warning the men away
One evening guest at the Lodge mentioned in passing the ‘water-drumming’ of the Ba’aka women. Following up, I discovered that this is traditionally what the women do to inform the men that they are bathing in that part of the river, and that the men should therefore stay away. I spoke to one of the Ba’aka staff at the Lodge, and he was more than happy to arrange for me to go and see a ‘performance’ of this that the women would put on for me in his village (Mossapoula). On the appointed day I got to the village and found him, but was a little surprised to find women waiting for me with rafia decorations around their waist – and a man near them banging a saucepan with a drumbeat. I asked why they were there, as I’d asked to see women water-drumming, not dancing in a village clearing. He pointed to a seated man and said he would be drumming on the water container in front of him. No … So I tried again, and when I said the word ‘river’ he finally understood. So...