The environmental impact of The Big Dry (TBD) in Central Africa is mainly addressed with reference to the better documented dry phases of the Late Holocene. For its impact on the people, previous archaeological research shows the presence before, during and after TBD of two large technological traditions. The first bifacial tradition concerns the Lupemban and Tshitolian industries and the second that of microlithic industries on quartz. The characteristics of the latter correspond to the definition of miniaturization. This overview focuses on the Democratic Republic of Congo including the heartland of Lupemban and Tshitolian industries at the southwestern rim of the equatorial forest. However, at least for the Holocene, miniaturized industries in quartz are now documented here as well. They remain the only tradition found on dated Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites on the northwestern and northeastern edges of the forest. Apart from the reassessment of lithic industries from older excavations, new perspectives on population history come from the reexamination of human remains of these excavations. Such a detailed analysis has shown that the Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer-fishers from Ishango have more in common with their contemporaries in and outside of Africa than with people living in the area today. This agrees well with genetic evidence for increasing diversity in the Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens population in Africa. Ancient DNA from two Holocene burial phases in the rock shelter of Shum Laka (NW Cameroon) has revealed their deep shared past with Central African forest hunter-gatherers.