AKKA (TIKKI-TIKKI), a race of African pygmies first seen by the traveller G. A. Schweinfurth in 187o, in the Mangbettu country, north-west of Albert Nyanza. The home of the Akka is the dense forest zone of the Aruwimi district of the Congo State. They form a branch of the primitive pygmy negroid race, and ap pear to be divided into groups, each with its own chief. The aver age height of the race would seem to be somewhat under 4ft. They are of the colour of coffee slightly roasted, with hair almost the same colour, woolly and tufted; they have very projecting jaws, flat noses and protruding lips. An abdominal protuberance makes all Akka look like pot-bellied children, and the spine hollows into a curve like an S. These characteristics tend to disappear. There is a tendency to steatopygia among the women. They are nomads, hunt game in the forests with poisoned arrows, with pit falls and springs set everywhere, and with traps. They collect ivory and honey, manufacture poison, and exchange these for cereals, tobacco and iron weapons. In dress, weapons and utensils they are as the surrounding negroes. They build round huts of branches and leaves in the forest clearings.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-A. de Quatrefages, The Pygmies (1895) ; G. A. Bibliography.-A. de Quatrefages, The Pygmies (1895) ; G. A. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa (London, 1873) ; Dr. W. Pleyte, Chapitres supplementaires du Livre des Morts, traduction et commen taire (Leiden, 1883) ; Sir H. H. Johnston, Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902).