African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 356
leaves and spit on their nets while imitating the cry of a captured duiker in order that their
net will kill “meat.” The blood of a captured animal will also be spilt on a net that has not
captured anything for some time. Also for luck, hunters will make a loud popping noise
by clapping one hand down on a leaf placed over their other fist before taking down nets
left in the forest overnight.
Before a kumbi net hunt, the camp leader may arise before dawn and, from the edge of
camp, call out the names of the animals of the forest while the other camp members echo
him from their huts. Then, before the hunt, the leader will take each net, rub leaves and
spit on it, while again calling the names of the animals. The hunters may also conduct a
small dance before the hunt, following one hunter, who is holding a hoop decorated with
leaves as he dances and weaves and imitates the calls of the hunt.
The jengi dance is performed in Aka communities to bring good luck to net hunters
(Bahuchet 1985; Sarno 1993). The jengi is a forest spirit in a large raffia mask. Only men
may touch him, and they form a protective circle between the jengi and the dancing
women, circling the drummers. The jengi periodically runs off into the forest and then
returns as the dance continues through the night, every night for several weeks or more.
Prey
Net hunts are selective in capturing small terrestrial mammals such as duikers and
porcupines. Aka net hunts capture, on average, eight animals per day, whose total body
weight averages 101 pounds. Larger animals are rarely encountered, as the noise of the
hunting group warns them away, and in any case, they can tear through or jump over the
nets to escape. Whether or not animals are killed, most participants return with some
forest products for consumption or sale: several kinds of edible nuts such as payo,
caterpillars, at least thirty species of edible mushrooms, numerous fruits, wild yams,
honey from six species of bees, edible koko leaves, and ngongo leaves for wrapping or
roofing.
The net hunters’ prey species are the most abundant terrestrial mammals and generally
the most resilient to hunting pressure. Combined with settlement mobility throughout
extensive hunting ranges, traditional net hunting has been, therefore, ecologically
sustainable. Thus, protected areas such as the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve in
southwestern Central African Republic permit net hunting as a traditional hunting method
practiced for subsistence purposes.
Growth of urban centers and the development of transportation links, however has
reinforced the importance of commercial meat production through net hunting among the
Mbuti (Hart 1978) as well as the Aka. Initially, market hunting may reinforce community
structure as cooperation among large numbers of participants is essential for successful
net hunting. But in the long run, bush-meat markets are in many ways detrimental to nethunter
societies. The demand for meat in large urban centers far surpasses the relatively
small resident population’s consumption needs, and net hunters have intensified their
hunting efforts. In recent years, hunting ranges have been reduced by logging and
agricultural colonization of African forest regions, by permanent settlement of previously
mobile populations, by population growth of resident populations, and even by the