African pygmies and a European explorer.

Baka dancers in the East Province of Cameroon

Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm (59 inches) in average height.^[1] A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid."^[2] The best known pygmies are the Aka, Efé and Mbuti of central Africa. There are also pygmies in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia,^[3] Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Brazil.^[4] The term also includes the Negritos of Southeast Asia.

The term "pygmy" is sometimes considered pejorative. However, there is no single term to replace it.^[5] Many so-called pygmies prefer instead to be referred to by the name of their various ethnic groups, or names for various interrelated groups such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa.^[6] The term Bayaka, the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local Pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo.

Etymology[link]

The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαίος Pygmaios via Latin Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus), derived from πυγμή – a fist, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance between the elbow and knuckles. (See also Greek pechus). In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, and reputed to live in India and south of modern day Ethiopia.^[7]

Origins[link]

Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Evidence of heritability has been established^[8] which may have evolved as an adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests.^[9] This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance, and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size characteristic of pygmies.^[10]

Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and most recently, as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.^[11] Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone relative to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and short stature.^[12]

Africa[link]

See main article: Congo Pygmies

Distribution of Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The southern Twa are not shown.

Pygmies live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.^[6] Most Pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products.^[6] It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest.^[13] However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.

Groups[link]

There are at least a dozen Pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other, the best known being the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo basin, which speak Bantu and Ubangian languages; the Mbuti (Efe etc.) of the Ituri Rainforest, which speak Bantu and Central Sudanic languages, and the Twa of the African Great Lakes, which speak Bantu Rundi and Kiga.

Relationship with other Africans[link]

Ancestral relationship[link]

A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian, and Bantu languages. This view has no archaeological support, and ambiguous support from genetics and linguistics.^[14][15][16]

Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western Pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language is only reconstructed to the 15th century.^[17]

Genetic evidence for origins[link]

Genetically, the pygmies are extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers^{[further explanation needed]} represent the most ancient divergent ones right after those typically found in Khoisan peoples. African pygmy populations possess high levels of genetic diversity;^[18] recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various pygmy groups.

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved a major cultural innovation that has spread rapidly over most of the globe in the last ten millennia. In sub-Saharan Africa, hunter–gatherers have begun to shift toward an agriculture-based lifestyle over the last 5,000 years. Only a few populations still base their mode of subsistence on hunting and gathering. The Pygmies are considered to be the largest group of mobile hunter–gatherers of Africa. They dwell in equatorial rainforests and are characterized by their short mean stature. However, little is known about the chronology of the demographic events — size changes, population splits, and gene flow — ultimately giving rise to contemporary Pygmy (Western and Eastern) groups and neighboring agricultural populations. We studied the branching history of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and agricultural populations from Africa and estimated separation times and gene flow between these populations. The model identified included the early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations ~60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern Pygmy groups ~20,000 years ago. Our findings increase knowledge of the history of the peopling of the African continent in a region lacking archaeological data. An appreciation of the demographic and adaptive history of African populations with different modes of subsistence should improve our understanding of the influence of human lifestyles on genome diversity.^[19]

Another study provided some insight into the role genetics plays in the short stature of the pygmies.

