78 has led to many discoveries and a more accurate inventory of the forest. “When we’re doing wildlife census work, it’s largely by sound because you can’t see far in the rain forest,” Smith said. “The Baka guides can tell by the sound of a twig cracking on the forest floor whether it’s a chimpanzee or a duiker.” The treks Smith took with local guides covered extensive distances, often on animal tracks rather than established trails. Smith related how the Baka guides always knew their location, the distances to their destination, and how long it would take to get there. He witnessed how they read the landscape through sound, animal tracks, insects, or the sky. They knew what wildlife they would encounter, and exactly what the forest would look like up ahead. “When I go into the forest with them, my perception is heightened,” Smith said. “We’ve had so many experiences. . . . I was in an area with a lot of gorillas, and the Baka guide said there was a silverback and a female carrying a baby on her back. I was skeptical, but sure enough, we walked another 100 meters, and there they were in a clearing.” Smith has been so enthralled with their knowledge that he couldn’t help testing its limits. “I’m asking questions all the time, ‘What about this?,’ ‘When are we going to see that?,’” Smith said. “At one point, I asked, ‘Do you think it’s going to rain?,’ and it was a guide named Augustine who said, ‘I’m not God.’” absorbs more carbon than the Amazon rain forst and provides an essential lifeline to an incredible web of life over an area larger than Alaska. Anthropologists think the Baka people have inhabited the Congo Basin for 200,000 years, living as hunter-gatherers and getting to know the forest. They use GIS to create and interpret maps, but in the forest, Baka guides rely on the maps they hold in their minds. “One of my favorite things to do was to go trekking with [Baka guides] for three weeks,” Smith said. “I would have no clue where I was, and they would know exactly where they were. We’d be walking for three days, and they would stop and say, ‘Hang on, I want to check a tree over there to see if it has ripe fruits.’” Maps of species and resources are part of the Baka guides’ neural networks. Their ability to sense in the deep rain forest A young Baka girl records a lecture by a Baka elder. CBI’s School for Local and Indigenous Knowledge is assisting Baka communities in preserving their oral histories in this way. Photo courtesy of the Congo Basin Institute.
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