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Distribution of Pygmies according to Cavalli-Sforza.Many of the southern Twa are missing.. The term Congo Pygmies (African Pygmies) refers to "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, [note 1] have a deep cultural and religious affinity with the Congo forest [note 2] and live in a ...
The Congo Pygmy speak languages of the Niger–Congo and Central Sudanic language families. There has been significant intermixing between the Bantu and Pygmies. There are at least a dozen Pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. They are grouped in three geographical categories: [10]
There are three distinct languages spoken by the Mbuti: [17] Kango, a Bantu Zone D language related to Bila; Efe, a Mangbutu language related to Lese; Asua language, a Mangbetu language; Efe and Asua are Central Sudanic languages, while Kango is a Niger–Congo language.
The Pygmies are among central Africa's oldest indigenous peoples, but wars and competing cultures are taking a toll on their very existence. For Congo's Pygmies, expulsion and forest clearance end ...
It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest. [18] [19] However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert. Distribution of Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The southern Twa are not shown.
Roger Blench has proposed that Twa (Pygmies) originated as a caste like they are today, much like the Numu blacksmith castes of West Africa, economically specialized groups which became endogamous and consequently developed into separate ethnic groups, sometimes, as with the Ligbi, also their own languages. A mismatch in language between patron ...
They are related to the Baka people of Cameroon, Gabon, northern Congo, and southwestern Central African Republic. Unlike the Mbuti pygmies of the eastern Congo (who speak only the language of the tribes with whom they are affiliated), the Aka speak their own language along with whichever of the approximately 15 Bantu peoples they are affiliated.
The Efé language is essentially identical to that of the Lese, [4] and is Central Sudanic in origin. [5] The pygmy groups in the region generally speak the language of the tribes with whom they associate.) [ 6 ] : 9–23