Addiction to the violence of nature, God’s poem, captures the mind in suffering. It makes efforts to escape, seeking the supremacy of peace. He expects to behold images of purity of everyday existence. A journey to Africa, bathed in dreamy love, reaches the lips of the legendary Congo River and its tributaries. There, in the rainforests of the rainforests, live the short-lived Pygmies. You see them crowned with “truth leaves” on their foreheads, for they are ignorant of the concept of lying. That word was never resurrected in their tribe. The Pygmies’ embrace of history is found mainly in the central basin of Africa. They were already known to Homer and Herodotus because of their low stature. The average height of the men was 1.45 metres. The Greeks gave them their name; the word ‘pygmies’ refers to their height and likens them to fighters. The Pygmies were the first to settle in the Congo region. They were followed by the large negroid family called Bantu. They were later repelled by them and today they are scattered in small groups under various names: Ba-Bogo, Ba-Gielli, Ba-Chua, Ba-Bhooti, Ba-Binga, Akka, etc. Today, a part of them are hooked to the lure of technical social evolution and work in the cities. But their picturesque villages still give a tasteful jungle image. Each circular hut, as most are, has supports of small tree trunks, while the roof is clad in grass. The perimeter is left open to let the air flow through and cool them from the stifling heat and humidity. When dawn bids farewell to the night, it finds them ready to join the day’s work baton. Some go hunting for game, others go fishing with pirogues in the rivers, others climb the towering trees to harvest fruit and even honey from natural hives. Only the women cultivate cassava. From the dried roots of this bush they produce flour with which they make a kind of porridge. It is served with meat or fish with a variety of fruits. Pygmy children are trained from infancy in archery, while the women around the huts weave their nets with fine climatic nets. These are 40-80 metres long and 80 cm high. A 12-year-old child is ready to man up, hunting with a bow and carrying the net on his shoulders. He circles the animal by spreading the net and then it is easy to aim his arrow at it. Many times the long marches through the forest cause them to sleep up in the trees at night, and the next morning they continue until they have achieved their purpose. But when they return to the village with an antelope on their backs, they all begin a joyous dance with musical notes of virtuosity. The most formal dance is that of Elephant, who performs the power of the successful hunter. The days follow the past, leaving the Pygmies to live in the freedom of the jungle.
The Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood, sensitized by the life of the Pygmies, has embraced with affection one of their villages on the Ubangi River, near the small town of Impfondo in the northeastern part of Congo-Brazzaville. The missionary Fr. Theologos with humble dignity entered the entrance of their hearts! His simplicity and goodness joined with their own qualities and bore spiritual fruit in their souls, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
