The Banziri (or Banzili, Banziris, Gbandere, Gbanzili, Gbanziri) are a population living in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the confluence of the Kuango and the Ubangui rivers.
They originated in the Upper Nile region and migrated to their present location beginning in the sixteenth century, displacing in the process several Bantu- speaking groups. In 1890, the Banziris signed a treaty of protection with the French. They are today a riverine people, known for their skills as canoemen, fishermen, and small-scale farmers. They are also very influential in the civil service and police force of the Central African Republic.
They speak Gbanziri, an Oubangian language.
They are established on a 200 km coastal strip between the Mokwangay rapids and the mouth of the Ouaka (or Kouango), on either side of the Oubangui. People of the river, the Banziri are renowned for their skills as paddlers and fishermen2. Their whole life was thus organized around the river which they traveled in canoes.
Primarily a fishing and trading economy, with agriculture distinctly subsidiary. The principal crops are bananas and manioc, but sesame, millet, and a little maize also are grown. Dogs are kept (eaten), and there are a few chickens and goats but no cattle. Dugout canoes are,used; smoked fish is traded with other tribes.
Unfortunately, it will not be a question of reconstituting the religious universe as a whole or of explaining the fundamental beliefs of the life of a particular Ubangui ethnic group due to a lack of properly ethnographic sources, but rather four series of observations (including three in the same page by Paul Félix Brunache) shed light on the religious fact:
Pastures along the way. Among the Dakpas: "On all the paths I find fragments of pots near which we have placed a little charcoal, cassava, millet, etc. I ask Zouli what this means; he tells me in a low voice, a mysterious tone, that it is the food offered to the evil spirits who brought the smallpox.. there are them on all the roads so that they do not come to the village Each time, he makes a. detour so as not to disturb anything." Brunache p.194
Fetishes in the village."Everywhere, even among the Ouia-Ouia, we noticed in the villages trees to which quantities of fetishes were attached. It was the same near the houses."
The altar of clearings. "In the clearings, near the recent plantations, we did not fail to come across a sort of small altar made of branches, supporting gourds full of ashes, red fruits, fish bones or chicken feathers, all of this [the fetishes like the altar] intended to protect crops against the evil eye."
The drum (Tam Tam)..
A photograph from the Meurisse agency (opposite, date?) represents a scene of "tam-tam banziri" on the Belgian bank and can help to define its characteristics. Three objects that appear to be musical instruments: - The tam tam for sure, large enough to be played by three people. - A section of tree trunk (partially hollowed out?) and which seems to be played in percussion using a machete (the "xylophone" mentioned by Georges Seguin?). - A sort of "wooden harp", a large hollowed-out board carved with handles, also played in percussion with a barely visible wooden handle.
While the instrumentalists are mature men and children to the right and left watch the stage, the dancers are teenagers, with perhaps the front row (seen from behind in the foreground) made up of teenage girls. .
There are three sultanates bordering Mbomou: Bangassou, Rafaï and Zémio, which are larger, more organized and more hierarchical political entities than the ethnic entities of Haut-Oubangui itself. This is because, through Mahdist Sudan, they are dependent on distant Egypt and therefore subject to its influence. We will simply point out here that they are capable of raising armies of tens of thousands of men. These few facts to serve as a benchmark and distinguish Mbomou from Haut-Oubangui: three Arabized principalities in the east, around ten ethnic chiefdoms in the west.
Sex Division of Labor. Both sexes fish.
Property. Land is the collective property of the village or hamlet. Important possessions are slaves and dugout canoes. Iron picks are used as money; formerly shells also were used. Inheritance is patrilineal. The eldest son inherits his father's canoes; other property is divided (probably among sons).
Settlement Pattern. The Banziri live in sizable villages along the banks of the Ubangi River. Their dwellings are round, with walls of plaited straw mats and thatched conical roofs.
Community Organization. Circumcision is not practiced.
Local Government. Villages have headmen.
State. There Is no political organization above the local level
The executive agent of the popular will
Ethnic leaders (like Bembé) appear under permanent control of public opinion. Indeed among two of the neighboring peoples (Bondjos and Togbos) we have two interesting examples of the exercise of power D.339 which show that a young warrior or that the group of women can "easily question" the leader's decision if they persuade the crowd of the merits of their intervention. The leader therefore appears as an "executive agent of the popular will" but has more weight if his charisma allows him to do so.
Foreign policy functions
The functions assigned to the leader seem above all to relate to foreign policy: - He "speaks, negotiates and bargains with foreigners" and "centralizes news" - He "sends emissaries and ambassadors", he "designates guides and canoeists"
This does not exclude the hypothesis of functions of customary judge or other functions of internal politics but it is logical that they did not appear to travelers who were more eager to reach the Nile or Chad than to observe the institutions.
