ITURI FOREST PEOPLES FUND

Mbuti net hunters

Unlike Efe women such as Ima-chabo, women of the Mbuti clan are a required component of net hunting, one of the major differences in subsistence economies between the Efe bow hunters and the Mbuti net hunters. Tafe lives in a camp much like Karambodu and his family; however, the camps of net hunters are much larger, containing many more huts and many more people. It is not uncommon for fifty to eighty Mbuti to live in Tafe's camp whereas a camp of more than twenty-five Efe is rare indeed. The Mbuti style of making nets was probably adopted from Bantu farmers; net hunting is therefore considered to be a more recent technology than the more traditional bow hunting. Regardless of when nets were first made by Pygmies, net hunting is still practiced very much like an Efe bow hunters' game drive, or mota, but instead of archers waiting in ambush, an arc of nets is set to trap fleeing game. Nets are made from the tough skin of a forest vine called sowdi or nkusa, the epidermal hairs of which can give a very nasty friction burn if it brushes against skin.

The nets are about one meter high and 30 to l00 meters (l00 to 330 feet) long. By linking nets together the trap can be up to one kilometer in length. As most game only get temporarily tangled in the nets, all the men of the camp are positioned at intervals along the barrier, ready to club or stab trapped animals. Not only does it require many men to secure a one kilometer-long net but someone must still be available to drive the game. Not surprisingly, Mbuti women and children are always employed as beaters on hunts.

While Ima-chabo contributes to her family's subsistence by working in the Lese's fields, Obolu, Tafe's wife, does so by joining the hunt. Although a net hunt results in the capture of many more animals (Iess than ten) than a bow hunt (Iess than three), it requires many more participants, and the actual per capita success rate for the two techniques is similar. Why then does Obolu go net hunting and Ima-chabo go to work in the fields? The answer may partly lie in differences between the exchange partners of the Efe and the net hunting Mbuti.