In June 1905 a soldier, traveller and big-game hunter from East Yorkshire, Colonel James J Harrison was furthering his pursuits in the Ituri or Stanley Forest region of the Eastern Congo in Africa.
It was the home of various tribes of Pygmies, the diminutive natives who existed as nomads in a harsh environment roaming about unclothed which to the genteel Edwardians was regarded as a trademark of irreligious bush savages.
For those who befriended the pygmies and took time to learn their ways and customs it was obvious that theirs was an intelligent culture relying on bravery and strength. Their lives were not long by European expectations of the day but nevertheless full and to be valued.
Colonel Harrison, unsuccessful in hunting Okapi, coaxed six of the Ituri from the forest to accompany him on what turned out to be an adventure of three years away from their families and loved ones.
There was opposition to the announcements of the travelling half dozen from anti-slavery organisations including the Aboriginal Protection Society who managed to strand the party in Cairo for some time in the early stages of their passage to England but the fact that they were not British citizens meant that no action could be taken to prevent them boarding the passenger ship Orestes which docked in London in the summer of 1905.
Harrison's motives may have been questionable in that with no apparent consideration of human rights the African visitors were booked to appear at the Hippodrome Theatre along the theme of a freak show.
The stage was dressed as the deepest, darkest jungle and the public flocked to have a sight of and gawp at the crude tableau. Chief Bokore and Princess Quarke took the limelight assisted by the 18 year old Mogonga, Matuka 23, Masutiminga aged 22 and the senior Annirape at 31.
On their day off, Sundays, they travelled in a 16 vehicle convoy around the countryside and were invited to attend in July 1905 the birthday party at Buckingham Palace of Princess Victoria.
Colonel Harrison did remain as their patron and in the August they were billeted as guests at his large country house in Brandesburton, near Beverley in East Yorkshire, They remained as celebrities and 3000 locals, which for the period will have represented most of the population of the East Riding paid to see them.
It must have been a relaxing time as well for the intrepid six as they made themselves very much at home. Villages would regularly see them stalking and hunting birds and rabbits in the expansive Hall grounds and forging arrowheads at the Main Street forge. They were regular attenders of Sunday School in the good old Missionary spirit of Africa,
The exhibiting continued for the next two and a half years in the Moss Stahl Empire Theatres of the North-West followed by Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Midlands, West London, Bradford, Portsmouth and then into Europe to Berlin.
In East Yorkshire they were regular attractions for the seaside trippers to Hornsea and Withernsea.
Back in London there was a photo opportunity at the House of Commons and more money spinning performances at Olympia and Earls Court.
It appears that although used for profit and gain the six were not badly treated and even thrived on their celebrity status.
By the time they left the Port of Hull on SS Hindoo bound for the Congo in early 1908 over 1 million people had been privileged to share the life and times of the Ituri residents. It was a remarkable concluding chapter of the influence of the Old Empire over so many of the world's peoples.
In addition to a few grainy photographs there were scratchy 78 rpm recordings made of their conversations as a lasting archive.
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