HISTORICAL CHANGES IN LAND USE AND INTERETHNIC RELATIONS OF THE BABONGO IN SOUTHERN GABON

Abstract

There have been drastic social changes in many African hunter-gatherer societies in the last several decades, but it is often difficult to elucidate the historical processes because they neither have written records nor systematic oral traditions. It is therefore necessary to combine several methodologies in order to reconstruct recent historical processes. In this article, the author focuses on a group of central African hunter-gatherers, the Babongo in southern Gabon, and demonstrates how the Babongo’s land use patterns and interethnic relations with their neighboring farmers have changed in the last several decades. In order to reconstruct the historical processes several sources obtained from both archival studies and fieldworks are combined: (1) historical documents, (2) life histories obtained from interviews, (3) qualitative and quantitative data for intermarriages and naming patterns, and (4) geographic data. According to the evidence, it is supposed that the Babongo had been living a seminomadic lifestyle until the early 20th century, and their land use patterns and interethnic relations dramatically changed during the 1960s. They settled in villages along the roadside and began to do agriculture more intensively, becoming closer and more intimate with Massango farmers.