Saving Ourselves: A Story From the Bambuti People

The Bambuti people from Eastern Congo were forcefully evicted from their native forest, the Kahuzi Biega Forest, in the 1980s by their government and funded by environmental conservation organizations. After these evictions, this now landless community was forced to live as squatters along roads and in small villages in Kalonge. This film explores how the Bambuti began to organize themselves and other Indigenous communities in the region to fight for their rights and to protect their land from government destruction and mismanagement. Protecting Indigenous land rights is one of the most important actions for mitigating climate change and building local resilience to its impacts globally.


Song: Mobimba ya mama
Artist: Awilo Longomba
Album: Coupé bibamba
Licensed to YouTube by: Believe A. (on behalf of Jimmy’s Production); SODRAC, and 2 Music Rights Societies