Pygmy.

This is coolbert:

The September 2005 National Geographic is devoted entirely to the subject of Africa.

One chapter of this issue concerns the plight of the pygmies. "People of the forest" , called the "dancers of GOD" by the ancient Egyptians.

The pygmies, an ancient people, [perhaps one of the two most ancient cultures and peoples on the planet], are facing destruction.

Primarily from destruction of the Congo basin rain forest at the hands of insatiably greedy timber concerns. An area [Congo basin] of the world considered until recently to be "impenetrable", is now being eaten away by logging roads, bulldozers, logging camps inhabited by chain saw wielding African workers of Bantu stock. Even the jungle fastness of the Ituri rainforest is threatened. What is called the Twa Pygmy area in Rwanda is long gone, the rainforest now only a memory, surviving pygmies living at the edge of what passes for "civilization" in that part of the world!

The pygmies are also threatened in a big way from WAR! A war that has been raging in the eastern part of the Congo since the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. War that seems to be never-ending, one militia after another vying for power, MORE OR LESS EXTERMINATING ANYONE IN THEIR PATH! The concept of the nation-state has more or less disappeared in this part of the world, the eastern Congo and nations of the Albertine Rift [a section of the Great Rift Valley to the east of the Congo]. This has been the called the first African World War. Somewhat of a misnomer. Previous world wars were fought between nation-states, NOT militias headed by warlords. Nonetheless, it is estimated that as many as 3 million persons have been killed in the incessant warfare even now being waged in this part of the world. With NO END in sight.




As is in most parts of the world, this war is being fought over control of resources. The Congo IS resource rich, almost embarrassingly so. Timber, gold, copper, uranium, diamonds, cobalt, and an ore called coltan [essential for the micro-electronics industry] all can be found in the Congo. In addition to the local Congolese militias [and the militias of other surrounding "nations", the armies of as many as six surrounding countries have been involved in the fighting, to include the army of Zimbabwe, a country not even having a contiguous border with the Congo. Everyone wants their share of the abundance.

The pygmies, a peaceable people, NOT a people who engage in war as it is practiced throughout the rest of the world, are caught in the middle of something over which they have no control and threatens their very existence. The pygmy as a people as they have been known since again, the time of the ancient Egyptians, may very soon disappear from the earth as a culture!!

Very lurid headlines several years ago seem to demonstrate the plight the little people face. Cannibalism at the hands of the militia "troops"!! Africans of Bantu stock seem to regard the pygmy as less than human, to be killed and EATEN at whim, absorbing the jungle skills of the pygmy in the process!!

From the National Geographic article:

"The King of the Imbeciles.

Perusing a copy of Echoes of the Pygmies, a foreign-funded Congolese human rights quarterly, I notice the following headline: "THE MLC TRIES TO ERASE PROOF OF ITS CANNIBALISM OF PYGMIES IN THE ITURI."

MLC stands for the MOVEMENT for the LIBERATION OF CONGO, perhaps the strongest rebel group in the country. Its leader is a pudgy business man named Jean-Pierre Beniba . . . He wants to be president [they all want to be President!!]. And he has an image problem. His soldiers are know primarily for eating Pygmies . . . . In late 2002 rebel forces- - led in part by a commander nicknamed the "King of the Imbeciles" [very appropriately named, is he not!!] - - launched a terrible offensive in the Ituri forest. Towns were sacked, women and girls were raped. Villagers were executed. Yet it was the rumors of cannibalized pygmies that scandalized the world . . . . "Cannibalism here is both an ancient tribal practice and a modern instrument of terror . . . But the attacks singling out Pygmies are new. The prevailing theory holds that soldiers [use that term very, very loosely here] ate them to absorb their unique forest powers - - good vision, tracking skills, whatever!!""



[please note the ubiquitous presence of the AK-47 in the above photo.]

Read further about the cannibalism perpetrated on the pygmies by clicking here, and here.

Such is the state of life for the pygmy. Threatened by war and the destruction of their ancient habitat, I don't see a lot of hope for them. They are at the mercy of forces MUCH larger than they are. MUCH larger!!

Pity the plight of the poor pygmy!!

coolbert.