The short stature of Pygmy groups around the world has long intrigued anthropologists. It is generally accepted that their small body size is a result of genetic adaptation; however, which genes were selected, and the nature of the underlying selective force(s), remain unknown. The various hypotheses proposed include adaptations to food limitation, thermoregulation, mobility in the forest, and/or short lifespan. A recent study of the HGDP-CEPH populations identified a signal of selection in the insulin growth factor signalling pathway in Biaka Pygmies, which might be associated with short stature, but this signal was not shared with Mbuti Pygmies. By contrast, we found strong signals for selection in both African Pygmy groups at two genes involved in the iodide-dependent thyroid hormone pathway: TRIP4 in Mbuti Pygmies; and IYD in Biaka Pygmies (Fig. 7). Intriguingly, a previous study found a significantly lower frequency of goiter in Efe Pygmies (9.4%) than in Lese Bantu farmers (42.9%). The Efe and Lese live in close proximity to one another in the iodine-deficient Ituri Forest and share similar diets. Moreover, the frequency of goiter in Efe women living in Bantu villages was similar to that of Efe women living in the forest, and the frequency of goiter in offspring with an Efe mother and a Lese father was intermediate between that of Efe and Lese. These observations suggest that the Efe have adapted genetically to an iodine-deficient diet; we suggest that the signals of recent positive selection that we observe at TRIP4 in Mbuti Pygmies and IYD in Biaka Pygmies may reflect such genetic adaptations to an iodine-deficient diet. Furthermore, alterations in the thyroid hormone pathway can cause short stature. We therefore suggest that short stature in these Pygmy groups may have arisen as a consequence of genetic alterations in the thyroid hormone pathway. If this scenario is true, then there are two important implications. First, this would suggest that short stature was not selected for directly in the ancestors of Pygmy groups, but rather arose as an indirect consequence of selection in response to an iodine-deficient diet. Second, since different genes in the thyroid hormone pathway show signals of selection in Mbuti vs. Biaka Pygmies, this would suggest that short stature arose independently in the ancestors of Mbuti and Biaka Pygmies, and not in a common ancestral population. Moreover, most Pygmy-like groups around the world dwell in tropical forests, and hence are likely to have iodine-deficient diets. The possibility that independent adaptations to an iodine-deficient diet might therefore have contributed to the convergent evolution of the short stature phenotype in Pygmy-like groups around the world deserves further investigation.^[20]

Reports of genocide[link]

In 2003, Sinafasi 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. In neighbouring North Kivu province there has been cannibalism by a group known as Les Effaceurs ("the erasers") who wanted to clear the land of people to open it up for mineral exploitation.^[21] Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman" and some say their flesh can confer magical powers.^[22] Makelo asked the UN Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.^[23] According to Minority Rights Group International there is extensive evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape of Pygmies and they have urged the International Criminal Court to investigate a campaign of extermination against pygmies. Although they have been targeted by virtually all the armed groups, much of the violence against Pygmies is attributed to the rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which is part of the transitional government and still controls much of the north, and their allies.^[24]

Slavery[link]

In the Republic of Congo, where Pygmies make up 2% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong from birth to their Bantu masters in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. Even though the Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, Pygmies and Bantus alike say Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim; in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all. As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people is awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament.^[25][26]

Music[link]

The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of Pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient; some Pygmy groups being the first known cultures in some areas of Africa.^[27] Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.

Polyphonic music is found among the Aka–Baka and the Mbuti, but not among the Gyele (Kola) or the various groups of Twa.

Systematic discrimination[link]

Raja James Sheshardi of the American University conducted a case study on the Pygmies of Africa and concluded that deforestation has greatly affected their everyday lives. Pygmy culture is threatened today by the forces of political and economic change. In recent times, this has manifested itself into an open conflict over the resources of the tropical rain-forest, it is a conflict that the Pygmy are losing.

Historically, the Pygmy have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village dwelling Bantu tribes.^[28] This has translated into systematic discrimination. One early example was the capture of Pygmy children under the auspices of the Belgian colonial authorities, who exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907.^[28] Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. 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. Government policies and multinational corporations involved in massive deforestation have exacerbated this problem by forcing more Pygmies out of their traditional homelands and into villages and cities where they often are marginalized, impoverished and abused by the dominant culture.

Today there are roughly 500,000 Pygmies left in the rain-forest of Central Africa.^[28] This population is rapidly decreasing as poverty, intermarriage with Bantu peoples, Westernization, and deforestation all gradually destroy their way of life and culture along with their genetic uniqueness.

