Early last week, a rebel group known as M23 invaded Goma, a city of one million people in the eastern D.R. Congo, capturing it as the national army did nothing but melt away. The well-armed UN forces in the metropolitan area watched the invaders advance since their mandate did not… Continue reading…
Another crisis has been threatening the Mbuti living in refugee camps outside Goma, in eastern Congo, as the rebel group M23 prepares to attack the city, the capital of North Kivu Province. M23 indicates they will attack if harassment of Tutsi people in Goma is not stopped by the DR… Continue reading…
Many citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) believe that having sex with a Mbuti woman can cure a backache, or intercourse with a young Mbuti virgin can heal diseases. These superstitions prompt Congolese men to rape the pygmy women in the Goma area, where many have resettled due… Continue reading…
People living in the greater St. Louis area will have the opportunity, in two weeks, to help raise funds to support Mbuti education, resettlement, and small business projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A charitable organization called the Partnership for Indigenous Peoples (PIPES) International announced on Craigslist that it… Continue reading…
Deodat Mukankusi told a reporter, “we fled our small village in the woods when men carrying weapons invaded it.” She and about 800 other Mbuti have been forced by the seemingly endless fighting in their original home, the Ituri Forest, to migrate to a refugee camp at Kanyaruchinya, south of… Continue reading…
“We are like birds,” said the Mbuti woman. “Today we are here, but tomorrow we will move again. Even when someone dies, we have trouble finding a place to bury him.” Ragi Ngenderezi Abulengu was speaking about her life in the Mugunga Refugee camp, on the outskirts of the city… Continue reading…
As part of its celebration this month of the installation of a new president, Dr. Nancy Leffert, Antioch University Santa Barbara is hosting an exhibit that focuses on the Mbuti people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibit, sponsored by the Tribal Trust Foundation (TTF), opened with a reception… Continue reading…
Nearly 50 years ago, Colin Turnbull’s wonderful book The Forest People described the fairly peaceful lives of the Mbuti people in the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unfortunately, their living conditions have declined dramatically in recent years. IRIN, a humanitarian news service from the United Nations, carried… Continue reading…
Not only are the Mbuti threatened by roving bands of armed men, as described in recent news reports, but the people who remain in the Ituri Forest are destroying the fauna on which they subsist. A feature story from the Associated Press on Saturday describes the way populations of numerous… Continue reading…
The Mbuti of eastern Congo are living in desperate conditions, in squalid refugee camps, according to a news release last week from UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Bylined Goma, capital of the North Kivu Province, the story is most depressing: the Mbuti appear to… Continue reading…
