“Twenty-Six Letters of the Forest Alphabet” or Community Social Learning Among the Ba'Aka in the Central African Republic

Abstract

The chapter discusses three areas of education for indigenous children from the Ba'Aka hunter-gatherer community in the CAR: public, formal education; private, missionary-run institutions; their traditional, collective education, metaphorically called “the forest alphabet.” Children used to be socialized into engaging with the forest-based on the relationship of reciprocal cooperation, protection, and justice. However, this relationship has become incongruent and undesirable in a reality dominated by developmental projects, deforestation, missionary activities, and environmental conservation initiatives. Each undermines indigenous epistemic rights and relationships with and claims to the land. Missionary and state education are shown as posing challenges to indigenous children, while particular attention is paid to forest education in terms of the social learning and engagement of Ba'Aka children in the environment in which they grow up, and in terms of their resistance and adaptation strategies in the face of these developments.