The greatest environmental problem the Pygmies seem to be facing is the loss of their traditional homeland, the tropical forests of Central Africa. In several countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo this is due to deforestation and the desire of several governments in Central Africa to evict the Pygmies from their forest habitat in order to cash in on quick profits from the sale of hardwood and the resettlement of farmers onto the cleared land. In some cases, as in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this conflict is violent. Certain groups, such as the Hutus of the Interahamwe, wish to eliminate the Pygmy and take the resources of the forest as a military conquest, using the resources of the forest for military as well as economic advancement.^[28] Since the Pygmies rely on the forest for their physical as well as cultural survival, as these forests disappear, so do the Pygmy.

A family from a Ba Aka pygmy village

Along with Raja Sheshardi, the fPcN-Global.org website had conducted research on the pygmies. The human rights organization states that as the forest has receded under logging activities, its original inhabitants have been pushed into populated areas to join the formal economy, working as casual laborers or on commercial farms and being exposed to new diseases.^[29] This shift has brought them into closer contact with neighboring ethnic communities whose HIV levels are generally higher. This has led to the spread of HIV/AIDS into the pygmy group.

Since poverty has become very prevalent in the Pygmy communities, sexual exploitation of indigenous women has become a common practice. Commercial sex has been bolstered by logging, which often places large groups of male laborers in camps which are set up in close contact with the Pygmy communities.

Human rights groups have also reported widespread sexual abuse of indigenous women in the conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite these risks, Pygmy populations generally have poor access to health services and information about HIV. The British medical journal, The Lancet, published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.^[30] According to the report, even where health care facilities exist, many people do not use them because they cannot pay for consultations and medicines, they do not have the documents and identity cards needed to travel or obtain hospital treatment, and they are subjected to humiliating and discriminatory treatment.^[29]

Studies in Cameroon and ROC in the 1980s and 1990s showed a lower prevalence of HIV in pygmy populations than among neighboring ones, but recent increases have been recorded. One study found that the HIV prevalence among the Baka pygmies in eastern Cameroon went from 0.7 percent in 1993 to 4 percent in 2003.^[29]

Asia[link]

Negritos[link]

Ati woman of the Philippines

Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula) are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature).

Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin. The name "Negrito", from the Spanish adjective meaning "small black person", was given by early explorers.

The explorers who named the Negritos assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This belief was, however, discarded by anthropologists who noted that apart from dark skin and curly hair, the Andamanese had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies.^[31] Their resemblance to some Africans, it is generally believed, is due to adaptation to a similar environment, rather than shared origins.^[32]

The remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were recently (as of 2011) found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.^[33]

Their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans,^[32] and have been shown to have separated early from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from the early out-of-Africa migration of the Great Coastal Migration of the Proto-Australoids, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.^[34]

Rampasasa[link]

The people from Rampasasa village of Flores, Indonesia are short-statured without being dark-skinned. The presence of pygmy people on Flores has been seen by some researchers as supportive of the thesis that "Flores Man" (Homo floresiensis) is not actually an independent species, but rather a small-bodied population of Homo sapiens.^[35]

T'rung[link]

Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century, Alan Rabinowitz in the 1990s, P. Christiaan Klieger in 2003, and others have reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the T'rung inhabiting the remote region of Mt. Hkakabo Razi in Southeast Asia on the border of China (Yunnan and Tibet), Burma, and India. A Burmese survey done in the 1960s reported a mean height of an adult male T'rung at 1.43 m (4'6") and that of females at 1.40 m (4'5"). These are the only "pygmies" noted of clearly East Asian origin. The cause of their diminutive size is unknown, but diet and endogamous marriage practices have been cited. The population of T'rung pygmies has been steadily shrinking, and is now down to only a few individuals.^{[36][37][38][39]}

Oceania[link]

Australia[link]

There is mention of tribes of Pygmy aborigines near Cairns, Queensland, in Peter McAllister's book Pygmonia: In search of the secret land of the Pygmies.

