The Mbuti people of Zaire, Africa make their homes in the Ituri Rain Forest, living confidentially among its paths, valleys, and rivers. Skilled as silent, shrewd hunters, animals and birds provide the protein adequate for their diets. As astute gatherers of mushrooms, roots, and other plants, they know which poisonous vegetation is to be not to be considered food-worthy. This resourceful race doesn’t limited their food sources to the apparent however, as they often include termites, honey, and sometimes plantains they’re able to obtain via trade with Bantu villagers.

It’s speculated that these pygmy hunter-gatherers may be the initial African inhabitants. Around 2500 B.C., the Egyptians recorded the first known story of an expedition to the rain forest calling the Mbuti the “people of the trees”. The Egyptian story journaled the unique nature of these happy people, telling of their singing and dancing.

The nomadic Mbuti family groups live in small camp-sites consisting of little round huts built from flexible saplings covered with great leaves which shed rain. They abandon their temporary villages as soon as the group decides to move on to a region with more plentiful game and vegetation. Every new Mbuti camp site is near the edge of the forest, however it also affords easy access to the Bantu village each unique group has a trade relationship with.

Ahhh, but there's more!!!