Mberikimo

Mberikimo (Waberikimo) is an exonym of Kamba (Wakamba, Meric Mungoan) origin for a reported forest-dwelling tribe of African Pygmies in East Africa, described as being three feet (92 cm) or less in height, stories of whom were first related to European audiences by Thomas Boteler in his Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia (1835), and later by the Franciscan missionary Léon des Avanchers via his map Esquisse d'une carte de pays d'Oromo ou Galla (1869).

Reading

• Boteler, Thomas (1835), "Pigmy Race", Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia, Performed in His Majesty's Ships, Leven and Barracouta, from 1821 to 1826, Under the Command of Capt. F. W. Owen, R. N., II, London: R. Bentley, p. 212, https://archive.org/details/narrativeavoyag00unkngoog/page/n230, "Immediately inland of the Wannekahs reside the Meric Mungoans, who likewise speak a different language[...] These people state that in one district between their country and that of the Wannekahs there is a pigmy race of people who scarcely attain the height of three feet: they call them Mberikimo, and affirm the fact of their existence with many protestations of veracity. They assert that the journey from Mombas to that country would take six weeks."