Precedence
It has precedence in several matters: - “Cotton boubou or leopard skin” 6 (and soon the straw hat offered by the Europeans) are the exclusive insignia of power. - A personal guard is responsible for his security. - Gifts given by strangers come back to him.
Bembé, leader of the Banziri ethnic group
They were led in 1890 by a figure who, supported by popular consensus, seemed well obeyed by all the Banziri villages. Unlike, for example, the political fragmentation of the Bondjos, Chief Bembé therefore brings together his entire ethnic group under his authority. “Old man full of use and feeling, conscious of his wisdom and his dignity”: the portrait is flattering, which is not the case for the four other leaders described by the travelers.
Their neighbors are smaller groups of river people: to the west the Bondjos bouzérous and the Bandas ouaddas, to the east the Bourakas, and in the hinterland groups equivalent in terms of territory: to the northwest the Togbos, to the northeast the Langbassis.
The Banziris "quite generally" carry a knife "passed in a leather sheath, openworked and artistically shaped". "It is suspended from the side using a harness strap." Even if it can be used as a throwing weapon, it is "very weak military equipment" compared to their "formidable Bondjo neighbors", the ouadda spear and the langouassi assegai.
Cause or consequence the Banziris are universally described as having a "peaceful temperament" and this corresponds well to the commercial role that a riverine territory plays. This can also explain the alliance policy of their leader Bembé towards the French: in the absence of equipment or even military tradition, it is in fact wiser to seek to defend one's interests through negotiation than through force.
“Whether it concerns clothing, hairstyle or adornment, a clear trend towards simplification emerges from the River towards the north.” Likewise, “[artisanal] productions seem more diverse and more advanced in the South than in the North.” Perhaps under these pretexts "the water people gave the people of the interior the nickname Ndris, that is to say savages"
Talking with Dybowski Bembé "cuts a paddle himself" which seems to show the absence of specialized craftsmen among the Banziris. Each (or each family?) weaves their own clothing, tans their animal skin, carves their wooden utensils. The small metallurgy and artistic crafts of neighboring ethnic groups are not visible here.
In fact, even a quick comparative table of the characteristics specific to each ethnic group in the Haut-Oubangui basin brings out the impression of a complementary specialization of ethnic groups among themselves. Either that some aspect of the culture and way of life differs from one to the other (one adopts cassava and not the other Pr ch?), or that one obtains from the other this that he lacks as a commodity or as a skill. This idea is corroborated by a similar situation established at the same latitudes between "pygmy" hunter-gatherers of the forest and farmers and breeders of the wooded savannah.
The men
Their physique is described by French travelers as "vigorous, muscular, healthy, supple and harmonious". Their straight nose, their thin lips, their clear eyes and their admirable teeth are their admiration. The character of these valuable and new allies is praised as open, frank, their faces expressive and cheerful "even in the most difficult circumstances.
But also “sociable, welcoming, eager, polite”: what a contrast and what a relief with the permanent attacks on the young Bangui post! Is it possible that in these travel stories where there are more value judgments than ethnographic descriptions, politics does not come into play? Thus the Bouzérous Bondjos responsible for the constant attacks against the French in Bangui are called "thin, puny, dirty and frankly ugly" Dybowski p. 173.
Banziri men wear a loincloth made from hammered ficus bark. The belt is made of buffalo hide, decorated with iron or copper rings (Dybowski p. 194). Their skillful hairstyles are “true artistic works in multicolored beads arranged in a very symmetrical way” Gaillard p. 236. This is a real treasure enriched by the purchase of pearls or granted for a gambling debt Dybowski p. 192. They also wear “large iron bracelets, formed in a spiral, with bells” in ivory or copper Dybowski p. 363.
Women
They let their opulent hair hang down to the ground or over their shoulders, which even when gathered in a braid can be as thick as your arm. Dybowski p. 195. They wear a specific cover-up made of white shells Brunache p. 66, wear pearl necklaces or belts. They are perceived by the French as “beautiful, gentle, pleasant”.
An "impression of great individual freedom" emerges from all the texts beyond differences in age group and even status: - "very many individual initiatives of adult men" - "freedom of appearance of women" - “true wandering of children” – “relative independence of slaves”
However, how can we know if this constitutes the “normal situation” or “the excitement of a period of crisis”?
A usufruct economy
This term was coined by Prioul to designate “gathering in the broadest sense of the term: “gathering, hunting, fishing, extensive breeding, extraction of superficial mineral matter.”
Banziri territory is located on the borders of dense equatorial forest and wooded savannah. A study by R. Sillany carried out in the same natural environment at Lobaye on spontaneous food plants counts, for example, 58 species of plants with edible leaves and 84 species of fruit plants. This shows the extreme richness of the natural environment and which undoubtedly explains how weak - in certain ethnic areas - the need for intensive and varied agriculture and complex social organization of work.
The dominant diet of the Banziris is as follows:
Sources: