Iyaelima people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,500 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Salonga National Park | 2,500 |
Iyaelima people are an ethnic group with a population of about 2,500 that live in eight settlements in the southern part of the Salonga National Park (SNP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They belong to the Mongo group of Bantu peoples. Although they practice slash-and-burn agriculture and hunt for bushmeat, they have little impact on the environment. The Iyaelima never kill bonobos, an ape closely related to humans whose population is much higher in Iyaelima territory than elsewhere.
The Salonga National Park was established as the Tshuapa National Park in 1956, and gained its present boundaries with a 1970 presidential decree by President Mobutu Sese Seko. It was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Most of the Salonga National Park is accessible only via river. The region in the southwest of the park occupied by the Iyaelima is accessible via the Lokoro River, which flows through the center. The Lokolo River defines the northern boundary and Lula River the south.
When the SNP was established, most of the inhabitants were expelled but the Iyaelima managed to remain. The Iyaelima had gained a reputation as ferocious warriors, which they were careful to cultivate. They were allowed to stay under a law that categorizes them as "wildlife".
The park structure is based on the American National Park model in which wilderness areas are cleared of their indigenous inhabitants. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been pressing to do the same with the Iyaelima, the last remaining residents of the SNP. The Iyaelima are hostile to the park, to Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) personnel who manage it and to the park guards. They have not been informed of park laws, for example prohibiting trade in wild animals, and mainly interact with ICCN personnel over legal problems. Only one of the Iyaelima is employed by the park.
The Iyaelima are patriarchal, with the men hunting and women farming and doing most of the housework. Few of them ever leave their territory, other than a very small number of coffee traders. A family will live in a one-room mud hut. A typical farm is a half-acre in size, cleared by slash-and-burn, on which they grow cassava, sugarcane and rice. Mangabeys, colobus, hogs and forest elephant graze in the secondary forest surrounding the Iyaelima settlements. All of these are hunted for food. The Iyaelima mostly use spears or bows and arrows, and are assisted by trained hunting dogs. The preferred prey includes various types of duiker and hogs. However, bonobos are never killed.
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