And from the standpoint of the Southern route being the way Out of Africa, Yemen obviously occupies a key position, all the more so because of its particular geography, which makes it a particularly fertile land, in contrast with the much drier Arabia. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, or « Happy Arabia. » In Muslim tradition, Yemen also holds a special place — some trace the name of the capital, Aden, back to the Garden of Eden, where, according to oral tradition, Cain and Abel are buried. Finally, Yemen has a very ancient Jewish community, dating back to Antiquity, with the Jewish kingdom of Himyar in the 4th century CE. Its history may even be older than that of the Jews in Judea-Palestine.
Unfortunately, given the political situation in Yemen over the past decades, our knowledge of the Paleolithic era in this key region is very limited, to our great loss. But there is no doubt that this country has some colossal surprises in store for us. That being said, the real « Paradise Lost » is not Yemen, which was only a nice little stopover in the journey of Homo sapiens. No, the real « Paradise Lost », the Garden of Eden described in Genesis with its many rivers — including the Pishon that flows around the land of Havilah, where good gold is found, and the Gihon that flows around the land of Cush — is that of Equatorial East Africa, the region of the Rift Valley and the Great Lakes, starting with Ethiopia, the cradle of humanity for millions of years.
This memory of Equatorial Africa can be found, for example, in the terms used to describe the land of GoSheN where they stayed before leaving Egypt. GoSheN is GaN haYaShaN, the ancient garden. Yes, the Pharisians. A garden of abundance where « We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic » to quote Numbers (11.5) — all kinds of foods that are more commonly found in a very humid environment.
4) Before Egypt, Africa
And now that you know a little more about this Exodus from Egypt, or rather from Africa, it’s time for us to cross the Bab el Mandeb Strait in the other direction and set foot on our Mother Land, East Africa — more precisely, the Equatorial Forest, where the Pygmies still live today.
I have talked at length in my other videos about The Forest People, Colin Turnbull’s magnificent book on the Bambuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest. But in this video, we are going to delve into another work, that of Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle, published in 1974 — Pygmy Kitabu . These authors were the first to highlight the links between Pygmy myths and those of ancient Egypt. Just as the book East Libyans studied the traces left by the Berbers of North Africa in ancient texts, particularly those of Herodotus.
And if there’s a lot to question in the overall argument of Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle — who did not live in the blessed times of the Paraklet — there are many interesting things to be found there. In particular, the importance of Pygmies in ancient Egyptian mythology, with this incredible account of the expedition led by Prince Herkhuf of Elephantine to the land of the mythical Pygmies during the Sixth Dynasty of the Pharaohs of Egypt. This journey to the equatorial forest region was such a rare and extraordinary event that the text of Pharaoh Pepi II’s letter of congratulations was engraved on the façade of Prince Herkhuf’s tomb.
I will read it to you as reported by Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle:
You have said in this dispatch of yours, wrote the king of Egypt to Herkhuf, « that you have brought a pygmy of the god's dances from the land of the horizon-dwellers, like the pygmy whom the god's seal-bearer Bawerded brought from Punt in the time of King Isesi.... for the dances of the god, to gladden the heart, to delight the heart of King Neferkare who lives forever!... When he goes down with you into the ship, get worthy men to be around him on deck, lest he fall into the water! When he lies down at night, get worthy men to lie around him in his tent. My majesty desires to see this pygmy. When you arrive at the residence and this pygmy is with you live, hale, and healthy, my majesty will do great things for you, more than was done for the god's seal-bearer Bawerded in the time of King Isesi ».
We also know that trade existed between Egypt and Equatorial Africa, as a statuette of Osiris was found in Zaire (P57). There is also (P13), another text from the pyramid of the monarch Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty, which states:
He who is between the thighs of Nut is the Pygmy who dances like the god and pleases the heart of the god before his great throne.
This love of dance gives Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle the opportunity to draw a parallel with the biblical character of King David, who also loved music and dance—to the point of appearing mad to those close to him—and who, although not as tall as Saul, was victorious over the giant Goliath (P105).
They even make the bold comparison with the elves of Celtic mythology, noting that Pygmies share with these figures their small stature, their mischievous and fiercely independent nature, and their ability to enchant and captivate an audience with polyphonic melodies and dances. Finally, Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle suggest that the god Bes, depicted as a small, stocky, and hairy figure, was himself a Pygmy. Well, we will have to separate the wheat from the chaff between this story of elves and that of the dwarf-god Bes. We will come back to that…