Forest People Colin Turnbull Colin

¶ … Forest People

Colin Turnbull

Colin Turnbull's book, "The Forest People" is a romantic account of his expedition into the northeast corner of the Belgian Congo. More precisely, Turnbull traveled to the heart of Stanley's Dark Continent, into the Ituri Forest, that "vast expanse of dense, damp and inhospitable-looking darkness" (Turnbull Pp 11). Turnbull's book documents the three years he spent with the Pygmies of Zaire.

Turnbull begins by describing in poetic terms the sights and sounds of the rain forest, saying, "the damp air, the gigantic water-laden trees that are constantly dripping, never quite drying out between the violent storms...people feel overpowered by the seeming silence and the age-old remoteness and loneliness of it all" (Turnbull Pp12).

Turnbull describes how the BaMbuti Pigmies, have been in the forest for many thousands of years and are among the oldest inhabitants of Africa, they are the real people of the forest. He explains that this is their world and in return the forest provides them with all their needs, "for they know how to hunt the game of the region and gather the wild fruits that grown in abundance there" (Turnbull Pp14).

Turnbull allows the reader to enter this colorful world of the BaMbuti and learn about their daily lives, how they roam the forest at will without fear. Because there is little hardship, Turnbull explains that they have "no need for the belief in evil spirits...for them it is a good world" (Turnbull 14). And although small in stature, Turnbull writes, they are able to kill elephants single-handed with only a short handled spear and blend so well with the forest foliage that one could pass right by without noticing them.

Turnbull relates the BaMbuti customs, such as marriage rites, rituals and celebrations.

His accounts of these people rings a magically encounter. Turnbull is so taken by the forest people that he writes in poetic prose rather than anthropological language filled with statistics and dry observations. By detailing observations in such colorful style and with such humor, he brings these remote people to life for the reader.