Habimana, 45, stands in front of her house, at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2016. Habimana has lived alone with her four daughters since her husband died of malaria in 2014. On Idjwi, the largest island in Democratic Republic of Congo, a way of life is dying. The Bambuti, one of several Pygmy groups in Congo, are among central Africa's oldest indigenous peoples. For millennia, they have lived as hunter-gatherers, surviving off the forest's bounty of plants, birds and monkeys. Idjwi, in the middle of Lake Kivu, has been spared the ravages of wars in eastern Congo that have killed millions of people since 1996, mostly from hunger and disease. But for its indigenous inhabitants, the advance of another culture has proved nearly as devastating. The Bambutis, like Pygmy groups across central Africa, have been pushed out of a native land to which they could assert no legal title – in this case, to make way for an exploding ethnic Bantu population who now make up more than 95 percent of Idjwi's 280,000 inhabitants. Around 1980, the Bambuti say, local authorities and customary chiefs from the Bahavu, a Bantu people, expelled them from the forests and turned the land over to Bahavu to farm and build houses. The Bambuti lost their livelihood and, with few if any assets, no education, and no experience of how to support themselves in an alien environment, their society has withered. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A Bahavu woman stands (L) as Pygmy women sell pottery in the Bahavu village of Bugarula on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Kavuha, 73, repairs a container at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Mwenyezi, 36, plays a guitar at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





People sing and dance at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, May 18, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A woman boils cassava greens as she breastfeeds at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, May 18, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A child tries to re-light a fire at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





People gather around a fire in Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A woman, 60, who is suffering from malaria rests in her house at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. The woman died from her illness a few days later. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A nurse (R), prepares to give an injection to Voyage, 40, a Pygmy man who is suffering from a wound on his finger that has turned gangrenous, at the health centre in the village of Bugarula on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 24, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A Bahavu landlord (L) and Pygmy workers have an argument about wages, on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 24, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Ahadi, 23, carries heavy stones intended for the construction of an hotel in a village near Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2016. Ahadi works for a Bahavu landlord and earns 500 CDF (0.46 USD) per day. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Men repair fishing nets, at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A 10-year-old Pygmy girl laughs as she works weeding the land of a Bahavu farmer on the shore of Lake Kivu on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 24, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A fisherman works on Lake Kivu near Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 26, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Children hold used syringes, which they found discarded near Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Mwenyezi, 36, washes her baby who is suffering from fever, at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 24, 2016. Mwenyezi cannot afford to take her baby for medical care. Her baby has scars from “bleeding”, which some Pygmies use to try and treat certain diseases. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A Pygmy woman, 20, shakes a pendo, a musical instrument made from a metal box filled with gravel, to calm her crying child, at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A boy plays football, at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Women look for clay soil, which they use to make pottery near Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A woman makes a clay pot at Kagorwa Pygmy camp on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Melissa, 20, who is Bahavu, returns from market of the village of Burgarula on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 26, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Bahavu children wash on the shore of Lake Kivu, on Idjwi island, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





A Bahavu woman and her son stand in front their house which has an Orange sign above the door in Bugarula village on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 26, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Habimana, 45, and her children walk to market to sell pottery on Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)





Manguiste, 24, stands in a canoe on Lake Kivu just off Idjwi island in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 26, 2016. (Photo by Therese Di Campo/Reuters)