Aduma

The Aduma, the men of the river, are located in the vicinity of Lastourville, on the banks of the river Ogoué to where it seems that they wounded from the east or the southeast coming down the river Sebe and crossing the rapids of Doumé. Before the time of the slave trade, they were slave traders for those who received in exchange firearms, fabrics and the so-called pacotilla. His clients were the Okande, ethnic North. The Samaye to the north and the Dassa to the south are a split of the Aduma produced in the century XVIIIThey manufacture canoes and are experts canoeists, traditionally dedicated to river traffic, first in bark canoes and later made of ocume wood. They bought from the Nzebi, an ethnic group of which they belong, all kinds of items, palm oil, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, raffia fabrics, tools, hoes, spears, necklaces, etc., which they sold in Lambarene and Port-Gentil where they bought European goods. Wongo the Patriot is the hero of the Aduma who knew how to face foreign occupation and preferred to surrender to the enemies to ensure peace and security of the different ethnic groups of Lastourville, being deported to Bangui in 1929. Like the whole Nzebi group the Aduma They play the dance Lingwala danced by men and women dressed in white. In initiation they receive traditional knowledge of ethnicity. His masks, usually elongated, with his face in a plane lower than his forehead. A median line formed by the colors themselves divides the mask from top to bottom, half right of the forehead in white and half left in red and, on the other hand, half right of the face in red and half left in white. The red, obtained with padouk or vegetable grains, is a feminine color, color of the blood of menstruation and initiation, while the white, obtained with kaolin, is a male color (by sperm) and is the color of the deceased and spirits.