Les documents dignes de foi que nous possédons sur le milieu humain en Afrique Équatoriale Française ont fait l'objet de travaux scientifiques, pour la plupart restreints et s'adressant souvent à des agglomérations limitées. Or, l'évolution des autochtones, les mouvements qui s'opèrent, de plus en plus amples avec le développement des moyens de transport, estompent peu à peu les traits fondamentaux des tribus. Elles formaient, il y à 50 ans à peine, des groupements distincts dont les membres, répartis sur un espace généralement bien circonscrit du territoire, étaient individualisés par des caractères secondaires spéciaux, parlaient un dialecte qui leur était propre, restant attachés à des coutumes que pratiquaient leurs ancêtres. Les notes qui suivent ne sont qu'une contribution fragmentaire à cette étude des tribus installées sur les terres de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française, elles feront peut-être ressortir certains traits bien moins connus qui pourront intéresser ceux qu'attirent l'anthropologie et la sociologie de la race noire en Afrique.

ETHNIC GROUPS OF FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA

Scientific studies of the populations of French Equatorial Africa have for the most part concentrated on a restricted number of groups. Meanwhile the development of the indigenous peoples, and their mobility, which improvements in means of transport have made much more extensive, are tending to obliterate those distinctive characteristics of language, custom, and habits, which only fifty years ago clearly marked out tribe from tribe.

The Negrillos, or Pygmies, form a distinct ethnic group, as is evidenced by their language, customs, and physical characteristics. Before the invasions of more robust peoples, they have withdrawn into the forests, but between them and the neighbouring African peoples with whom they come in contact through trade, there exists a state of mutual independence. The Pygmies, though adhering to traditional customs and beliefs, are notably adaptable and by no means represent a backward state of society. Their numbers are static or even decreasing, owing to a high infant mortality rate and a reluctance to adopt ways of life suitable to an expanding community. Educational influences are, however, gradually affecting them.

The populations spread over French Equatorial Africa have been given a multiplicity of names, but, in fact, through inter-marriage, slavery, migrations, and invasions, the tribes have become so mixed that it is seldom possible or advisable to try to distinguish clear-cut ethnic groups. In the Chad province Arab penetration has caused a considerable admixture of white blood and has established the Mohammedan faith among certain African tribes.

The province of Oubangui is inhabited by important tribes belonging to the Banda and Mandjia-Baya groups; towards the frontiers of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan are other tribes which cannot be attached with any certainty to known ethnic groups; along the course of the Oubangui are numerous tribes connected by ties of relationship but without sufficient homogeneity to indicate a common origin.

In the region of the Middle-Congo are two important ethnic groups, the Boubangui or Bobangui, and the Bateke, comprising a number of tribes which, though connected, have different customs, traditions, and ways of life. Between Brazzaville and the Atlantic Coast, an agglomeration of tribes has been grouped under the name of Mba, though it has not so far been possible to establish any ethnographic tie between them.

In the province of Gabon, there is one homogeneous group, the Fang, comprising numerous tribes all marked by common characteristics. The Bishop of Gabon has devoted much research to tracing the migrations of this group from the nineteenth century onwards. Apart from the Fang, there are no homogeneous or distinctive groups in the Province of Gabon. The migration of males from all tribes to the river estuaries and the coast has broken family and tribal ties, depleted the villages often to the extent of seriously impeding the normal activities of village life, and has reduced the population. The consequent disintegration of indigenous societies in Gabon merits the attention of the anthropologist no less than that of the sociologist.