An educational project in the forest: schooling for the Baka children in Cameroon

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Periodical article

Title:	An educational project in the forest: schooling for the Baka children in Cameroon
Author:	Kamei, Nobutaka
Year:	2001
Periodical:	African Study Monographs: Supplementary Issue
Issue:	26
Pages:	185-195
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Cameroon
Subjects:	Pygmies schooling
External link:	http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/68400/1/ASM_S_26_185.pdf
Abstract:	Although schooling has been introduced for the children of the Baka hunter-gatherers, who live in the tropical forests of southeastern Cameroon, most Baka children do not go to school, for a variety of reasons: physical and psychological distance, language, economy, values, and the Baka nomadic life. In Malapa, a small Baka settlement in Moloundou prefecture numbering some 60 persons, where the author conducted field research in 1997-1998, a missionary project has established a small school specially tailored for the Baka children. This school was built near the Baka settlement, it had only two grades, and the curriculum reflected the Baka life. The biggest hurdle for Baka schooling arises in the dry season, when the Baka pursue a traditional nomadic lifestyle in the forest. Efforts to retain the children at school by building a dormitory were unsuccessful. In 1998 a compromise between the schooling system and the Baka lifestyle was reached in the form of a 'dry season vacation' for Baka children. Bibliogr., notes, sum.