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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Pygmies at the zoo

A group of Pygmy musicians were temporarily lodged in a Republlic of Congo zoo while visiting Brazzaville for a music festival. Visitors to the zoo snapped photos as the 22 pygmies collected wood from the zoo forest and cooked their meals. From the Associated Press:

Congolese officials, who invited the band of Pygmy musicians to perform at the Festival of Pan-African Music, or Fespam, said their intention was to place them in a "familiar setting."

"It's not a case of discrimination," said Yvette Lebondzo, the director of arts and culture for the Republic of Congo. "We lodged them in the park near running water and a forest simply because that will remind them of their usual surroundings — which is the forest." Link

Spurred by protests from civil rights groups, the pygmies were moved this weekend to a local school. According to a Reuters article, "All the other musicians playing at the July 8-14 pan-African FESPAM festival were provided with hotel rooms." Link

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Interestingly, this isn't the first time that tourists have come to a zoo to see real, live pygmies. Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman puts this latest bizarre episode in historical context. In 1906, the Bronx Zoo opened a new exhibit in the monkey house featuring a 22-year-old pygmy named Ota Benga. According to a National Public Radio profile of Benga last year, "it's estimated that 40,000 visitors a day came to see him."
Link to Cryptomundo, Link to NPR profile

UPDATE: BB reader Chris Zable says, "My first question when I read the item about the pygmies lodged at the zoo instead of a hotel was, has anyone asked THEM what they want?" He found the answer in a BBC report:

"It's not good for men, women and children to all be in this one tent. We need some space," dancer and musician David Motambo told the BBC. "We can't live here where there are so many mosquitoes. Here in the city we can't stay in the forest."

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:27:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: August 20 \| August 19 \| August 18 \| previous days \| by month and year Sunday, July 15, 2007 Pygmies at the zoo A group of Pygmy musicians were temporarily lodged in a Republlic of Congo zoo while visiting Brazzaville for a music festival. Visitors to the zoo snapped photos as the 22 pygmies collected wood from the zoo forest and cooked their meals. From the Associated Press: Congolese officials, who invited the band of Pygmy musicians to perform at the Festival of Pan-African Music, or Fespam, said their intention was to place them in a "familiar setting." "It's not a case of discrimination," said Yvette Lebondzo, the director of arts and culture for the Republic of Congo. "We lodged them in the park near running water and a forest simply because that will remind them of their usual surroundings — which is the forest." Link Spurred by protests from civil rights groups, the pygmies were moved this weekend to a local school. According to a Reuters article, "All the other musicians playing at the July 8-14 pan-African FESPAM festival were provided with hotel rooms." Link Interestingly, this isn't the first time that tourists have come to a zoo to see real, live pygmies. Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman puts this latest bizarre episode in historical context. In 1906, the Bronx Zoo opened a new exhibit in the monkey house featuring a 22-year-old pygmy named Ota Benga. According to a National Public Radio profile of Benga last year, "it's estimated that 40,000 visitors a day came to see him." Link to Cryptomundo, Link to NPR profile UPDATE: BB reader Chris Zable says, "My first question when I read the item about the pygmies lodged at the zoo instead of a hotel was, has anyone asked THEM what they want?" He found the answer in a BBC report: "It's not good for men, women and children to all be in this one tent. We need some space," dancer and musician David Motambo told the BBC. "We can't live here where there are so many mosquitoes. Here in the city we can't stay in the forest." Link posted by David Pescovitz at 10:27:38 AM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: August 20, 2007 \| August 19, 2007 \| August 18, 2007 \| August 17, 2007 \| August 16, 2007 \| August 15, 2007 \| August 14, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: