From Diversity to Exclusion for Forest Minorities in Cameroon

T He french ethnologist Laburthe-Tolra (1985) considers the Beti—the majority human group in the rainforest of Cameroon—as the “seigneurs de la forêt” (lords of the forest). One may, on that basis, say that the Pygmies are the “gods” of that same forest: they have long lived in the area, and, accordingly, are considered as “indigenous peoples.” ¹ After Le Roy (1929), Bahuchet (1992) confirms the similarities between the Pygmies of Central Africa and other “mobile” or “semi mobile” peoples in Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, Sulawesi, the Molluccas, the Philippines, Malaysia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and elsewhere. Like these other peoples, Pygmies are short in stature. It has also often been said, from the viewpoint of physical anthropology, that they have remained at the initial stages of human evolution. With lifestyles reminiscent of past hunter-gatherer civilizations (see Schkopp 1903; Wilkie 1988; Vansina 1990; Seltz 1993; Bailey et al. 1992), Pygmies, alongside other human groups, would seem to have survived from an earlier era into the modern age, as pointed out by Guillaume (1989).