In June 1993, a group of tourists (American, Australian, British, Canadian, French) on a commercial overland trek (Kumuka Trans-Africa) visited an Efe pygmy camp named "Bandikoda", on the Laya River, in the eastern Ituri forest. This camp was situated a short pirogue ride downriver from the village of Ngeleza (west of Mt. Hoyo), about halfway between Bunia and Beni, in what was then the Haut-Zaire region of Zaire, now Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ca. 1° 16' N, 29° 42' W). On some maps, this river is designated "Lowje" or "Loya River", but it is not the "Loya River" in the MSN Encarta World Atlas - that river is situated two degrees further west in the Ituri.

Our guides were Lese villagers, non-Pygmy agriculturalists who exchange their rice, tobacco, manioc and some manufactured articles for meat and honey obtained by the Efe hunters and foragers. The Efe and Lese communicate in mutually intelligible dialects of the KiLese language. The Efe at Bandikoda had become habituated to visits by "mazungus" (foreigners, white people), and they graciously permitted five of us to pitch our tents and spend the entire day and night in their midst. The Efe welcomed the visitors with forty-five minutes of singing and dancing, accompanied by drums and honey whistles. There followed some bartering for souvenirs, including the "likembe" thumb piano, the five-stringed "zoma" harp, painted bark loincloths ("usimavu"), and the "asuba" monkey-skin wristband worn by hunters -- the sound of the bowstring snapping against it alerts other hunters in the vicinity.

Some travelers then had designs drawn on their hands and faces by the Efe women -- these pigments took several weeks to rub off! In the afternoon, we joined the males on a hunt through the forest; singing as they went, they triangulated their prey with hunting dogs who wear resonant wooden boxes. The men cover their skins with the yellow powder from a tree before returning to camp. In the evening, we cooked a meal of spaghetti and shared it with our inquisitive hosts.

Further reading -

Grinker, Roy Richard (1994). "Houses in the rain forest: ethnicity and inequality among farmers and foragers in Central Africa", Berkeley: University of California Press. [on the relationship between the Lese and Efe]

Wheeler Jr., William F. (1996). "Efe Barkcloth Painting", African Arts 29(4): 62-71.

Wheeler, William F. (2000). "Efe pygmies: archers of the African rain forest", New York: Rizzoli. [large format photographs of the Efe on Nduye River, north of Epulu]