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The Pigmy woman from Africa. The world's smallest female

1929, Photolithograph on yellow sheet, 268 x 140 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-B-CABOT-VARIETY-1929-01

 

Australian David Terence Meekin (1886-1966) was responsible for bringing Ubangi Chilliwingi as a touring performer in Australia and New Zealand. She was a pigmy woman from Cape Province, 28 inches tall at 27 years old when she performed in Wellington in 1929.

 

She and Meekin formed a commercially successful association over a generation, engaging a pigmy troupe and returning with them each year to Africa when their vises expired. They then re-signed any available performers. When Meekin died a widower in 1966, his daughter persuaded the Department of Immigration to allow Ubangi to live with her on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

 

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Uploaded on February 21, 2011
Taken on February 3, 2011