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Most Exciting Activities to do in Brazil

Home to the planet’s biggest river, most immense jungles and 8,000km of Atlantic-stroked beaches, Brazil is definitely an epitome of exotic adventures. Brazil is the largest country in South America and the world’s fifth-largest country. Half of the country is covered by dense Amazon forest-home to thousands of bird species and animal species. This country has myriad adventures, from exploring epic kite-surfing conditions along the curvy Atlantic coastline to tracking trails, paddling tributaries and clambering up towering trees in the sweaty embrace of the Amazon Jungle – a wilderness so enormous it still contains lost cities ad tribes that have no contact with the outside world. The parks around the country provide with tourist many trekking and trail running opportunities which include routes on Rio’s iconic Sugarloaf Mountain. Some of the activities you might like trying out are Trail Running Challenging routes are littered all through the country’s diverse terrain but...
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Pygmies, Africa's Heritage

The African Pygmies,  also known as the "Central Africa Foragers" are a group of ethnicities native to Central Africa, mostly the Congo Basin, subsisting on a Forager and hunter-gatherer lifestyle. This commit is spread across 12 states in Africa and is divided into 
  • The Western Babenga (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic)
  • The Eastern Bambuti (DRC)
  • The Central and Southern Batwa (Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Angola and Namibia).

Origin

Pygmy mother

Pygmies are believed to have descended from the Middle Stone Age Hunter Gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest. Some pygmies have roots traced to West Africa and East Africa (genetically evidence proves this hypothesis) with some having a mixture with the archaic human, supposes by research in 2010.

Lifestyle

Pygmy Hut


The African pygmies have a rich cultural system like any other ethnic group on the planet. They are particularly known for their vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal improvisation. Music is part of the pygmies, songs are usually sung during communal activities, special events and for entertainment. After a great week of hunting, songs are sung to the gods for a great hunting season. The same thing happens after a good harvesting season. The pygmies live a very poor life yet life full of happiness. Their communal lifestyle binds them together in true solidarity and responsibility for one another. Hunting is usually carried out by the men of the community and farming by the women (these are the life-sustaining activities of the pygmies). Communities of Pygmies are usually led by the oldest, who has lived and experienced the life of a hunter. The pygmies believe themselves that their leader has a connection to the gods. The pygmies live in an area where the predominant disease is malaria. Malaria is a very lethal disease by the Plasmodium spp, yet the communities learn to revive themselves with the help of jungle herbs and spices. 

Transgressions

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where pygmies make up 2%  of the population, pygmies live as slaves to the physically superior Bantu community.  The pygmy slaves belong from birth to their Bantu master in a relationship that the Bantu people call a time-honoured tradition. They pygmies receive payment like cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all for all their hunting, fishing, and farming activities for the Bantu (which is not a fair bargain). 
According to Wikipedia, In 2003, Sinifasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti Pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. Many transgressions follow that pygmies were raped, enslaved and some taken up as militia to attack neighbouring tribes. 

All through the beginning of time, pygmies have been seen as inferior by both the village dwelling Bantu tribes and colonial authorities. An example of this diabolic behaviour was the capture of Pygmy children by Belgian congo authorities, who later exported them to zoos throughout Europe and later in the world fair in the United States in 1907. At a state level, pygmies are not considered citizens by most African states and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling (some of this due to their short stature).

In countries like Cameroon, Gabon, Central Africa Republic the pygmies are being evicted from their lands in the tropical forests due to deeds for the government to cut down trees for exportation to European countries. They are about half a million pygmies left in the rain forest of Central Africa, and this population is greatly decreasing due to Westernization and deforestation. The pygmies' habitat is slowly going away and so are they.

The location of pygmies in Yokadouma, Cameroon has being tagged as a World Heritage Zone. With the advance of education of many pygmy settlements, more and more are getting to know the need to keep the heritage of the pygmy people.
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