature compared with others in their region, and a common heritage. I will strive to simply refer to these tribes by the name of the tribe, but not all are explicitly stated in the book as the author has several happenstance encounters where he doesn't get a full background from the folks he meets.

The BaMbuti and related tribes refer to themselves as The Forest People, which the author chose as his book title as well. This refers not only to the location where these tribes are almost exclusively found (the rainforests of the Congo region), but gives us a good idea of the main focus of their lives. The BaMbuti spend their entire lives within or adjacent to the rainforest. They are nomadic, and they have multiple reasons for pulling up stakes and moving on, but in the book they are described as mostly staying in the same region and moving between hunting camps and villages run by other tribes who are not of the BaMbuti or their forest-bound culture. The Forest People have an interesting relationship with the villagers, which Turnbull explains to us throughout the book. The villagers are an agricultural society connected to the road system. The Forest People are baffled by the idea of maintaining a plantation when they could be out in the woods hunting on their own time. It's clear that the BaMbuti greatly value their freedom, and their interactions with the villagers highlights this and is central to the book. The villagers seem to see themselves as patrons to the Forest People, even referring to them as property from time to time. They provide occasional sustenance to the BaMbuti and others, especially at ritual times, but the BaMbuti have their own take on this relationship that differs quite significantly. While they're happy to take free food, and in fact several times come up with reasons for their patrons to provide feasts for them, they are intentionally irreverent of the customs of the villagers. This is tolerated by the villagers, with varying degrees of grace and goodwill because they rely on the cheap labor of the BaMbuti for their plantations. The issue with this is that the Forest People, as their name implies, are more at home in the woods than in forest clearings pulling weeds or planting and harvesting crops. In fact, a horrific incident involving many BaMbuti collapsing of sunstroke in one day is documented. They appear to be more susceptible to the ravages of the sun, as well as disease. They happily return to the forest essentially whenever they feel it's desirable or necessary, frustrating their patrons' desires to have them working the fields. Not only this, but the Forest People show great sense of humor about this relationship, and they prove to be quite adaptable to village life (at least temporarily). The Forest People tend to adopt the customs and practices of the village culture when they're in a village, but as soon as there are no villagers around they return to their own very subtle, flexible, and joyful traditions, which holds the forest as the central spiritual figure. This is highlighted especially at a coming-of-age ceremony that takes place in the village at one point. During the day, the villagers set out a brutal regimen of tests and training for a group of BaMbuti boys who are going through a rite of passage to be considered adults. As soon as the villagers retreat to their houses at the end of the day, all the rules and hardships inflicted on the children are ignored by the BaMbuti adults. They are very tongue in cheek about this, and their effervescent sense of humor about this and just about every other aspect of their lives is present throughout.

This book was very much worth reading, even so many years after its publish date. My partner recommended it to me after seeing it on her shelf, and it was a great call by her. Turnbull does a great job, and although certain terms and phrases he uses haven't aged well, he seems to be genuinely conscientious about these things and makes an effort to be very even-handed and open-minded, which I think are wonderful attitudes for any anthropologist to adopt. I especially enjoyed the visual imagery of the rainforest and life within it that Turnbull conjures for the reader. I can really envision what it's like to live under a canopy of trees, with the sounds, smells, and sights of the rainforest all around. This is a very talented writer approaching something about which he clearly cares a great deal.