Aidyo

The video clip below shows Louis Sarno talking about meeting forest spirits in the rainforests of the Central African Republic, and is part of a series of video interviews with Louis that were recorded in April 2012.

Bayaka believe in a divine creator, Kumba, who created the world and then retreated. Bayaka life in the rainforests is intimately connected with many different types of spirit, many of which must be propitiated for ecological and social wellbeing. Some spirits, such as bobé, appear in leaf form, sometimes even glowing in the dark. Some spirits, such as the women's Lingboku spirit, are heard but not seen. Other spirits are believed to be present in birds such as owls. In this clip Louis Sarno talks about meeting spirits in the forest.

In the recording below, the rich pulse of the rainforest soundscape at night can be heard, at a time when most of the Bayaka in the camp at Likumbi are sleeping. Visiting West African Wood Owls in the nearby forest, with their eerily humanlike call, prompt Owsa, a woman in the neighbouring hut, to engage them in a dialogue. The Bayaka believe that these wood owls are sorcerers and are always up to no good. Owsa accuses other Bayaka, who left the camp to return to the village the day before, of sending the owls (ékungu) to camp because of certain grudges.