The People of Bimba

1. Their occupation: The Bimbia people rely on agriculture and fishing for their livelihood. Both men and women work on the land growing cassava, plantains, yams, and vegetable. They also rely heavily on tropical plants and fruits easily available from the forest. They have turned to growing cash crops such as palms, coconuts etc. to meet commercial demands.
2. Traditional practices: The Bimbia people are animist who have a history of witchcraft and a belief in the supernatural. They make sacrifices to the sea and land gods every year to ask for blessings for a bountiful harvest and fishing season. Members of the JENGU society offer sacrifices to the sea gods while Women who belong to the Monganga Age (above 50years) offer sacrifices to the gods of the land.
3. Dress code: Kaba for women with a headscarf (optional) and sanja (loin cloth) for men with a long sleeve shirt.
4. Marriage: Marriages are contracted between families although the boy and girl are allowed to choose whoever they wish to marry. Both families make discreet inquiries about the opposing family to make sure there are no hereditary diseases of fatal laws. Then the boy’s family approaches the girl’s family to ask for her hand in a ceremony that is called “knock door”. After this ceremony the oy and girl are considered engaged, and preparations are made for the bride price which is often a symbolic and may consist of offering the girls family of cloth, stock fish, a shirt for the father, a pig and bag of rice. The wedding date is set, and the bride is escorted to her husband’s house where her mother in-law receives her. Singing, dancing, eating and merry making goes on all night in celebration of the new couple.
5. Canoe racing: The canoes are built by men using wood locally sourced from the forest. (See picture) Traditional rites are performed before the event and men prepare the meal for the event. After the race the canoes are stored in special houses until the next race.
6. Fishing: There are different forms of fishing namely: Ndemba, Ngoto, Mbunja, Efese, and Moleke. During fishing season, men go to sea in at night and return in the morning with fish which the women sort out on the efefe differentiating them by species. The fish are placed on big baskets called “ndenge” and dried on slabs of bamboo woven from palm trees called Woka. They are then dried on the “etaka or banda” where a fire is made to dry the fish.
7. Culinary: The Isu have a varied and rich cuisine because consisting of fish, meat, locally grown food crops and wild fruits and vegetables harvested from the forest. Some of the meals include: 1) kwameke ( Qwacocoa made with grated plantains mixed with salt, palm oil and pepper) tied in plantain leaf and cooked ; 2) mbundangale with plantains or cassava; 3) mbanga soup and garri; 4) Sese plantains with pepper soup fish; 4)roasted fish and boiled miyondo; 5) kwem(cassava leaf soup ) with plantains, fufu or cassava ; 6) mbolumbolu (sun dryfish soup) with plantains or cassava; 7) mbimbia lovindar(sun dry bweniana fish) with plantains, red oil, salt and pepper; 8) manja moto (fish very little in size) with plantains or cassava; 9) massoma(half boiled cassava sliced in little pieces n stiped in water for at least 2 to 3 days and it’s eaten with coconut)
8. Dance: Men and women often danse separately. The common dances are essewe, ngosso and Jengu. Jengu is performed only by those whose parents originate from Bimbia and performers of the Jengu dance wear white rapper and white t-shirts for both men and women

For further reading see attachment: https://dobes.mpi.nl/project_data/bubia_isubu/BIMBIA_AS_I_SAW_IT.pdf