Short statured aboriginal tribes inhabited the rainforests of North Queensland, Australia, of which the best known group is probably the Tjapukai or Djabugay people of the Cairns area.^[40] These rainforest people, collectively referred to as Barrineans, were once considered to be a relict of the earliest wave of migration to the Australian continent, but this theory no longer finds much favour.^[41] These Rainforest People tended to live in the first variety of Jykabita, a wood and mud structure renowned for incubation of plants.^[42]

Elsewhere[link]

Tribes of very short people are also found in the mountains of New Guinea. 1000 years ago, Palau island in Micronesia was still inhabited by pygmy people.^[43]

See also[link]

• Vazimba
• Negrito
• Hunter gatherers
• Indigenous peoples
• Pygmy music
• Homo floresiensis
• Ota Benga
• Koro-pok-guru
• Congo Pygmies

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: African Pygmies

• African Pygmies: Hunter-Gatherer Peoples of Central Africa
• The Pygmies' Plight Smithsonian Magazine, December 2008 by Paul Raffaele
• Survival International: Pygmies
• Pygmy Survival Alliance
• Undated footage of Pygmy tribe constructing a vine bridge

Distribution of Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The southern Twa are not shown.

The Aka or Bayaka^[1] are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people who live by hunting. Although the Aka people call themselves BiAka, they are also known as Babenzele in Western Central African Republic and Northwest Congo (RPC).

They live in a variety of terrains in southwestern Central African Republic and northern Congo (Brazzaville region), in 11 different ecological zones of the Western Congo Basin. They are a related, but distinct, people from the Baka people of Cameroon, Gabon, northern Congo, and southwestern Central African Republic.

The BiAka have a high predominance of the L1 genetic haplotype, which is believed to be the most divergent human dNA haplotype. It is believed that the modern human ancestor developed in the East Africa area, where the Efé (and other Mbuti) and the Hadzabe of Tanzania also exhibit the L1 haplotype. During a period of "interglacial optimum" weather, the Sahara became lush and green, allowing easy migration along its southern border. It is theorized that during this period, migration of early man occurred from the Eastern Congo basin to the Western Congo basin. The BiAka therefore represent some of the most distinct existing modern humans.

They were featured in the July 1995 National Geographic article "Ndoki: the Last Place on Earth".^[2]

Lifestyle[link]

A family from a Ba Aka pygmy village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2006.

The Aka tribe gain sustenance from 63 plant species, 20 insect species, honey from 8 species of bees, and 28 species of game. They also trade with their farmer neighbors for agricultural goods and, more recently, often plant their own small seasonal crops.

These hunter-gatherers have a symbiotic market relationship with neighboring villagers (collectively known as Ngandu). While the Ngandu are primarily farmers, they will also occasionally hunt for bushmeat, and also keep domesticated livestock. They exchange their village goods, including crops of manioc, plantain, yams, taro, maize, cucumbers, squash, okra, papaya, mango, pineapple, palm oil, and rice for the bushmeat, honey, and other forest products the Aka collect. There are over 15 different village tribes with whom the approximately 30,000 Aka associate.

Their hunter-gatherer lifestyle exposes them to blood of jungle fauna, thus they have among the highest rates of seropositivity for Ebola virus in the world.^[3]

Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Aka fathers have their infant within arms reach 47% of the time and have been described as the "best Dads in the world."^[4] Males unable to obtain multiple wives as a result of belonging to the lowest rungs of the economy substitute resources for parental obligations. It has been observed that they pick up, cuddle, and play with their babies at least five times as often as fathers in other societies. It is believed that this is due to the strong bond between Aka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities. The more time Aka parents spend together, the greater the father's loving interaction with his baby.^[5]

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.

