The Forest People

Turnbull conveys the lives and feelings of the BaMbuti whose existence centers on their intense love for their forest world, which, in return for their affection and trust, provides their every need. We witness their hunting parties and nomadic camps; their love affairs and ancient ceremonies -- the molimo, in which they praise the forest as provider, protector, and deity; the elima, in which the young girls come of age; and the nkumbi circumcision rites, in which the villagers of the surrounding non-Pygmy tribes attempt to impose their culture on the Pygmies, whose forest home they dare not enter.

The Forest People eloquently shows us a people who have found in the forest something that makes their life more than just living -- a life that, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, is a wonderful thing of happiness and joy.

First of all, do not fear that this book is written by an anthropologist using dry and boring langauge and tried everything to stay objective thus being an impassion observer. This is not a book filled with statistics and boring observations and theories.

No, Turnbull described the life of the Mbuti pygmies with such color, exuberance, detail and a healthy dash of humour that you cannot help but just being entranced by this book. You will learn of their daily lives, their hissy fits with each other, their methods of punishment, their relationship with the "negro" villagers whom they think are animals because they do not understand the forest. You will see their marriage rites, the rituals of the Molimo and the celebration of the Elima, when young pygmy girls are first "blessed" by menstrual blood.

You will see the pygmies as individuals each with his or her own personality....Kenge the author's best friend, Moke an elderly and respected member of the Mbuti, Cephu the "bad hunter", beautiful Kidaya of the elima, who , Kondabate the pygmy belle who filed her teeth like a shark's, flirtatious Akidinimba with her infamously huge bosoms, "ugly" Aberi, Kamaikan, Kelemoke and even Amina, the daughter of a sub-chief from a nearby village. You will get to know them and feel as if you have known them all your lives.

The Forest People is one of the best books EVER written on anthropology. You can't help but think about how life, as simple as it seems for the pyymies, is still fill with both joy and tribulations. I have read this book many times and every time it still have not lost its magic on me.

This book was written in the 1960s. Turnbull have since passed away. I cannot help but think about what happaned to all these wonderful people we meet in the book today. Did Kenge have any children since? Did Kondabate ever had a child? Did Akidinimba stayed married?

I just wish that there's a sequel to this wonderful book.


A successful failure   October 1, 2000
Alexander M. Moir (Jacksonville, FL)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

This ethnography of the Mbuti Pygmy of Africa's Ituri forest is, as Dr. Burton puts it, a successful failure. One cannot deny that it is a fabulously romantic piece, and a refreshing look at a people that have suffered from exploitation and the image of being hopelessly primitive. The late Dr. Turnbull uses reflexivity and a particularly observant eye to capturehis subjects in time and offer up this portrait to his readers. However, it is this same romanticism that makes the account just a bit too novel-like and not all that satisfying from a modern anthropological point of view. The reader cannot help feeling that Turnbull's idyllic forest world in which Pygmys are good guys and Bantu villagers are bad guys is somehow retrogressive. The goal of modern ethnography is to recognize the anthropologist's effect on the target society, and to incorporate that into the book, while at the same time drawing back from their world and asking, will this society read this book and say, "hmmm, that's surely us"? In that sense, Turnbull fails, but as an exciting piece, the book's appeal is undeniable.


A review on The Forest People by Colin Turnbull.   January 26, 1998
7 out of 8 found this review helpful


Colin Turnbull, the late English born Anthropologist and writer was the first to be able to study the pygmies of Africa first hand. The first to be accepted and befriended by these mysterious and beautiful people of the African Congo. In The Forest People Turnbull recalls his experience of living hidden within the forest with a family group of pygmies. He tells us the wearisome struggle that the pygmies battle for to protect thier culture and home. Turnbull also looks deeply into thier way of life and uncovers for us a world of playfullness and enchanting spiritualism. He teaches us the vital part that the rainforest itself plays in the pygmy's existance and also the holiness of all nature. This book was a delight to read and opened my eyes to the pure world that we live on but that is rarely seen.



Romantic nostalgia   May 9, 2002
Dawn Stoker (Houston, Texas USA)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Colin Turnbull romanticizing of the Mbuti pygmies in "The Forest People" is allowable given the period in which it was written. In some ways, the book really tells us more about the ethnographer than the people he studied. Turnbull found the Mbuti way of life to have a simple, spiritual quality that he admired greatly.... part of this admiration stemmed from his own background in an elitist British social and academic system. Turnbull was simply "in love" with the Mbuti.

Anthropology has (hopefully) advanced to the point where its practitioners allow themselves a greater recognition of their possible biases. Even so, who is to say that an understanding of the ethnographer is not more important than the study group.
The book reads pleasantly, if not scientifically.


true magic   May 14, 2002
Paul Siemering (cambridge, ma United States)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book is like making a real trip into the Ituri rainforest- or more exactly into the lives of some of the most remarkable people you will ever meet. The Bambuti become so real for us in part because of Turnbull's narative skill, but more, I think, because they themselves are so real, such wonderful humans. This, we want to believe, is what our species is really like, the way we were meant to be.
Like all gathering- hunting people, the Bambuti are on intimate terms with mother nature. For them this means their beloved forest, which is a benign, nurturing, and protective mother. People who live outside the forest are scared to go near it. But the the Bambuti who are its children are completely happy there.

What makes this book such a joy to read is that besides being so lovable, the Bambuti are very funny. Their humor is infectious and irresistable.
Forever after reading The Forest People, everytime you think about the people you met there, and you will think about them, you can't help smiling.

What could be better, especially the way the world is now, than to find a book that makes you really feel good about being a human, proud and happy to be living on the same planet as these wonderful people.