Editing Pygmy peoples (section)

== Africa ==
{{Further|Classification of Pygmy languages}}
[[African Pygmies]] live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo (ROC), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and Zambia.<ref name="focus" /> There are at least a dozen pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. The best known are the [[Mbenga people|Mbenga]] (Aka and Baka) of the western [[Congo Basin]], who speak [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and [[Ubangian languages]]; the [[Mbuti]] (Efe ''etc.'') of the [[Ituri Rainforest]], who speak Bantu and [[Central Sudanic languages]], and the [[Great Lakes Twa|Twa]] of the [[African Great Lakes]], who speak Bantu [[Kirundi|Rundi]] and [[Kiga language|Kiga]]. Most pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products.<ref name="focus" /> It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the [[Congo rainforest]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vidal |first=John |date=4 October 2007 |title=World Bank accused of razing Congo forests |website=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/04/congo.forests |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513215843/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/04/congo.forests |archive-date=2016-05-13}}</ref><ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005">{{Cite web |last=Sheshadri |first=Raja James |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict  |issue=163 |date=December 2005 |work=[[Inventory of Conflict and Environment|ICE Case Studies]] |publisher=[[American University]] |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |access-date=Mar 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.

[[File:Pygmy languages (Bahuchet).png|thumb|Distribution of Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The [[southern Twa]] are not shown.]]

=== Origins ===
Expansion to Central Africa by the ancestors of African Pygmies most likely took place before 130,000 years ago, and certainly before 60,000 years ago.<ref name=":0"/> A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of [[Late Stone Age]] hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their [[Central Sudanic]], [[Ubangian]], and Bantu languages.<ref name=Genetics_and_linguistics>{{Cite web |last1=Blench |first1=Roger M. |last2=Dendo |first2=Mallam |title=Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa |date=27 June 2004 |publisher=SAFA 2004 |location=Cambridge-Bergen |via=Roger Blench Website |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721174821/http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-21 }}</ref><ref name=Bantu_and_Batwa>{{Cite book |last=Klieman |first=Kairn A. |title=The Pygmies Were Our Compass: Bantu and BaTwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 |publisher=Heinemann |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-325-07105-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza|title=African pygmies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ8OAQAAMAAJ|access-date=11 October 2011|year=1986|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-164480-2}}</ref>

Some 30% of [[Aka language]] is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of [[Baka language]] is not Ubangian. Much of pygmy vocabulary is botanical, dealing with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language was only reconstructed to the 15th century.<ref>Serge Bahuchet, 1993, ''History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics.'' In C.M. Hladik, ed., ''Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development.'' Paris: Unesco/Parthenon. {{ISBN|1-85070-380-9}}</ref>

African Pygmy populations are genetically diverse and extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their [[Genetic marker|uniparental markers]] represent the second-most ancient divergence, after those typically found in [[Khoisan]] peoples.<ref name="Tishkoff2009">{{cite journal | title = The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans | journal = Science | year = 2009 | display-authors = 1 | pmid = 19407144 | doi = 10.1126/science.1172257 | last1 = Tishkoff | first1 = SA | last2 = Reed | first2 = FA | last3 = Friedlaender | first3 = FR | last4 = Ehret | first4 = C | last5 = Ranciaro | first5 = A | last6 = Froment | first6 = A | last7 = Hirbo | first7 = JB | last8 = Awomoyi | first8 = AA | last9 = Bodo | first9 = JM | volume = 324 | issue = 5930 | pages = 1035–44 | pmc = 2947357 | bibcode = 2009Sci...324.1035T }}Also see</ref> Recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various Pygmy groups. Researchers found "an early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern pygmy groups 20,000 years ago."<ref name=":0">{{cite journal
| last1 = Patin | first1 = E.
| last2 = Laval | first2 = G.
| last3 = Barreiro | first3 = L. B.
| last4 = Salas | first4 = A.
| last5 = Semino | first5 = O.
| last6 = Santachiara-Benerecetti | first6 = S.
| last7 = Kidd | first7 = K. K.
| last8 = Kidd | first8 = J. R.
| last9 = Van Der Veen | first9 = L.
| last10 = Hombert
| first10 = J. M.
| last11 = Gessain
| first11 = A
| last12 = Froment
| first12 = A
| last13 = Bahuchet
| first13 = S
| last14 = Heyer
| first14 = E
| last15 = Quintana-Murci
| first15 = L
| editor1-last = Di Rienzo
| editor1-first = Anna
| title = Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set
| doi = 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000448
| journal = PLOS Genetics
| volume = 5
| issue = 4
| pages = e1000448
| year = 2009
| pmid = 19360089
| pmc = 2661362
| display-authors = 8
| doi-access = free
}}</ref>

