THE B AN Z IRIS OF THE CONGO BASIN 6-j^^ 



THE BANZIRIS OF THE CONGO BASIN.* 



By M. F. J. CLOZEL. 



THE territory of tlie Banziris extends along tlie northern shore 

 of the upper Oubanghi between the rivers Ombela and Kou- 

 augo, Africa. They have also a few villages on the southern 

 shore that belong to the Congo Free State. The whole number 

 of Banziris on the north shore may be about four thousand ; we 

 lack data for estimating the number of those on the south shore. 

 The tribe is not, therefore, numerically very considerable, and 

 their territorial extension is still less than might be supposed 

 from the number of the population. In fact, they occupy only the 

 edges of the shore. Their cultivated lands are of small extent, 

 and the water is their real element. They deserve attention in 

 the first place as navigators — carriers in a part of the river where 

 steamers penetrate only with great difficulty or do not penetrate 

 at all. They have transported one after another the various 

 French expeditions to the country, they help keep up intercourse 

 between the European advanced posts, and they are a chief re- 

 source of the commercial houses in the region. When they are 

 not employed by Europeans they carry on commercial ventures 

 on their own account on the upper Oubanghi and its affluents, or, 

 rather, they undertake long fishing trips to secure a provision of 

 smoked fish for their families. The fishery is furthermore an 

 affair of so much importance to them as to determine real migra- 

 tions. In the dry season, when the low water uncovers the sand 

 bars of the river, three quarters of the population — men, women, 

 and children — abandon their villages on the land and establish 

 themselves in the middle of the river, where they can fish more 

 conveniently. The provisional establishments set up here do not 

 cost the Banziris much time or material. Their round huts are 

 made of mats of plaited straw, held by a few stakes, and covered 

 by a pointed, thatched roof. The houses in the shore villages, a 

 little larger and more solid, are round like the others and indiffer- 

 ently kept. The real dwellings of the Banziris are their pirogues, 

 and these are their refuges when their neighbors of the tribes to 

 the north press down upon them too closely. These pirogues, 

 hollowed from the trunk of a tree, are usually from thirty to 



* Much of the information in this paper was obtained through Bonga, a ten-year-old son 

 of chief Bembe, and very intelligent for his age. The father was one of the most influen- 

 tial men of his tribe, and the first who on the embassy of MM. Crampel and Ponet came to 

 them and accepted the French protectorate. Bonga, after two years' residence with the 

 French, learned to speak the language well, and did excellent and conscientious service as 

 an interpreter. 



VOL, XLIX, — 53 



