Hunting and agriculture

There are very few ethnic groups left in Africa that only subsist by means of hunting and gathering, like the Pygmies in the impenetrable humid forests of Central Africa, and the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. Humans grow more and more numerous in Africa, and wild animals become more and more scarce - so much so that in many West African languages there are no words left for rhinoceros, while the giraffe is sometimes mixed up with hippopotamus or cheetah. However, many people remember that not long ago everything was different, and scores of royal dynasties were founded by hunters. Even today, hunters are respected. A real hunter knows healing herbs and is familiar with magic, because a cunning animal can’t be killed till its magic power is defeated! The Manding ethnic groups have influential hunters’ associations, with all their rituals and epic tales, courted by presidents of states and feared by Muslim radicals.

Of course, not only the professionals hunt in Africa. In dry season, when farm work is over, the whole village can go out for a collective hunt, or set fire on the savanna to then gather burnt bodies of cane rats or bushbocks. Many village men start their day making a round of their traps, to see if there’s a ground squirrel or a red monkey, or at least a dormouse. It could be a small thing, but it would be appropriate for sauce.

Most African peoples do not have apiaries. Their bee-hives often look very different from what we are used to: they look like oblong cylindrical baskets and hang high up on tree branches. So, it is often difficult to tell domesticated bees from wild ones, and apiculture resembles gathering very much. By the way, the honey of small midges that live in holes in the ground is often valued more than bees’ honey. These midges do not bite, but get into the eyes and ears of the person who tries to dig their hole.

Hunters.  Mali. The Bamana. E. den Otter. 2004		Bamana bee-hives are wattled, they are fixed   on the branches of trees.  Mali. The Bamana. V. F. Vydrin. 1999		Dance of the hunters. Balaninkoro, Erman A., 1999
Three hunters playing drums. Balaninkoro, 1999 Erman A., 1999		Wake for one of the members is the most important ritual of the hunters’ union. Mombifagalenna, Erman A., 1999