DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AMONGST THE BAKA PEOPLE OF THE EASTERN REGION

Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: This paper examines the challenges faced by the Baka people in the midst of changes caused by development efforts in their community. The Baka people were displaced from the forest and resettled in western-like communities with the intention of curbing excessive exploitation of forest resources and to improve on their living conditions. Consequently they are currently going through a lot of cultural, social and economic challenges. This is because the displacement and resettlement scheme was seen as an activity and not a process. The resettlement on the new site was done without taking into consideration their culture and their socio-economic wellbeing. This explains why they still go back to their formal habitats for their needs. Findings from the field show that the Baka people were resettled without giving anyalternative ways of generating income and without providing them with the basic social amenities like schools, hospitals and water. Besides, these people who have been used to gathering and hunting are now faced with situations in which they have to do agriculture without training or assistance. These people seem very miserable in their new habitat and are presently trapped in a vicious circle of ignorance, poverty and diseases. This paper therefore seeks to examine the development challenges faced by the Baka in their new habitat and how they are adapting to these challenges that have been imposed on them by development