In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as in all countries of the Congo Basin, Pygmies are forest-dependent indigenous peoples. Their culture and livelihoods are deeply dependent on forests. Pygmies remain extremely marginalized within Congolese society. They lack the means and power to participate in decision-making processes, including those concerning their land. Deforestation, which leads to a rapid loss of biodiversity and livelihoods, is experienced as a true tragedy, as it exacerbates their poverty.

Almost everywhere in the DRC, Pygmies are victims of discrimination and exclusion at best, and at worst of a form of subjugation, which is nothing other than the enslavement of Congolese people over Congolese people. This has seriously contributed to the impoverishment of the Pygmies, who today constitute the most deprived and poorest segment of the Congolese population, which is itself already among the poorest in the world.

The creation of DIPY is therefore part of the dynamics of the struggle for recognition and emancipation that the Pygmies - the first inhabitants of the DRC - are waging with determination in order to regain their dignity and recover their fundamental rights, long trampled underfoot by groups of non-Pygmies through retrograde and outdated customs that degrade the Pygmies and reduce them to the rank of subhumans. These outdated customs promote the absurd theory of the supposed superiority of non-Pygmies over the Pygmies, thus legitimizing the shameless slavery of the Pygmies practiced to this day. An anachronistic and totally unacceptable state of affairs in the 21st century!