PYGMIES

This is the last completed drama as of April 2017. There are some others in process, but not ready to be posted.

I was strongly recommended to write about this topic because of the issues pygmies are facing in DRC. Because the dramas are a “family” program, I could not begin to get as graphic as the situation really is. However, I tackled what the root problem is—the old African issue of who is human.

There is fighting going on right now between pygmies and other Congolese. The pygmies have been forced from their forest habitat so it could be logged or turned into agricultural use. No compensation has been given them. Because they are “not human” they are mistreated and discriminated against.

I quote from Kasongo Munza. “Ancestral heritage includes mainly the land and the power and traditions. These are sacred. There is no way to accept sharing land or power with other people. Land boundaries must not be changed. Democracy and rights of other tribes or people are irrelevant. It is an unforgivable sin to compromise in this area. The Kiluba proverb quoted before, “Kishiya bashiya; Kitana batana,” (Which means, “This is how we received it; as we received it is how we have to leave it.”) is also referring to unacceptable transfer of these resources. Colonialism changed boundaries and transferred people groups. This is why Africa has the interminable conflicts and genocide that it does, because now more than one tribe may be occupying the same land.”

For the pygmies, the forest is their heritage. They consider it part of themselves. The ironic thing about the “humans” who are taking their land is that if someone did that to their land, they would fight. So the pygmies are trying to fight back. But the century’s old friction between the humans and so called sub humans is being manipulated and exacerbated by outside forces. Someone doesn’t want it to stop. People are being carried into the cities with arrows through them that are “made in Taiwan”.