New evidence suggests East and West African Pygmy children have different growth patterns. The difference between the two groups may indicate the Pygmies' short stature did not start with their common ancestor but instead evolved independently in adapting to similar environments, which adds support that some sets of genes related to height were advantageous in Eastern Pygmy populations, but not in Western Pygmy populations.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web|title = We May Have Been Wrong About How African Pygmies Grow|url = http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150728-african-pygmies-height-science-health-nutrition|website = National Geographic News|access-date = 2015-07-28|first = Rachel A.|last = Becker| date = July 28, 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150729155612/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150728-african-pygmies-height-science-health-nutrition/|archive-date = 2015-07-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title = Growth pattern from birth to adulthood in African pygmies of known age|journal = Nature Communications|date = 2015-07-28|volume = 6|pages = 7672|doi = 10.1038/ncomms8672|pmid = 26218408|pmc = 4525207|language = en|first1 = Fernando V. Ramirez|last1 = Rozzi|first2 = Yves|last2 = Koudou|first3 = Alain|last3 = Froment|first4 = Yves|last4 = Le Bouc|first5 = Jérémie|last5 = Botton| bibcode=2015NatCo...6.7672R }}</ref>

However, [[Roger Blench]]<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Roger Blench |last=Blench |first=Roger |date=1999 |chapter=Are the African Pygmies an ethnographic fiction |editor-last1=Biesbrouck |editor-first1=Karen |editor-last2=Elders |editor-first2=Stefan |editor-last3=Rossel |editor-first3=Gerda |title=Central African hunter-gatherers in a multi-disciplinary perspective: Challenging elusiveness |publisher=CNWS Leiden University |pages=41–60 |via=Roger Blench Website |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Anthropology/Africa/Pygmies%20an%20ethnographic%20fiction.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420030236/http://www.rogerblench.info/Anthropology/Africa/Pygmies%20an%20ethnographic%20fiction.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-20 }}</ref> argues that the Pygmies are not descended from residual hunter-gatherer groups but rather are offshoots of larger neighboring ethnolinguistic groups that had adopted forest subsistence strategies. Blench notes the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of pygmy cultures and peoples and also notes that the genetic evidence can be problematic. Blench also notes that there is no evidence of the Pygmies having hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors, and argues that the short stature of pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) due to strong selection pressures.

=== Culture ===
{{Main|Pygmy music}}
[[File:Baka dancers June 2006.jpg|thumb|[[Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon)|Baka]] pygmy dancers in the [[East Region (Cameroon)|East Region]] of [[Cameroon]]]]
The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. [[Simha Arom]] says that the level of polyphonic complexity of pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient.<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |title=African Rhythms |date=2003 |others=Music by [[Aka (Pygmy tribe)|Aka]] Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, [[György Ligeti]] and [[Steve Reich]], performed by [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]] |publisher=Teldec Classics |id=8573 86584-2 |type=Liner notes |last1=Aimard |first1=Pierre-Laurent |last2=Ligeti |first2=György |last3=Reich |first3=Steve |last4=Arom |first4=Simha |last5=Schomann |first5=Stefan}}</ref> Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.

