PEOPLE OF THE WATER: THE LIBINZA OF THE ISLANDS OF THE NGIRI RIVER, DEMOCRATIC REPUPLIC OF THE CONGO – Part 2: THE WATER..

(part 1: THE ISLAND VILLAGES) Although the Libinza live in villages, water is ever present. Transportation is by canoe, subsistence is mostly fishing. Since the earlier age children now that water is their environment.

Boys of Libinza tribe playing in canoes. The Libinza live on the islands of the Ngiri River, tributary of the Ubangi River, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa.

The grasslands.

Children of Libinza tribe going to school by canoe.

A vast area of swamp savanna, artificially managed by fire during the dry season, separates the islands from the swamp forest.

Women in canoe in swamp savanna, going to swamp forest to fish and collect drinking water.

Woman with children in canoe in swamp savanna, going to swamp forest to fish and collect drinking water.

From the swamp grasslands to the swamp forest.

Girl with baby learning to paddle in canoe in swamp forest.

Girl with baby learning how to paddle in canoe in swamp forest.

Children in traditional non-literate societies learn by partaking in adult activities. Now children go to school (2nd picture from top) but the traditional ways persist.

Women fishing

Woman carrying baby in canoe, removing fish caught in net in swamp forest.

Both nylon nets (above) and traditional fish traps are used for fishing.

Woman setting up Esoko fish traps in swamp forest.

Woman setting up an Esoko fish trap in swamp forest..

Esoko fish trap (Piège esoko). Illustration from: Welcomme, R.L., River fisheries. FAO Fish.  1985 Tech.Pap., (262): 330 p.  CHAPTER 7   THE FISHERY (Scroll down to Fishing Gear)

Pierre Van Leynseele: “Le moleke … est une nasse faite de lames de bambou (mbenge) reliées par de la corde de raphia. Le moleke, dont la taille varie, a la forme d’un cône aplati au sommet… Le piège esoko est très répandu dans toute la zone du confluent. Il est fabriqué de Ia même manière que la nasse moleke, mais il est conique, démuni de chicanes et ne mesure qu’une cinquantaine de centimètres. L’ouverture se ferme au moyen d’un clapet de même fabrication, commandé par une corde de raphia. Celle-ci est fixée à une tige souple tendue comme un arc et qui prolonge 1a pointe de la nasse. A l’intérieur de celle-ci se trouve l’appât, un fruit de pa1me, qui est fixé à un dispositif fort précis qui déclenche la fermeture du clapet. L’esoko est utilisé encore maintenant et en très grand nombre, par les hommes et les femmes, à proximité ou dans ta forêt inondée. Les Libinza 1’utilisent beaucoup moins que les gens de la Haute Ngiri comme les Bamwe, Djando ou que les gens de la forêt comme les Balobo.” The Libinza have devised a clay pot hearth, which allows cooking in the canoes while in the swamp forest. These hearth pots are also used in the villages.

Clay pot hearth, allowing cooking in canoe. Click on image to enlarge.

The same clay pot hearth is sometimes also used in the island villages. Click on image to enlarge.

Men collecting and drinking palm wine

Man propelling canoe with pole in raphia palm swamp forest, on his way to collect palm sap

Man climbing raphia palm tree to collect sap to make palm wine.

Men drinking palm wine; a man is drinking from a horn.

A rainy day…

Paddling on Ngiri River under rain.

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End of trip.

I had arrived in the Congo at Kinshasa, and from somewhere upriver (I started taking notes only after arriving in the Libinza region, and I don’t remember the beginning and some of the end of the trip) I went to a Libinza village, Liketa, in Pierre Van Leynseele’s motor boat. He then followed to the groups he studied, leaving me at Liketa. At the end of my stay with the Libinza, I went on a 3-day canoe trip to a town downriver, Bomongo. For some reason I had decided not to travel back through Kinshasa, but instead to go to Bangui in the Central African Republic, from where I would get a flight to Paris and a connection to Brussels. To get to Bangui I had to go first to Impfondo in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), then under a communist regime, to wait for a boat going up the Ubangi river. Upon arriving in Impfondo I was quickly led to the mission, where the father told me to stay until the boat arrived so as not to be seen, because Europeans were not welcome by the civilian governor (although he told me that there would be no problem with the military commander). So I had a few days of anxiety… I did not look forward to a second experience of the hospitality in an African jail .

Bibliography (2)

Pierre van Leynseele: Les Libinza de la Ngiri: l’anthropologie d’un peuple des marais du confluent Congo-Ubangi: now found only in university libraries, will be published by Éditions L’Harmattan.

