Who?
Pocket God
- Pygmies are groups of people whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in height
Coltan and Slavery
In a popular iPhone app, pygmies are the unfortunate victims of the player's twisted will: most players enjoy torturing and killing these little characters
- There are several scattered tribes around the world, in Africa, Southern Asia, and Australia
Bantu peoples from around the Central African rainforest enslave pygmy peoples and set them to work in coltan mines and other forms of slavery
People pay for the fun of killing pygmies on their electronic devices, from the comfort of their own home
These pygmies' children are born into the same fate, and they are the property of the Bantu
- Almost all pygmies are discriminated against by larger, taller people in their areas
Racist?
When Pacific Islander pygmies complained about the app's blatant racism, they were promised that the pygmy characters would be renamed "Oogs"
The Bantu call this a "time-honoured tradition"
This was done, then the name was changed back to Pygmies right away, because it was "a more suitable name"
Dave Castelnuovo, responsible for the name changing and promise breaking
Ironically, we need this coltan to run our electronic devices so we can kill pygmies on them
Somehow, I don't think they'd appreciate that
The Genocide of the African Pygmies
Systematic Discrimination
Pygmies in Central Africa have a population of about 500000 today
Pygmies are constantly threatened by loss of habitat, genocide, and slavery
Many states in Central Africa do not recognize pygmies as citizens or even as humans
Action Taken
In the early 1900s, Belgians would capture pygmy children and display them in zoos across Europe, and even at the World Fair in the US in 1907
The situation of the pygmies has been largely overshadowed by other mass killings
Many pygmy women are forced into sex slavery
Many people don't even know pygmies exist
Some human rights groups, such as Survival International promote awareness and aid for pygmies and other tribal peoples
Interahamwe
"Les effaceurs"
The Interahamwe is a paramilitary organization of Hutus from Rwanda
Central African Pygmy Genocide
During the Rwandan genocide, they contributed to many of the 10000 pygmy fatalities
In the North Kivu province of the DRC, there is a group of average-sized people who continue to remove pygmies from the land for mineral exploitation called "Les Effaceurs" (The Erasers)
That was a 1/3 of the total pygmy population in Rwanda
During the Congo Civil War, which occurred between 1998 and 2003, pygmies were hunted down by average-sized people and killed
Pygmies are neither Hutu nor Tutsi, they are called Twa in Rwanda
These pygmies are often killed and cannibalised
Rwandan pygmies often feel that they are the forgotten victims of the Rwandan genocide
About 60000 pygmies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo were killed in this time
"Les Effaceurs" are trying to rid the world of pygmies
The Interahamwe was forced out of Rwanda, and is now in the Congo
Both sides of the war believe that pygmies are "subhuman" and some also believe that their flesh confers magical powers when consumed
Multiple Choice Questions
Use the source to answer the following 2 multiple choice questions
But many [pygmy] communities have been displaced by conservation projects and their remaining forests have been degraded by extensive logging, expansion by farmers, and commercial activities such as intensive bush-meat trading.
survivalinternational.org
1. The above source indicates that pygmies are displaced primarily for:
- A: Social reasons
- B: Economic reasons
- C: Political reasons
- D: No reason
2. The benefits from this process are most likely:
- A: given back to the pygmies
- B: given to the Bantu
- C: taken by corporations and governments
- D: shared equally