In 2003, the oral traditions of the Aka were proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Association with European colonists[link]

With the slave trade of the 18th century came migrations of tribes in the area, with resultant pressures on the Aka. In addition, at the end of the 19th century the Aka were the major elephant hunters that provided ivory for the ivory trade. This trade used the tribes with whom the Aka were affiliated as middlemen. From 1910 to 1940, rubber production was desired by colonialists, and forced labor of the tribesmen with whom the Aka were associated increased the demand for bushmeat, and some villagers escaped into the forest, where they put added demands on the Aka. The Aka were never involved in the forced labor schemes directly, but the increased demands for meat and skins encouraged the more efficient method of net hunting instead of spear hunting. This shift in hunting technique changed the social structure of the Aka.

In the 1930s the French encouraged the Aka to move into roadside villages, but like the Efé of the Ituri forest, most Aka disappeared into the forest and few joined the villages (except in a few villages in Congo-Brazza).

Today, the world economic structure encourages Aka participation in coffee plantations (of the Ngandu and other neighboring farmers) during the dry season, which is also the hunting season. This has changed their societal structure even further. Employment with the ivory and lumber trade bring in far more money than their traditional lifestyle, further putting pressure on their culture.

Music[link]

Their complex polyphonic music has been studied by various ethnomusicologists. Simha Arom has made historical field recordings of some of their repertoire. Michelle Kisliuk has written a detailed performance ethnography (with audio and video companion website, Oxford University Press, New York). Mauro Campagnoli studied their musical instruments in depth, comparing them to neighbouring pygmy groups such as the Baka Pygmies).

Aka musicians appear on:

• African Rhythms (2003).

Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka people, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.

• Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies (The Musical Expeditions Series/Book and Compact Disc) (Ellipsis Arts 1995)

A New Jersey author named Louis Sarno traveled to live with the Bayaka (whom he called the Babenzele) and wrote several books about his experiences there. His Kurtzian saga has been met with mixed reviews. He has co-operated on several ethnologic recordings of pygmy music, notably in this compilation that includes the recordings of Colin Turnbull and Jean-Pierre Hallet of other pygmy peoples in the Congo.

• BOYOBI: Ritual Music of the Rainforest Pygmies by Louis Sarno (Sound Photosynthesis 2000)

What happens in the rainforest between 11pm and 4 am? The spirits of the forest are alight and can morph into animals running through the camp. Celebrational music can assuage fears and satisfy the spirits. A hemp-aided musical journey of the nighttime Aka, from festivals that can last as long as 2 years! Also distributed as: BOYOBI: A Hunting Ritual of Bayaka Pygmies (Sound Photsynthesis).

• Bayaka: The Extraordinary Music of the BaBenzele Pygmies (CD and book) by Louis Sarno (Ellipsis Arts 1996)

More focused on the instruments and music of the Bayaka, beautiful and melodic.

Books about the Aka[link]

"Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethnography of Performance" by Michelle Kisliuk (Oxford University Press, 2000).

• Song from the Forest -- My Life Among the Ba-Benjelle Pygmies by Louis Sarno (Houghton Mifflin 1993).

In the mid-1980's, a New Jersey native hears pygmy music on the radio and decides to travel and live with this remote people, an idyllic picture fixed in his head. Disillusionment sets in as his initial wonder slowly wears off and he realizes the pygmies are interested in him only for food, liquor, and tobacco. Following his initial three month sojourn, he returns two years later and lives "permanently" with the tribe, becoming infatuated with a young tribeswoman with whom he can hardly communicate, which includes an emotionally turbulent "courtship" and unconsummated "marriage." Though riveting, the cultural friction is tangible.

