Children of the Forest

In the heart of central Africa's Ituri forest, a Pygmy boy angles for lunch. Known as the Mbuti, these semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers might be the original inhabitants of the enormous central African rain forest—though no one knows exactly how long they have lived there. Just one of about several Pygmy groups, the Mbuti trap, trade, and hunt to ancient rhythms, their lives intimately tied to the forest.

Their faces full of fear, Mbuti boys wait in turn to be whipped during thenkumbi, a grueling initiation into manhood. During the nkumbi, boys about 9 to 12 years old are circumcised and then marched into the forest, where they spend several months hunting, fishing, dancing, and singing. Each morning the boys are whipped by their elders to instill toughness. When they're not singing, the boys are kept silent by clamping leaves in their mouths.