AustLit

Isaac Bacirongo grew up as a Pygmy hunter-gatherer in the Congo. When his Father left the forest to find work, Isaac went to missionary school. Bacirongo become a community leader involved in the fight for Pygmy rights, but he was imprisoned for his activism by the brutal regime that controls Eastern Congo. He bribed his way out of jail and fled to Kenya with his wife and 10 children in 2000. He became an interpreter on a corruption investigation into the UNHCR. Granted a humanitarian visa, the family resettled as refugees in Sydney.