(or Gbaya), an African people related to the Banda. The Baya are scattered over a vast territory in the southeastern Republic of Cameroon (approximately 100,000 people according to the 1967 census), the southwestern Central African Republic (more than 300,000 people), and the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (more than 70,000 people). The Baya are further subdivided into several ethnological groups, among them the Baya Biandi, Baya Bogoto, and Baya Buli. The Baya language is related to the group of languages spoken in eastern and central Sudan. Most of the Baya maintain their local traditional beliefs, and a small number are Christians. Their chief occupations are farming (corn, manioc, and taro) and cattle raising.