Gyele

The Gyele, who call themselves Bagyele and are also named Kola or Bakola, are Mbenga forest foragers of south-western Cameroon and the adjoining edge of Equatorial Guinea, camping in the dense rainforest around Kribi and Bipindi and hunting with spears, nets and traps.

They belong to the same western Mbenga forager cluster as the Baka and Aka, descendants of the Congo basin's ancient hunter-gatherers whom expanding Bantu farming communities absorbed from about 1500 BCE.

Unlike the Baka, the Gyele speak Bantu: their two varieties, Jele and Kola, are close to the Mvumbo and Basaa languages of the farming peoples among whom they live. Each Gyele band is attached to a Bantu patron clan, Mvumbo or Bassa, exchanging game, honey and forest produce for farm crops and manufactured goods, a clientage that left them socially dependent on their village neighbours.