Pygmies are considered to be the original inhabitants of the African continent.
Credit: Ogiek Welfare Council of Kenya
Characterised by their small stature, pygmies are predominantly members of hunter-gatherer communities living in equatorial rainforests across Central Africa. They are considered to be the original inhabitants of the continent.

Before Bantus and other major ethnic groups started spreading from areas north of the African tropical forest to the Great Lakes region around the first millennium BC, pygmies were the sole inhabitants of the continent south of the Sahara. The African rainforest has been their traditional environment for millennia. Spanning from Cameroon and Gabon in the west to Rwanda and Burundi in the east, the ecosystem stretches across more than 10 countries and covers more than 2 million square kilometres, twice the size of China. Pygmies enjoy - and depend on - a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest: It is their home, the source of their livelihood and their spiritual centre.

For the first time in history, this delicate balance may be about to disappear. The advent of “modernity” in Africa’s rainforests, the environmental degradation caused by man’s overexploitation of natural resources and global warming, political discrimination, and armed conflict all have taken an unprecedented toll on pygmy populations. The dangers they face have been serious enough to provoke some international observers to make allegations of genocide: mass killings and rapes have purportedly been used to destroy them as a people.

The total number of pygmy individuals in various communities on the African continent has been estimated at around 250,000 by the human rights NGO Survival International. Apart from the fact that these groups all maintain a close relationship with the rainforest environment, persecution and appalling poverty seem to be the only other common attributes in this mosaic of highly diverse ethnic groups.


The Aka pygmies of central Africa traditionally live in remote villages in the heart of forests. These camps are usually located several days’ walk from any road or village.
Credit: Margaret Wilson/Survival
Continent-wide forest peoples

The term “pygmy” is decried as derogatory in parts of the continent - mainly eastern Africa - due to the prejudices associated with the term over the centuries. However, it does not convey the same stigma in western Africa, where it is used as a generic name for several ethnic groups.

Forest people’s size distinguishes them from their neighbours. Bambuti men, who live in the Ituri province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are on average 1.44 m high, compared to a national average of 1.70 m high. Since there has never been an official demographic census on pygmies in DRC it is impossible to give an accurate estimate of their numbers. In 1993, Jerome Lewis, a UK-based researcher, estimated their population to be approximately 16,000. Some anthropologists believe they are the purest descendents of ancient pygmies.

The Bambuti have been classified into three groups, which differ from each other linguistically, economically and geographically. The Aka people speak the Mangbetu language, hunt mainly with spears and live in the north of DRC. The Efe speak the Lese language, practice archery and live in the east of the country. The Sua speak the Bira language, usually hunt with nets and live in the south.

West of the Ubangui River, which splits the African tropical forest and borders the north of the DRC, pygmy communities call themselves Binga, whereas on the river’s eastern side, they are called Batwa. In 2000, The Batwa were estimated to number about 80,000 by the minority-rights NGO Refugees International. Their populations are disbursed throughout Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and eastern DRC.

The Baka, which number around 40,000, are traditionally semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers that live in the rainforest of southeastern and southern Cameroon. There are about 3,700 Bakola-Bagyeli, living in the south of Cameroon. The Medzan, which live in central Cameroon and number fewer than 1,000, according to Cameroon-based researcher Patrice Bigombe Logo. The Bangombe and Babinga are in Gabon, and the Aka and Mbenzele are found in northern DRC and the Central African Republic

Regardless of where they live and what they call themselves, these ethnic groups constitute minorities compared with the rest of the population, and their numbers are constantly decreasing, due to conflicts such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In which 30 per cent of the Batwa population of the country was killed.

The most ancient African culture

Pygmies are forest dwellers who depend on an intimate symbiosis with their environment. They traditionally live deep in the woods, often in remote camps located several days’ walk from any road or village. Their livelihood, medicinal practices and culture depend entirely on the forest. The relationship is sustainable in that pygmies do not deplete their natural resources, thus maintaining the delicate balance of the rainforest ecosystem.

Beyond its role as purveyor of goods and resources, the forest is also a social, cultural and spiritual space that plays an essential role in pygmy cultures and identities. The great spirit of the forest, called jengi by some communities, is central to many initiation ceremonies and is one of the few common words shared by most pygmy groups across the African continent. “[The forest] is their lifeline, their guardian and protector, the source of all medicine, the place for contemplation, to rest and to carry out ritual activities,” said Bigombe.


As logging companies have advanced into equatorial jungles in search of valuable hardwood, pygmies have watched their natural habitat gradually disappear.
Credit: Rhett A. Butler/mongabay
Endangered livelihoods

Intensive commercial hunting, the opening of roads into the forests due to logging activities, and systematic deforestation have devastated the rich ecosystem of the tropical rainforest. For a community that depends entirely on the environment for its physical and spiritual sustenance, such drastic change threatens its very existence.

Research on pygmy groups in Cameroon conducted by researcher Jean-Félix Loung in the 1980s classified households in four main groups, according to their principal means of survival. Traditional hunter-gatherers comprised 6 percent of the population; hunter-gatherer-farmers comprised 38 percent; farmer-hunter-gatherers 38 percent as well; and hunters-farmers, 21 percent. To this day, most communities still depend largely on hunting (of antelopes, wild pigs and monkeys), fishing and the gathering of honey, berries, fruits and other plants.

Traditionally, communities also traded the pottery they made - along with forest game meat and ivory - with their neighbours in exchange for essential commodities they could not make themselves, such as agricultural produce and metal tools. The pottery was used both for storage and transport of goods and food. As plastic containers gradually replaced clay pots, this traditional source of income dwindled.

As a result, what used to be mainly a nomadic group that moved across long distances in the forest in pursuit of game and plants is gradually settling down. Most members of pygmy communities now work as day labourers and servants on farms that do not belong to them or practice small-scale, informal mining activities. Some resort to begging. Under the influence of development programmes, pygmies increasingly are turning to subsistence agriculture, growing cassava, their staple food.

Health

In keeping with their traditions, pygmies turn to the rainforest in times of sickness.

This relative self-reliance for health services has allowed many groups to remain isolated from major epidemics that have affected neighbouring communities, such as cholera, meningitis or even Ebola.

However, in the Great Lakes region of Africa, malaria is the principal cause of death among pygmies. Initiatives, such as the Baka Project of Cameroon initiated in 1990, aim to raise awareness among pygmy communities regarding the causes of parasitic infections like malaria and the precautions that may be taken to avoid such deadly parasites.


“The wealth of indigenous people can be found in the form of natural resources,” said El Hadji Guisse, chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Sub Commission.
Credit: Margaret Wilson/Survival
As the forests have receded under mining and logging activities, its original inhabitants have been pushed into populated areas and in turn exposed to new diseases. HIV/AIDS has spread in the pygmy community, and infection rates have increased due to the belief held in some parts of Central Africa that sexual intercourse with a pygmy would cure the disease.

Receding with the forest

For pygmies, economic development is an unavoidable, painful and exclusive process.

As logging companies have advanced into equatorial jungles in search of valuable hardwoods, pygmies have watched their natural habitat gradually disappear. According to the Rainforest Action Network, a conservation organisation, “Between 1980 and 1995, Africa lost more than 10 percent of its forests, or approximately 150 million acres. In the 1990s, the rate of deforestation increased.”

This ransacking of the environment has had perilous consequences for pygmy communities. “The wealth of indigenous peoples can be found in the form of natural resources,” said El Hadji Guisse, chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Sub Commission. In addition to witnessing the destruction of their ancestral territory, the forest people have also been totally excluded from any profits derived from the rainforest. “Indigenous people are excluded from the process at all levels,” Guisse said.