The future…

The WWF has plans to establish a reserve    in the lower Ngiri region, which would not take into consideration the highly effective management of the environment by the Libinza (this would be downstream from the region that I photographed and that Pierre Van Leynseele studied); local populations are worried: Equateur – La nouvelle réserve naturelle inquiète les riverains L’ICCN (Institut congolais pour la conservation de la nature) declares: “Il ne s’agira pas de chasser les habitants de leur milieu de vie. Une fois le niveau de conservation amélioré, les gens trouveront du poisson et mangeront du gibier, affirme le responsable provincial. Bien plus, leur condition de vie sera améliorée, des emplois seront créés lorsque les touristes vont commencer à affluer.” So an auto-sufficient traditional culture, with an efficient environment and conservation management that has maintained the habitat for centuries, would be replaced by a culture subservient to the needs of wealthy tourists…

PEOPLE OF THE WATER: THE LIBINZA OF THE ISLANDS OF THE NGIRI RIVER, DEMOCRATIC REPUPLIC OF THE CONGO – Part 1: THE ISLAND VILLAGES.

(part 2 will be: THE WATER)

Anthropologist Pierre Van Leynseele invited in 1970 to photograph the people he studied, the Libinza, on the islands in the marshlands of the Ngiri River, between the Congo River and the Ubangi River, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called Zaïre). I spent three weeks with the Libinza in October 1970, first visiting various islands, then staying for about 2 weeks at one island in the village Liketa. Each village consists of several islands linked by channels in swamp grassland which surrounds the islands. Many of these islands were artificially made adding soil to raise emerging sand banks. Beyond the grasslands is swamp forest, also reached by channels.The photographs are from various villages and various islands.

Additional infornation at Download liner notes  from recordings (see discography below).

Men of Libinza tribe in canoes with village island in background.

THE VILLAGE

Heavy rain over the village where I spent the last 2 weeks.

Women in the village

Market day: Women from mailand tribe (not identified) (probably Bodjaba) selling manioc to Libinza islanders

Girl preparing manioc.

Island on a cloudy day, seen from the house where I was staying.

Woman keeping grubs in dead palm trunk.

Young woman preparing grubs for frying. The first time you try it, you close your eyes; but in fact the grubs are pretty tasty.

Women weaving palm leaves to make thatch roof.

Girl grooming another girl’s hair.

Women grooming another woman’s hair.

Music and rituals

Once word got around that I had a tape recorder, I was invited in several villages and islands to record their music.

Men making mokoto slit drums (idiophones).

Boys playing drums.

Boys performing traditional Pongo wrestling to the beat of drums.

Men playing drums.

Percussion instrument: struck beam (idiophone) made of a horizontal wooden beam hit by sticks played by several men. It marks the rhythmic base of the musical piece.                                                                                      “L’instrument est une poutre percutée. C’est un instrument que l’on retrouve en Centrafrique, Cameroun, Gabon, RDC principalement. On y frappe généralement le soubassement rythmique  des pièces.” (Rémy Jadinon, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium)

A diviner had visited the island  to cure a woman. He was using Western clothes, using herbs or magical substances, with no drumming or dancing. He invited me to his island to make a demonstration of his full performance in ceremonial dress.

Diviner dancing to the beat of drums.

Diviner dancing in ceremonial dress.

We were coming back from another island, almost at dusk. I heard some drumming and I asked my paddler to go there. He asked the woman diviner if I could take pictures; she agreed. As it was getting dark I used High Speed Ektachrone (ISO 160) pushed to ISO 400. Even so the pictures were underexposed. Photoshop (and a lot of work) did a miracle…

Woman diviner performing a curing ceremony.

Sunset over Ngiri river.

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I first met Pierre Van Leynseele during my military service in 1959-1960 in the then Belgian Congo where we belonged to the same unit. We must have remained in contact by letters, as later I knew he was studying anthropology at UCLA, where I met him again in 1964 or 1965. After about a year in Los Angeles I moved to New York, where I started selling pictures to book publishers. In 1970 Pierre contacted me, asking me if I wanted to photograph the ethnic group he was studying, the Libinza, in (then) Zaïre, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pierre Van Leyseele (1933-2009) got his MA in anthropology at UCLA under the direction of anthropologist Daniel Biebuyck, but later it is mostly Jan Vansina who oriented him during his work on the Libinza, His doctoral thesis was directed by Adam Kuper, at Leiden University in 1977. He was an Honorary Professor of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. (Free University of Brussels, Social Sciences).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pierre van Leynseele: Les Libinza de la Ngiri: l’anthropologie d’un peuple des marais du confluent Congo-Ubangi: I have not read it, as it is not availabe online of for download (perhaps as a Google Book?) Apparently it is only available at some university libraries. I have been informed that French book publisher L’Harmattan will re-publish it. I have not read anything by Daniel Biebuyk, Jan Vansina or Adam Kuper. The first two are among the main specialists on Central African anthropology.

DISCOGRAPHY

Recordings I made during my stay at the Ngiri River, initially published by Folkways Records, now distributed by the Smithsonian.

Music of Zaïre, Vol. I: Libinza Music of Zaïre,

Vol. 2: Bodjaba, Bamwe, Djamba

Download liner notes   (same notes for Vol. 1 and Vol. 2)

(part 2: THE WATER)