Since then, this God who withdrew to Heaven has not been idle. He still watches over and punishes sinners and adulterers by striking them with lightning, sending storms that uproot trees, and sending wild beasts, as expressed by one of Schebesta's informants (P61) — which of course echoes the vengeful God of the Bible. But whatever happens, « God willed it. If God willed it so, it was for a reason. We do not judge God », in the words of one of Henri Trilles' informants.
The Pygmies know how to connect with this vengeful God: all they have to do is sing and dance (P17) :
My Efé friends explain that their dances please the deity: he watches from his great throne in heaven and is thereby inspired to sustain every living thing on our planet.
This same idea of a God sitting on his throne, whom we do everything to please, is expressed by Pharaoh Pepi I in the inscription attributed to him, which reads, « The Pygmy who dances like the god and gladdens his heart before his great throne. » It is also found, of course, at the heart of the Quran:
It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne Sourah Al Hadid 57.4
But dancing is not enough to please God. God loves sacrifices, which the Pygmies also practice (P23):
QNo matter how hungry they are, Pygmy hunters bring the game back to the camp where it is divided among the members of the band. This is one of the laws that the deity has passed on to his Ituri Forest congregation. The meat is not eaten until the Pygmies say their version of grace : a brief prayer is intoned while a little tidbit of meat is either tossed into the air (towards the heaven, the traditional home of "Our Father") or wrapped in a leaf and placed in the fork of a tree (an act which also raises the offering of earth). This gesture of thanks lets the deity know that the Pygmies do not take the food and other blessings for granted.
In addition to echoing the blessings found in many religions, this idea of waving a sacrificial offering in the air is expressly mentioned in Leviticus:
Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offering. His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the Lord. Leviticus 7.29
Jean-Pierre Hallet sees another parallel between biblical tradition and Pygmy mythology, which is that « they claim to have personally received from this ostensibly barbaric deity a lofty moral code that forbids killing, lying, theft, blasphemy, adultery, devil worship, or sorcery, disrespect toward old people and other form of antisocial or immoral behavior » (p. 18). Despite his Belgian colonial racism, Schebesta already noted the remarkable nature of the Pygmy religion, which was largely free of superstition, irrationality, and magical thinking (P58):
The belief in a supreme deity is a pronounced rationalism. Its origin resides in the causal thought, and in the reasoning of this quick-witted, little people... A striking proof of the Pygmies' supple wit is their gift for languages. If their relations with their neighbors make it necessary, they speak up to five different languages... The belief of the Ituri Forest Pygmies in a sole deity, as the final cause of all things and the governing power of the world, rests unexplained... Their mental structure makes of them, in the heart of the African virgin forest, an absolutely unique human phenomenon.
This Pygmy « common sense » is strikingly evident in an interview between Henri Trilles and one of his informants:
TRILLES: I've been told that for you, the sun that shines on us is God. PYGMEE: You white brothers may believe that. But we don't, never. TRILLES: But the sun is good. It makes the trees grow. It gives life. PYGMEE: The sun is the sun. God is God. Before the sun, there was God. You, White Man, if you believe otherwise, that's your business. Not all fish swim toward the same shore. The raha bird flies to the top of the trees. The aardvark digs the earth below. We are us. You are you.
Yes, just as the Quran tells us in Surah (10.41): « And if they deny you, [O Muhammad], then say, "For me are my deeds, and for you are your deeds. You are disassociated from what I do, and I am disassociated from what you do ».
For their part, Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle note that, unlike their neighbors (P15) , the Pygmies « despise the fears of local Negro tribes of evil spirits ». « If darkness is, darkness is good » according to a favorite Pygmy saying. « He who made the light also made the darkness ». The Pygmies deplore as superstitious nonsense the Negroes magico-religious figurines and other so-called fetishes.
They would take an equally dim view of churchly huts adorned with doll-like statues of Jesus and Mary. This would be regarded as idol worship by the Ituri Forest Pygmies, who believe that the divine power of the universe cannot be confined within material bounds. The authors of the Hebrew Old Testament would certainly agree, since they observed the well-known commandment forbidding « graven images » or « idols » .
Yes, Jean-Pierre Hallet and Alex Pelle also see many parallels between the Bible and the Pygmies.
6) The Paradise of Origins
Okay, let’s recap. Even if Africa is complex, and even if every account must be taken with a grain of salt—especially in light of the brutal colonialism of the 19ᵗʰ century—Pygmy culture and myths share many traits with what we also find in the Bible. I have already explained why, in my opinion, behind the story of the Exodus and the departure from Egypt lies the far more ancient memory of a departure from Africa itself—together with the oppression that once prevailed there. Thus we can discern a thread of cultural continuity stretching from the Equatorial Forest of the Great Lakes, through the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia, to Arabia and the Levant—tracing the journey of Homo sapiens out of its cradle in East Africa.