Watershed, Weddings and Workforces: Migration, Sedentarization, and Social Change among the BaAka of Southwestern Central African Republic

Abstract

This brief demographic history of the BaAka pygmies of the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Reserve analyses the BaAka's engagement with capital and the extent to which it influences immigration. The BaAka villages within the reserve have been influenced differently by coffee and timber boom/bust cycles. We superimpose local economic history with demographic data, then using five parameters; residence, place of origin, estimated year of birth, sex and parental place of origin, we seek to establish whether different immigration patterns are due to different local economies. Also discussed are the effects of local economies on traditional marriage migration patterns. We conclude that immigration patterns do change over time probably due to demands for labor in conjunction with preexisting marriage alliances.