BO NO MORE

A human tribe that has survived for 65,000 years finally became extinct, the end result of a process started by the colonial British. No mention of it occures in the media and I would never have known and felt any twinge of shame had our dear friend Zmyth sent this story. (And even at Doc40 we go rapidly on to the fun and games.)

“The last member of a unique tribe has died on India’s Andaman Islands. Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages. The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman Islands for as much as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on Earth. Boa Sr was the oldest of the Great Andamanese, who now number just 52. Originally ten distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000 strong when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers. Having failed to ‘pacify’ the tribes through violence, the British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing many and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’. Of the 150 children born in the home, none lived beyond the age of two. The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the Indian government for food and shelter, and abuse of alcohol is rife. Boa Sr survived the Asian tsunami of December 2004, and told linguists, ‘We were all there when the earthquake came. The eldest told us ‘the Earth would part, don’t run away or move’. The elders told us, that’s how we know.’” Click here for more.

The secret word is Mourn