Politics and Society
Bayaka child labourers paid in glue and alcohol, report says
A report by Survival International has revealed that Bayaka children in the Republic of Congo are being paid in glue to sniff and alcohol, in return for their labour. The children are paid to clean out latrines.
Children in the Republic of Congo are being paid in glue to sniff, and alcohol, in return for their labour, a new Survival International report has revealed.
The report noted that market traders in the Republic of Congo employ children to clean out latrines and pay the children from the Bayaka ethnic group.
The Bayaka people also known as Baka ethnic group in Cameroon, northern Gabon, and southwestern Central African Republic, have traditionally inhabited the rain forests, engaging in hunter gatherer activities.
However, the Bayaka livelihood has changed because the group has lost their land, which formed the basis for their survival. The group has been pushed off their traditional forest lands by other powerful interest groups, which include logging companies, mining, national parks/conservation, agroforestry and agricultural projects.
Forced from their forest homes, many central African hunter-gatherer tribes face exploitation on the fringes of mainstream society © C. Fornellino Romero/Survival
Furthermore, there has alway been an unequal relationship between the Baka/Bayaka people and other Bantu groups in the rainforest region. There are reports that the Bantu groups (farmers) often ill-treat the Baka/Bayaka people through unfair labour practices.
According to the Survival International report, the Baka people are being “illegally evicted in the name of conservation, [and they] often end up receiving alcohol as wages. The going rate for half a day is five glasses of moonshine”.
Atono, a Baka man forcibly evicted from his land said: “Now we are falling ill because of the change in our diet. Our skin doesn’t like the sun and life in the village. In the forest we are healthy and put on weight. Now no one has any muscles, everyone looks ill. We are forced to drink to forget our troubles”.
Alcohol and drug addiction is a common occurrence among tribes who have had their land stolen and the groups have increasingly been impoverished and marginalised, the Survival International report notes.
The mistreatment of the indigenous people highlights the precarious human rights situation of the Bayaka/Baka indigenous hunter/gatherers. The situation needs urgent national and global action to preserve the cultural heritage of this indigenous group.
Source: Survival International
