Community Forests and Internal Dynamics

The Baka are an indigenous ethnic group previously known as hunter-gatherers. After having lived for centuries in symbiosis with the rainforest, they have been relocated by the government in the village where they encounter new lifestyles based on the capitalist system disseminated by NGOs, logging companies, the government and the neighbouring Bantu communities. This research was an attempt to understand how the Baka community of Nomedjoh, in South-East Cameroon, is coping with or resisting to the local and global changes and challenges surrounding them. Based on Bourdieu's concept of habitus, I noticed that the forest is still part of the Baka's identity. In spite of their settlement by the road, in the village, the Baka are still the "masters of the forest". However, the internal dynamics within some aspects of their life, like the management of the community forest, reveal that market economy, agriculture, snobism become increasingly part of their identity. The Baka community of Nomedjoh is witnessing both change and resistance to new values beyond time and space. It's worth paying attention to those dynamics for a better intervention in their environment.