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An explorer and videographer has visited an isolated community where the average height for an adult is well under five feet tall.
Despite foraging in the forests of the Congo region and eating mole rats to survive, traveller Drew Binsky says the pygmy tribe are among the happiest people in Earth.
Drew set out from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and drove deep into the primal rainforest that has remained almost untouched since mankind first evolved.
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Less than 900,000 Pygmies are estimated to be living in the central African forests, with just over half of them in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Drew, along with wife Deanna Sallao, ventured into the forest, accompanied by armed bodyguards because paramilitary rebel groups are known to roam the area.
They were hoping to visit a village that Drew had visited before back in 2019.
“This is a really a trek to get up here,” Drew complained, “basically walking straight uphill with all of our stuff”.
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The couple were treated to a spectacular welcome from the pygmies.
“Many anthropologists think that pygmies are the direct descendants of late stone-age hunter-gatherers of the Central African rainforest and they evolved over 130,000 years ago," Drew explained.
“Remarkably, to this day the pygmies live a similar lifestyle as their ancestors – involving hunting dancing and singing.”
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The exuberant pygmies danced and sang for pretty much the whole of his visit.
“Various theories have been proposed to explain why the average height of the pygmies is well under five feet tall for adults,” he adds.
“Some say it's due to low ultra-violet light levels in the rainforest, resulting in low levels of vitamin D which limits our calcium intake for bone growth.
“This also explains the evolution of their small skeletal size. Other explanations include a lack of food in the humid rainforest and the need to constantly move through dense jungle.”
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The tribal chieftain, himself only about 5ft tall, told Drew that he had been attacked by a local rebel band who had slashed him in the face with machetes, costing him an eye.
But no matter how tough life gets for the pygmies, nothing gets them down.
After,a few hours of drinking and dancing, Drew left the village but failed to get very far due to a torrential rainstorm.
He and Deanna made their way back to the village, where they got a few hours’ shut-eye before being woken up by the sound of drumming.
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“This is so wild,” he said. “We’re going on about eight hours now of the pygmies pretty much non-stop dancing and drinking and singing except for when it poured rain they only took an hour break and now they're back at it – this is awesome!”
Drew, who has toured the world enjoying beers from Uzbekistan to North Korea, says the little people of the Congo are the happiest people he’s ever encountered.
“I've never met a group of people who love to sing and dance more than the pygmies,” he says. “And they are so fun to be around."
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He added: “They celebrate family life and happiness in a way that we should all admire and while they might not have much they are abundant with culture and lessons that they are eager to share.
“At this point,” he adds, “the pygmies have been dancing for nine hours and they're not stopping”.
He concludes: “I think it's that time where I put my camera down and I just go enjoy life and have fun…”
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