Bira People

Bira / Babira

Bira / Babira

The Babira ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who live in both forest and savannah territory.

The Babira group (Babeyru, Babila, Babire, Baburu, Bagbira, Bavera, Bavira, Bira, Wabira, Wawira), embracing the Forest Babira, Bapere (Babili, Bapili, Pere. Peri), and Plains Babira.

Bira are a Bantu nation numbering 494.500 (Peoplegroups.org, 2024).

Tkeir language is closely akin to that of the Bakurau and Walengola.

There are Mbuti (Bambuti) Pygmies in parts of Babira territory. Despite cultural differences attributable to different environ­ments, the Forest Babira and Plains Babira are essentially one people.

Bira People

Bira People

BABIRA FOREST

Baslc Economy

Primarily agricultural, with brand tillage and hoe cultivation. The staple crop is bananas, but maize and manioc also are important, and some sweet potatoes, beans, pumpkins, peanuts, taro, and rice are grown. Goats, dogs, and chickens are kept, but no cattle. Hunting and fishing are left almost entirely to the Pygmies:

Property

Land is held in heritable usufruct without right of sale. Iron implements are used as ..money.

The widow recieves half of a man's property, the rest being divided among the children.

Social Stratification

There are dependent Pygmy hunters, but slavery, classes, and castes do not exist.

Family

The household unit apparently is an independent polygynous family.

Settlement Pattern

A village consists of a double row of about 20 long rectangular houses on either side of a single street and usually a spirit house on piles. The dwellings have plank walls and roofs thatched with leaves or straw. There are occasionally beehive huts like those of the Plains Babira.

Community Organization

Each village is said to be inhabited by the members of one clan and presumably is a patrilocal clan-community. Circumcision is practiced by both the Bapere and the Forest Babira — the latter at the age of 6 but one source indicates that the custom is comparatively recent.

Local Government

There are clan chiefs with slight authority and councils of elders which one source ascribes to Belgian influence. The Bapere have traditional headmen.

State

No political organization transcends the local level.

Bira People

BABIRA PLAINS

The Plains Babira are a branch of the Babira proper. They must have split off from the Forest Babira relatively late, for one source reports that the Hima were already pasturing cattle on the plains when the Plains 3abira arrived.

Basic Economy

Primarily agricultural, with brand tillage and hoe cul­tivation. The staple crop is sorghum, but maize, sweet potatoes, and sesame also are important. 3ananas and manioc, staples of the Forest Babira, are relatively insignificant. Some yams, haricot beans, peanuts, gourds, sugarcane, rice, tobacco, and tomatoes (recently introduced) also are grown. Cattle are rare because of disease, and where found are usually herded by Hima. Goats, dogs, and chickens are kept. Cows and goats are milked, and batter is made. Some fishing and con­siderable hunting are done. Trade is of some importance, and there are markets.

Sex Division of Labor

Men clear land, prepare the fields, and hunt. Women sow. Both sexes cooperate in harvesting.

Property

Each family holds in heritable usufruct, without right of sale, the plots of land allotted by the headman. Inheritance is patrilineal.

Social Stratification

Slavery, castes, and social classes have never existed.

Family

The people live in scattered compounds of 3 to 6 huts each, suggesting polygynous rather than extended families.

Settlement Pattern

The Plains Babira usually live in neighborhoods of dispersed family compounds, though a few settlements follow a long narrow pattern, Houses are mainly of beehive type — sticks set in the ground in a circle, bent and tied together, supported by a central post, and. thatched with leaves. A few huts are of cone-cylinder construction, but no dwellings are .rectangular.

Community Organization

Each settlement presumably is a patrilocal clan-community. Circumcision has not been practiced until very recently, and clitoridectomy (female circumcision) is customary.

Local Government

Each household is essentially autonomous. The Belgians introduced local headmen, with succession by eldest son, and councils of elders.

State

Autonomous communities are traditional. Sometimes several local clans unite, however, to form larger territorial units, and on the margins of the country alien rulers (Balesa or Balendu) have imposed paramount chiefs.

Bira People

Bira People

 

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