I am rapidly becoming a fan of the National Geographic channel. Rachel and I just finished watching a program about a pygmy hunting expedition in the heart of the Congo rain forest. The narrator first accompanied a primate researcher on a tour of the territory where she studies chimpanzees. He and a musicologist who has studied pygmy music for 17 years then joined the pygmies--men and women--on a hunting trip through the jungle. Amazingly enough, the pygmies eat only one kind of leaf in the jungle; the others are toxic as a natural defense against insects. The pygmies hunting technique is to set up a large net in a circle, and then drive the animals into the nets. For the first five days, the hunters were forced to subsist on manioc root, since they were not able to find game, and the narrator nearly ruined his relationship with them by sneaking a tin of sardines. They were rewarded on the fifth day with a catch of porcupine and a couple of other animals unique to the jungle, which they roasted over the fire and served with nut sauce. The program concluded with the traditional songs of the group after a successful hunt.
Despite the damp, the parasites, and the insects, I find myself asking -- when am I going to Africa?