The

Congo Pygmies The African Pygmies (or Congo Pygmies, variously also Central African foragers, "African rainforest hunter-gatherers" (RHG) or "Forest People of Central Africa") are a group of ethnicities native to Central Africa, mostly the Congo Basin, trad ...

(African Pygmies) are those "forest people" who have, or recently had, a hunter-gatherer economy and a simple, non-hierarchical societal structure based on bands, are of short stature,Generally speaking; those who are not particularly short, such as the Babongo and Bedzan, are sometimes distinguished as "pygmoid". have a deep cultural and religious affinity with the Congo forestApart from those who live in the savannah or mixed terrain, such as the Bofi and Bedzan. and live in a generally subservient relationship with agricultural "patrons", with which they trade forest products such as meat and honey for agricultural and iron products. Though lumped together as "Pygmies" by outsiders, including their patrons, these peoples are not related to each other either ethnically or linguistically. Different Pygmy peoples may have distinct genetic mechanisms for their short stature, demonstrating diverse origins.

Original Pygmy language(s)

An original Pygmy language has been postulated for at least some Pygmy groups.

Merritt Ruhlen Merritt Ruhlen (May 10, 1944 – January 29, 2021) was an American linguist who worked on the classification of languages and what this reveals about the origin and evolution of modern humans. Amongst other linguists, Ruhlen's work was recognized ...

writes that "African Pygmies speak languages belonging to either to the Nilo-Saharan or Niger–Kordofanian families. It is assumed that Pygmies once spoke their own language(s), but that, through living in symbiosis with other Africans in prehistorical times, they adopted languages belonging to these two families." The linguistic evidence that such languages existed include Mbenga forest vocabulary which is shared by the neighbouring Ubangian-speaking Baka and Bantu-speaking Aka (though not by the

Mbuti The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages. Subgroups Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the old ...

, and this connection is not ancient) and the Rimba dialect of Punu which may contain a core of non-Bantu vocabulary. It has been postulated that ancestral speakers may have been part of a complex of non-Pygmoid languages of hunter-gatherer populations in Africa whose only surviving descendants today mostly ring the rainforest. A common hypothesis is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central

African rainforest Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the trop ...

who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples and adopted their Central Sudanic,

Ubangian The Ubangian languages form a diverse linkage of some seventy languages centered on the Central African Republic. They are the predominant languages of the CAR, spoken by 2–3 million people, and include the national language, Sango. They ar ...

and Bantu languages. While there is a scarcity of excavated archaeological sites in Central Africa that could support this hypothesis, genetic studies have shown that Pygmy populations possess ancient divergent Y-DNA lineages (especially haplogroups A and B) in high frequencies in contrast to their neighbours (who possess mostly haplogroup E). Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, and deals with honey-collecting or is otherwise specialized for the forest, and much of it 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 split was only reconstructed to the 15th century, so there is no reason to think that it is ancient.

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

(1999) 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. None of the Pygmy peoples live in the deep forest without trade with agricultural 'patrons'. Blench argues that Pygmies are a deeply established caste, like

blacksmiths A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

, and that there was no original Pygmy race or language.

Peoples and languages

There are over a dozen attested Pygmy peoplesThere are other, undocumented hunter-gatherer forest peoples such as the Mbati and Bolimba of the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, and there are thought to be more in the two Congos and in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. numbering at least 350,000 in the Congo Basin. The best known are the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo basin who speak Bantu and

Ubangian languages The Ubangian languages form a diverse linkage of some seventy languages centered on the Central African Republic. They are the predominant languages of the CAR, spoken by 2–3 million people, and include the national language, Sango. They are ...

; the

(Efe ''et al.'') of the

Ituri Rainforest The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi Ri ...

, who speak Bantu and

Central Sudanic languages Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria and ...

, and the Twa of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

, who speak Bantu

Rwanda-Rundi Rwanda-Rundi is a group of Bantu languages, specifically a dialect continuum, spoken in Central Africa. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as national languages of Burundi and Rwanda respectively. These neighbourin ...

. All attested Pygmy peoples speak languages from these three language families, and only three peoples, the Aka, Baka, and Asua, have their own language.

Bedzan

Medzan (Bedzan) live in Cameroon not far from the Nigerian border. They speak a dialect of

Tikar The Tikar (also Tikari, Tige, Tigar, Tigre, Tikali) are a central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of ...

, a

Bantoid language Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and to ...

. ::Population: 400

Mbenga

*The Aka of the

and the Republic of Congo speak Aka (Yaka) which is a Bantu language close to

Lingala Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in ...

. The ''Benzele Aka'' are well known for their music. ::Population: 30–50,000 ::''Miyaka (N Gabon, Bantu), Luma (N Gabon, Bantu)'' appear to be Aka (Benzele) groups. *The Baka ( Ngombe) of Cameroon and

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

speak closely related

of the Ngbaka branch: Baka proper,

Ganzi Ganzi may refer to: * Ganzi, Gabon, town in Gabon * Ganzi, South Sudan, village/town in South Sudan * Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, prefecture in Sichuan, China * Ganzi County, county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture *Garzê Town Gar ...

, and

Gundi Gundis or comb rats (family Ctenodactylidae) are a group of small, stocky rodents found in Africa. They live in rocky deserts across the northern parts of the continent. The family comprises four living genera and five species ( Speke's gundi, ...