=== Violence against pygmies ===
==== Reported genocides ====
{{Further|Rwandan genocide|Effacer le tableau}}
The pygmy population was a target of the [[Interahamwe]] during the 1994 [[Rwandan genocide]]. Of the 30,000 Pygmies in Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 were killed and another 10,000 were displaced. They have been described as "forgotten victims" of the genocide.<ref name=SeshadriICE2>"In Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 of the 30,000-strong pygmy community was slaughtered during the Rwandan genocide, making them the "forgotten victims" of the Rwandan genocide."{{cite web |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict |author=Raja Seshadri |date=7 November 2005 |work=Case Study 163 |publisher=The Inventory of Conflict & Environment, [[American University]] |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

From the end of 2002 through January 2003 around 60,000 Pygmy civilians and 10,000 combatants were killed and often [[Human cannibalism|cannibalized]] in an extermination campaign known as "[[Effacer le tableau]]" during the [[Second Congo War]].<ref name=SeshadriICE1>"Between October 2002 and January 2003, two the rebel groups, the MLC and RCD-N in the East of the Congo launched a premeditated, systematic genocide against the local tribes and Pygmies nicknamed operation "[[Effacer le tableau]]" ("erase the board"). During their offensive against the civilian population of the Ituri region, the rebel groups left more than 60,000 dead and over 100,000 displaced. The rebels even engaged in slavery and cannibalism. Human Rights Reports state that this was due to the fact that rebel groups, often far away from their bases of supply and desperate for food, enslaved the Pygmies on captured farms to grow provisions for their militias or when times get really tough simply slaughter them like animals and devour their flesh which some believe gives them magical powers.11. Fatality Level of Dispute (military and civilian fatalities): 70,000 estimated"see:{{cite web |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict |author=Raja Seshadri |date=7 November 2005 |work=Case Study 163 |publisher=[[The Inventory of Conflict & Environment]], [[American University]] |access-date=21 July 2012 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |title=Rebels 'eating Pygmies' as mass slaughter continues in Congo despite peace agreement |author=Basildon Peta |work=[[The Independent]] |date=January 9, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226172041/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |archive-date=December 26, 2010 |author-link=Basildon Peta }}</ref> Human rights activists have made demands for the massacre to be recognized as [[genocide]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm |title=DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN |work=BBC News |date=23 May 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213023950/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm |archive-date=13 December 2010 }}</ref>

===== Forced removal =====
{{Main|Fortress conservation}}
In a strategy described as [[fortress conservation]], the conservation efforts of national parks, often financed by international organizations such as the [[World Wildlife Fund]], can involve heavily armed park rangers removing native pygmies off the land.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBDKiJrLits |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/TBDKiJrLits| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Congo: The tribe under threat|newspaper=Unreported World |access-date=1 September 2019|date=2 June 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> However, some have argued that the most efficient conservation methods involve giving land rights to the land's indigenous inhabitants.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/22/india-follow-china-saving-forest-people-land-rights|title=India should follow China to find a way out of the woods on saving forest people|newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=1 September 2019|date=22 July 2016}}</ref> This pattern of eviction has been seen in national parks in the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], such as [[Kahuzi-Biéga National Park]], where pygmy inhabitants often cut the trees down to sell charcoal.<ref name=Guardian0719/> In the [[Republic of the Congo]], this is seen in the Messok Dja protected area.<ref name=Guardian1120>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/26/you-have-stolen-our-forest-rights-of-baka-people-in-the-congo-ignored|title='Large-scale human rights violations' taint Congo national park project|work=[[The Guardian]] |date=26 November 2020|access-date=27 May 2022}}</ref> In [[Cameroon]], this is seen in the [[Lobéké National Park]].<ref name=Buzzfeednews>{{Cite web|last1=Warren|first1=Tom|last2=Baker|first2=Katie|date=4 March 2019|title=WWF Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People|website=[[BuzzFeed News]] |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwarren/wwf-world-wide-fund-nature-parks-torture-death}}</ref> In [[Uganda]], some Batwa have been removed from land reclassified as national parks, such as the [[Mgahinga Gorilla National Park]], which is home to the endangered [[mountain gorilla]]. <ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ugandas-batwa-tribe-considered-conservation-refugees-see-little-government-support|title=Uganda’s Batwa tribe, considered conservation refugees, see little government support|newspaper=PBS|access-date=6 September 2024|date=21 October 2021}}</ref> 

