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Séhité

From Kook Science

Séhité
Country Côte d'Ivoire
Region(s) Taï Forest

Séhité is an appellation of apparent Guéré/Wè origin for "forest creatures", possibly an unknown group of Pygmy peoples, that were reported to have engaged in barter with locals to the area, trading fruit for manufactured goods.

"Forest creatures"

Professor Ledoux remarks that these tales of an unknown reddish-brown primate in the Ivory Coast are overlaid with the very firmly held belief that there are pygmies in the forest between the Sassandra and Cavally rivers. According to an African technician of mine from Toulépleu called Méhaud Taou, an intelligent boy keenly interested in these questions, there was recently a system of barter between the negroes and these forest creatures; various manufactured goods were left in the forest in exchange for various fruits. This was supposed to have gone on until 1935. The little men who practised this barter were hardly known even to the negroes themselves. The Guérés called them Séhité. It is possible that these Séhités may be true pygmies like those in Central Africa.