Conservation Efforts[link]

The World Wildlife Fund of Washington, DC, has worked with the BiAka since the 1980s to protect gorilla habitats, minimize logging of forest, and promote other conservation efforts while empowering the BiAka and other indigenous peoples.^[6]

See also[link]

Other Pygmy groups

• Efé
• Baka
• Twa peoples

Anthropologists studying the Aka

• Barry Hewlett
• Michelle Kisliuk

References[link]

1. ^ The Aka call themselves Baaka and their language Aka. In the Lobaye region, these become Bayaka and Yaka due to epenthesis whenever there is no consonant starting a syllable. In Bagandu, the forms are Biaka and Diaka, and in the Sangha River region, Babenjelé and Aka. (It is not clear if these are endonyms or exonyms.) The names in Sango and Lingala are Ba(m)benga and Beka. (Duke, 2001, Aka as a Contact Language.)
2. ^ Michael Nichols (2001). "Gallery: Ndoki: The Last Place on Earth". http://michaelnicknichols.com/gallery/ndoki/. 
3. ^ Johnson ED, Gonzalez JP, Goerges A. "Filovirus activity among selected ethnic groups inhabiting the tropical forest of equatorial Africa". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1993;87:536-538. 
4. ^ "Men have nipples to sooth crying baby until it can be fed". Medical News Today. June 13, 2005. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=26042. 
5. ^ Barry Hewlett (1991). Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08203-2. http://books.google.com/?id=21z2hbOuTcEC&pg=PA1&dq=%22Hewlett%22+%22Intimate+Fathers:+The+Nature+and+Context+of+Aka+Pygmy+...%22+. 
6. ^ "Congo Basin: Protecting Africa's Tropical Forests: People". World Wildlife Fund. http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/congo/item1508.html. 

Michelle Kisliuk Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethngraphy of Performance. Oxford University Press. 2000.

External links[link]

• Article: "Are the men of the African Aka tribe the best fathers in the world?"
• Aka Pygmies of the Western Congo Basin
• Fieldwork about Baka, Aka and other pygmy groups
• African Pygmies with photos, music and ethnographic notes

Parry Gripp (born September 22, 1967)^[1] is a singer-songwriter as well as lead vocalist and guitarist for the pop punk band Nerf Herder.

As a songwriter, Gripp is best known for fake jingles, as in his 2005 solo album For Those About to Shop, We Salute You - a 51-track concept album mimicking various musical styles as product commercials. While it does not have one single concept, it goes through many various concept suites, such as trucks, beer, and insomnia. He also maintains a song-of-the-week website and a YouTube channel on which he creates soundtracks to internet memes^[2] as well as music videos for his own novelty songs, with titles including "Do You Like Waffles?", "Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom", "Last Train to Awesometown", "Spaghetti Cat (I weep for you)", "Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)", "I Am A Banana" and "Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On A Pig)". Gripp also performs the Super Hero Squad Show theme song.

Gripp also joined forces with MC Lars to perform some of the vocals, including the chorus, to 'Guitar Hero Hero (Beating Guitar Hero Doesn't Make You Slash)' a song commenting on the notion that video games like Guitar Hero take kids away from playing in bands and actually learning their instruments.

Along with faux jingles, Gripp also creates some real advertising music, such as Beatles-inspired tunes promoting the Wawa Food Markets' Breakfast Hoagiefest,^[3] and songs for the Hallmark Cards e-characters hoops&yoyo.

On July 9, 2009 Parry Gripp debuted a new song called "The Girl at the Video Game Store" for the 1000th episode of the G4 TV program Attack of the Show! The video features the show's hosts Olivia Munn as the titular character and Kevin Pereira on drums.^[4]

Aside from his music, Gripp is the co-owner (with his sister) of the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, which was founded by his father.^[5][6]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• "For Those About to Shop, We Salute You" (2005)
• "One Donut a Day" (2007)
• "Do You Like Waffles" (2008)
• "Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute: Volume 1" (2010)
• "This is My Ringtone" (2011)
• "Chip Rok Volume 1" (2011)
• "Fugly Volume 2" (forthcoming, expected release date 2012)

Artwork[link]

Nathan Mazur, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based cartoonist, provided the animation for some of Gripp's music videos: "Do You Like Waffles?", "Up Butt Coconut", and "Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom". He also creates the "album art" that accompanies Parry Gripp's song-of-the-week.

See also[link]

• Nerf Herder

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Gripp YouTube channel