The Budu people (Babudu) are a

Bantu people The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native Demographics of Africa, African List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The language ...

living in the Wamba Territory in the

Orientale Province Orientale Province () is one of the former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its predecessors the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. It went through a series of boundary changes between 1898 and 2015, when it was divided ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. They speak the

Budu language Ɨbʉdhʉ, also called Budu, is a Bantu language spoken by the Budu people in the Wamba Territory in the Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its orthography uses the special characters ɨ, ʉ, ɛ and ɔ, as well as ...

Location

The Budu people live on both sides of the

Nepoko River The Nepoko River ( French: ''Rivière Nepoko'') is a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It joins the Ituri River at the town of Bomili to form the Aruwimi River. The river separates different groups of the Budu people of Wamba Terr ...

, speaking different dialects. However, the people of the Ibambi side of the river and those of the Wamba side consider themselves one people. The Budu territory is within tropical rain forest. It is isolated, with roads inaccessible to vehicles other than bicycles.

Economy

The Budu people mainly live by

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...

, growing cassava, yams, corn, rice, peanuts, plantains and pulses.

Palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

is the main cash crop, giving an income per capita of about $120 a year. Animal husbandry is rare, limited to poultry and some goats. They obtain meat and other forest resources through trade with the

Mbuti people The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages. Subgroups Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest ...

(Pygmies), who share their language. The people wear loin cloths made from beaten bark, or second-hand western clothes. They live in square huts with mud walls, thatched with palm leaves.

Culture

The family organization is patriarchal. Important decisions are made by a consensus of elders. Both the Catholic church and, later

WEC International WEC International is an interdenominational Christian mission, mission agency of evangelical tradition which focuses on evangelism, discipleship and church planting, through music and the arts, serving addicts and vulnerable children, through Chri ...

(Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ), have been active with the Budu. Charles Studd, founder of WEC, died in Budu territory and is buried in Ibambi.

References

{{authority control Bantu peoples Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo