- Join the France 24 community here
- Log in
Latest update: 23/02/2009
Pygmies: endangered people
At the heart of the Congo forest lives one of the oldest populations in the world, pygmies. They represent around 1% of the population, and are routinely abused and exploited by Bantus, the main ethnic group.
At the heart of the Congo forest lives one of the oldest populations in the world, pygmies. They represent a small minority, around 1% of the population. They are routinely abused and exploited by Bantus, the main ethnic group, mostly landowners. Our correspondents Arnaud Zeitman and Marlène Rabaud bring us this report.
Pygmies used to be a nomad population, tribes of hunters. But food has become scarce: the pygmies are no longer the only ones in the forest. “Bantus come to the forest to cut down the wood they need for their houses and cooking”, says Mokala Tshimosi, a woman hunter. This is one of the main causes of deforestation in Africa, depriving many animals of their natural habitat.
To survive, Pygmies were forced to abandon their traditional lifestyle, in search of paid work in factories and farms. Their wages are pathetic, their working conditions are deplorable. They are regularly whipped and abused by their bosses. “I have never seen a bantu who will do this kind of work. This is why I use pygmy women and children,” says Theophile Landusa, a Bantu landowner.
Synch Ifumi Inguni is an accountant, one of the rare pygmies to earn a decent living. He believes the main problem is the lack of schooling, and rampant alcoholism among adult pygmies.
Malaria and malnourishment take a particularly hard toll on young children. One pygmy child out of three dies before reaching the age of five.
Pygmies are an ancient society: they are mentioned in texts dating back 5,000 years. But the legends carried to us by Greek poets of the Antiquity describe them as sub-human. Today, one of their most difficult challenges is just to be considered as equal members of the human race.
Related Content
Browse all editions
PARTNERSHIPS
Comments (5)
Good journalism
I would like to applaud France24 for such expose. This are the kind of stories that we need to encourage. I was impressed by the way the journalists reporting on this story handled the whole issue. It is an emotional one and it takes a certain level of professional diligence for a journalist to hide his/her emotions. As Africans we embrace the spirit of Ubuntu (humanity). I was shocked to hear the bantus gloating over the atrocious treatment they hand to the Pygmies. It's a shame!
Ecosystem services may help
The world is going to make a huge transformation from the exploitative industrial economic model, to one in which production is environmentally sustainable. That is: we will be valueing ecosystem services like a clean and low-carbon atmosphere, healthy soils, living tropical rainforests, and all the services these forests themselves bring, - to humanity as a whole.
Even capitalism will begin to value these ecosystem services (a crude beginning is the emerging carbon credit market for rainforests, and 'biodiversity credits' as advocated by President Chirac).
Pygmies have the knowledge and the acumen to become the guardians of these biodiversity-rich forests, which will beging to gain a very high value, far surpassing the current exploitation models (currently a dead forest is worth more than a living one, but that will soon change).
Hopefully the Pygmy populations will be engaged in this transformation towards a more sustainable global economy, and hopefully they can benefit from it. They know how to manage forest ecosystems and we must now record and actualize their knowledge in order to protect these forests.
Government failure
The government's failure to bring them up to speed with the rest of the population makes them victims right from the start. Education does not mean forcing them out of the forest, but if they were offered a whole lot more, they would be in a much better position to cope with change. The few who managed to get out and used to come to Kenya would be dancers for the Congolese musicians. I don't know how much farther a big step that is for anyone but it was a way out for them. Anyone who has less skills, less experience with the rest of their environment, and then is physically disadvantaged is easy prey. Like one of the people reacting to this said, this issue is very complex and does not have a simple solution. Many people around the world are victims of their circumstances and it's always been that way, unfortunately.
The Right to Infinitely Demanding All Rights for All Humans
Thank you France 24 for such a good documentary giving a voice to the voiceless.
The issue raises a number of other complex inter-related issues. From exploitation of natural resources, to inequalities, exclusion and denial of full and meaningful citizenship to people within nation-states. We can also add to those, demographic challenges and the use of scarce resources in certain areas and the role of multinational corporations, a role not mentioned clearly in the doco. At the centre of the tragedy in the Congo -i.e. the 4 million people who have perished- is the role of exploitation of natural and mineral resources. The Pygmies are one of the victims. Now and in the past. Victimized by both the local non-visionary leaders and the international ones (whom the media does not sufficiently condemn.
At least you have done your bit in educating people about the re-production of the "other" within the DRC. The lessons apply to all other parts of the world.
Again, thank you.
Aime.
Re: pygmies
The Bantus should be ashamed to treat other human beings in the manner that they are and the rest of the world needs to speak up quickly and loudly about this situation. Of course pygmies are human beings and they deserve to be well treated as do all human beings it is ungodly and inhuman to have others do jobs you yourself would not do.