The emergence of small-scale cash crop producers throughout West Africa is of central importance to those historians, anthropologists and sociologists who are working on change in the political economies of various parts of West Africa.

There is a growing acceptance of the position that low resource farmers act and make decisions in a manner consistent with economic ‘rationality’ (Helleiner, 1975; Schultz, 1964). As a result, agriculturalists are becoming increasingly concerned to design technological innovations which are consistent with the needs and means of low resource farmers (CIMMYT, 1980; Zandstra et at., 1980). In particular, constraints due to the quantity or intensity with which a farmer can cultivate his land (land and labour scarcity), his low asset level and access to credit, other demands of the household on the farm-family resources, and the uncertain environment (both natural and man-made) within which the smallholder operates, all influence his capacity and willingness to adopt what are thought to be ‘improved’ agricultural technologies (Clark and Haswell, 1970; Reynolds, 1975; Wharton, 1968).

Un énorme travail a été réalisé sur les populations Pygmées du Zaïre. Dans ce domaine, l'ethnologie, l'anthropologie, la théologie africaine doivent beaucoup à J.-P. Hallet, à P. Schebesta, à C. M. Turnbull et á bien d'autres. Bon nombre de ces études ont diffusé et privilgié l'image prédominante du Pygmée nomadisant á travers la forêt, son milieu naturel. Cependant, elles ont occulté la connaissance et empêché l'investigation sur de nombreux autres groupes de Pygmées vivant loin de la forêt. En effet, pour Schebesta, qui fait de l'anthropométrie un critère privilégié, les seuls vrais Pygmées sont les Bambuti de la forêt de l'Ituri (1933: 63). Tous les autres ne seraient que des ‘Pygmoformes’ ou des ‘Pygmoïdes’, des ‘peuples métissés dont un croisement aura abâtardi les caractères de race et de culture’ (1940: 20). De nos jours, les critéres ont changé. Certains chercheurs se fondent sur le caractère polyphonique de la musique comme élément primordial dans la définition du Pygmée.

This paper has three related themes. First, the hunting peoples of the northern East African coast are defined; second, a period of origin of each group is proposed; and, third, the processes which resulted in their creation and persistence to the present are hypothesised and discussed.