Aka (Pygmy tribe)

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The Aka are a wandering African pygmy people who live by hunting. BiAka are plural and MouAka is singular. Aka musicians appear on:

African Rhythms (2003). Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.

These hunter-gatherers have a symbiotic market relationship with Ngandu farmers.

Their complex polyphonic music has been studied by various ethnomusicologists, as Simha Arom, who made some historical field recordings of their repertoires, and as Mauro Campagnoli, who also studied in depth their musical instruments, comparing them to those of other pygmy groups (especially their neighbours, the Baka Pygmies).

In 2003, the oral traditions of the Aka were proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

A 2005 report named Aka men as the “Best Dads in the World"[1]. Aka fathers have their infant within arms reach 47% of the time.

The powerful relationship between Fathers and their children in the Aka people was researched by Barry Hewlett. [2] Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. It has been observed that they pick up, cuddle, and play with their babies at least five times as often as fathers in other societies. It is believed that this is due to the strong bond between Aka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities. The more time Aka parents spend together, the greater the father's loving interaction with his baby.

Their hunter-gatherer lifestyle exposes them to blood of jungle fauna, thus they have among the highest rates of seropositivity for Ebola virus in the world.^[1]

The aka tribe gain substance from 63 plant species, 20 insect species, honey from 8 species of bees, and 28 species of game.