Ngondi. ::Population: 30–40,000 *In the Central African Republic north of the Aka are a group who speak the language of their neighbors, Bofi, which is a language of the Gbaya branch. ::Population: 3,000 *The Gyele (a.k.a. Kola or Koya) are the westernmost Pygmies, living in southern Cameroon near the coast, and in Equatorial Guinea on the coast. They speak two dialects of the Bantu Mvumbo language. ::Population: 4,000 *The

Kola KOLA (99.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Redlands, California, and broadcasting to the Riverside-San Bernardino-Inland Empire radio market. It is owned by the Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation and it airs a classic hits radio for ...

(a.k.a. Koya) of Congo and northwestern Gabon speak a Bantu language, Ngom. ::Population: 2,600 * Bongo, or Akoa, of southern Gabon speak several Bantu languages, including Tsogo, Nzebi, West Teke, Punu,

Lumbu Lumbu is a Bantu language spoken in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the ...

, Myene, Kaningi, and perhaps others such as

Yasa Yasa was a bhikkhu during the time of Gautama Buddha. He was the sixth bhikkhu in the Buddha's sangha and was the sixth to achieve arahanthood. Yasa lived in the 6th century BCE in what is now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in northern India. Yasa wa ...

. The Punu dialect of the Irimba, however, may have a non-Bantu core. ::Population: 3,000

Mbuti

*The Efé speak the Central Sudanic language Lese. ::Population: 10,000? *The Asoa speak their own Central Sudanic language ( Asoa), related to Mangbetu, the language of one of their patrons. ::Population: 10,000? *The

Kango Kango is a town in the Estuaire Province of Gabon, Central Africa, lying on the Komo River and the N1 road. It has a station near the Trans-Gabon Railway, where the railway bridges the Gabon Estuary. Kango is a small town with a population o ...

(a.k.a. Sua) speak the Bantu language Bila. ::Population: 26,000?

Twa

The various Twa populations all speak Bantu languages. *The Nsua of

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

speak Bantu. ::Population: 1,000 *The

Great Lakes Twa The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region on the border of Central and East Africa. As an indigenous pygmy people, the Twa are generally assu ...

of the Great Lakes (Rwanda, Burundi, eastern D.R. Congo, southern Uganda) speak Rundi and Kiga. ::Population: 10,000 *The Mongo Twa or Ntomba Twa (''Cwa'' ) of Lake Tumba and

Lake Mai-Ndombe Lake Mai-Ndombe (french: Lac Mai-Ndombe) is a large freshwater lake in Mai-Ndombe province in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The lake is within the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area, the largest Wetland of International Importance recognize ...

of western D.R. Congo, speak several varieties of Mongo (Konda, Ntomba, and Lia), which are either divergent dialects or closely related languages. ::Population: 14,000 *The Kasai Twa or Kuba Twa (''Cwa'') of Kasai (central D.R. Congo) speak

Bushong Bushong is a surname found mostly in the United States, derived from the surname Boschung found mainly in Switzerland, but also in the Palatinate and other regions in Western Europe. Surname history The American surname, ''Bushong'' and variant ' ...

. *The Mbote Twa (Bambote) northwest of Lake Tanganyika speak a D20 language. Holoholo is in approximately the right location *The Upemba Twa or Luba Twa (''Cwa'') of the

Upemba Depression The Upemba Depression (or Kamalondo Depression) is a large marshy bowl area ( depression) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprising some fifty lakes, including 22 of relatively large size including Lake Upemba (530 km) and Lake Kisale ...

speak Luba-Katanga, Hemba, Songe, and Taabwa. *The Bangweulu Twa of

Bangweulu Swamps The Bangweulu Wetlands is a wetland ecosystem adjacent to Lake Bangweulu in north-eastern Zambia. The area has been designated as one of the world's most important wetlands by the Ramsar Convention and an "Important Bird Area" by BirdLife Intern ...

, Zambia, speak Bemba. *The Lukanga Twa of the

Lukanga Swamp Lukanga Swamp is a major wetland in the Central Province of Zambia, about 50 km west of Kabwe.Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000 Its permanently swampy area consists of a roughly circular are ...

, Zambia, speak Lenje. *The Kafwe Twa of the

Kafue Flats The Kafue Flats (locally called Butwa) are a vast area of swamp, open lagoon and seasonally inundated flood-plain on the Kafue River in the Southern, Central and Lusaka provinces of Zambia. They are a shallow flood plain 240 km long and a ...

, Zambia, speak

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. *The Twa of Angola live among the Ngambwe, Havakona, Zimba and Himba, and presumably speak their languages. Physically, these southern Twa do not differ from their Bantu neighbors, but have a similar subservient position to their agricultural neighbors as the forest Pygmies. They may be remnant Khoisan populations; the Ila,

, and Lenje of Zambia, and the

Chewa Chewa may refer to: *the Chewa people *the Chewa language Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambiq ...

of Malawi, for example, believe them to be aboriginal peoples, and trace sacred places to them, but Blench suggests that they may have instead migrated from the forest with the Bantu, and were later conflated with aboriginal populations in legend.Blench, Roger. 2004
Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa
Presented at SAfA 2004.

Bibliography

The most complete account of Pygmy languages is found in Serge Bahuchet (1993) ''Histoire d'une civilisation forestière'', volume 2.

Notes

References

*Serge Bahuchet, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture

In ''Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective''. Leipzig. *Hewlett & Fancher, 2011. "Central African Hunter-Gatherer Research Traditions". In Cummings, Jordan, & Zvelebil, eds, ''Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers.'' Oxford University Press {{Pygmy languages African Pygmies Classification of African languages