The Punu, or Bapunu are one of the four major peoples of Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

, inhabiting interior mountain and grassland areas in the southwest of the country, around the upper N'Gounié and Nyanga River

Nyanga River

The Nyanga River, 600km, is a river that runs through southern Gabon and northern Republic of the Congo. It is the second most important river in Gabon after the Ogooue.- Course :...

s. Bapunu also live in the Divenie

Divénié

Divénié is a town and capital of Divénié District in the Niari region of the Republic of Congo.Founded in the late 19th century, the town has a colonial church made of brick which was built in 1899. However it is in very poor condition due to poor maintenance.Jean-Jules Koukou the Congolese actor,...

, Kibangou

Kibangou

- Industry :It is a possible site for a cement works to be built by CMKC Group....

, and Mossendjo

Mossendjo

- Infrastructure :Mossendjo is a fairly rapidly growing city of approximately 10,000 people. It is the regional hub city of the Chaillu Massif mountainous region, north of Dolisie and south of Mayoko and Mbinda. The infrastructure of Mossendjo has been greatly improved since 2006, owing to the...

 districts of the Republic of the Congo

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

. They are linguistically related to the Eshira.

Punu traditions record a migration from the south sometime before the 19th century, as a result of wars somewhere between the Congo

Congo River

The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...

 and Niari River. In the 19th century they gathered rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

, and participated in the slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 trade, sending both their own and acquisitions from further inland to Loango

Loango

Loango may refer to:* Loango National Park, a national park in Western Gabon* Petit Loango, a town in Gabon* Kingdom of Loango, a pre-colonial state in what is now the Republic of Congo* Loango, a schooner wrecked in 1909 at St Ives, Cornwall...

 and Fernan Vaz. In the present day, the Punu are noted for their cloth made of palm fiber, and for iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

weaponry.

The Punu were once called Bayaka by others, but they themselves consider this a pejorative.

External links

• Page on the Bapounou