==== Reported slavery ====
In the Republic of the Congo, where Pygmies make up 2% of the population, many Pygmies live as [[Slavery in Africa|slaves]] to [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong to their Bantu masters from birth in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. A 2007 news report stated that even though Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, "Pygmies and Bantus alike say that Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all."<ref name=newsday>{{cite news |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228160138/http://newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-date=2009-02-28 |title=Congo's Pygmies live as slaves |work=The News & Observer |first=Katie |last=Thomas |date=March 12, 2007}}</ref> As a result of pressure from [[UNICEF]] and human-rights activists, in 2009, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people was awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament.<ref name=newsday /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/world/as-the-world-intrudes-pygmies-feel-endangered.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=As the World Intrudes, Pygmies Feel Endangered |author=Nicholas D. Kristof |date=June 16, 1997 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701085434/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/world/as-the-world-intrudes-pygmies-feel-endangered.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |archive-date=July 1, 2017 }}</ref> According to reports made in 2013, this law was never passed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pygmies: Racism |website=[[Survival International]] |url=http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/pygmies/racism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423122241/http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/pygmies/racism |archive-date=2015-04-23 }}</ref>

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the [[Ituri conflict]], Ugandan-backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill |title=Congo rebels are eating pygmies, UN says |first=James |last=Astill |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 January 2003|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329051637/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill|archive-date=29 March 2017}}</ref>

==== Ethnic conflict ====
{{Main|Batwa–Luba clashes}}
In Northern [[Katanga Province]] starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the [[Luba people]] often exploit and allegedly enslave,<ref name=hrw1115/> rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages.<ref name=nytimes0416>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=0|title=In Congo, Wars Are Small and Chaos Is Endless|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=7 March 2017|date=30 April 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506194515/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=0|archive-date=6 May 2017}}</ref> A Luba militia known as "Elements" counterattacked. More than a thousand people were killed in the first eight months of 2014 alone<ref name=irin0717>{{cite news|url=http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2017/07/11/displaced-congolese-civilians-sent-back-widening-war|title=Displaced Congolese civilians sent back to a widening war|publisher=irinnews.com|access-date=18 July 2017|date=11 July 2017}}</ref> with the number of displaced people estimated to be 650,000 as of December 2017.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.icrc.org/en/document/democratic-republic-congo-communal-violence-malnutrition-tanganyika |title=Stricken by communal violence and malnutrition in Tanganyika, Democratic Republic of the Congo |journal=[[International Committee of the Red Cross]] |date=29 December 2017 |access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref><ref name=hrw1115>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/11/dr-congo-ethnic-militias-attack-civilians-katanga|title=DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga|publisher=Human Rights Watch|date=11 August 2015|access-date=7 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308043544/https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/11/dr-congo-ethnic-militias-attack-civilians-katanga|archive-date=8 March 2017}}</ref> The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.<ref name=nytimes0416/>

[[File:Ota Benga at Bronx Zoo.jpg|thumb|[[Ota Benga]] at the [[Bronx Zoo]] in 1906]]

==== Discrimination ====
{{See also|Human zoo}}
Historically, pygmies have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village-dwelling Bantu tribes.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005"/> Pygmy children were sometimes captured during the period of the [[Congo Free State]], which exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907.<ref name="Sheshadri, Raja 2005"/> Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are sometimes not considered citizens and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling. ''[[The Lancet]]'' published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Nyang'ori Ohenjo |author2=Ruth Willis |author3=Dorothy Jackson |author4=Clive Nettleton |author5=Kenneth Good |author6=Benon Mugarura |title= Health of Indigenous people in Africa|journal= The Lancet|volume =367|issue =9526|year=2006|pages =1937–1946|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68849-1|pmid=16765763 |s2cid=7976349 }}</ref>