Paul SCHEBESTA (1887–1967)

an ethnologist, linguist, physical anthropologist, researcher of the short stature ethnic groups in south-east Asia and in central Africa, and a member of a Roman Catholic missionary order, born on 20 March 1887 in Groß-Peterwitz, Moravia (today: Pietrowice Wielkie near Racibórz, Poland), died 17 September 1967 at St. Gabriel in Mödling near Vienna.

Being of Moravian ancestry, German was not his mother tongue but he was gifted in learning languages. Later, he extended his already rich knowledge of languages by learning Swahili and some Central-African and Malaysian languages to the extent that he could often work without an interpreter.
After completing his secondary education at Neisse (today: Nysa in Poland), he entered the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and was ordained a priest at St. Gabriel in 1911. He was initially assigned to work in Japan and started learning Japanese already at St. Gabriel but then volunteered to be sent to a new SVD Mission in Mozambique (1912). As an Austrian citizen, he was interned by the Portuguese in 1916 and sent to Portugal, where he stayed until 1920. He was able to use his time in Portugal for study and research in the Portuguese libraries on the linguistic issues of the Zambezi region and on the history of that region. His linguistic pursuits resulted in the publication of an old grammar of the Sena (Lower Zambezi) dating from the 17th century (Arte da lingua de Cafre), which he had found in the National Library of Ajuda in Lisbon. His historical research was crowned many years later with the publication of a substantial volume Portugals Konquistamission in Südost-Afrika. Missionsgeschichte Sambesiens und des Monomotapareiches [“Portugal’s Conquista Mission in Southeast Africa. Mission History of Zambezia and the Empire of Monomotapa”] (1967).
After returning to St. Gabriel, he was assigned to work in the editorial team of the journal Anthropos (1920-1923). Responding to the call issued by W. Schmidt, he undertook fieldwork in 1924-1925, researching the culture of the Semang, a short stature people living in Malaysia. On his return to Austria, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1926, specializing in ethnology and Egyptology.
In 1929-1930, he made his first research trip to the short stature people of the Ituri region in the north-eastern part of the Congo. He returned there with Martin Gusinde and Jean Baptiste Jadin (a Belgian physician) in 1934-1935, and again alone in 1949-1950 and 1954-1955. During the last two expeditions, he focused on the linguistical issues, recording various indigenous dialects, especially those of the Mamvu, Mangbutu, Balese-Dese, Balese-Karo, Mvuab and Efe. Meanwhile, in 1938-1939, he travelled to the Philippines, where he researched the culture of the Aëta.
He spent the last years of his life at St. Gabriel writing and teaching at the major seminary, concerned with the missionary education of the future generations of the Society of the Divine Word.
“Taken by itself, Father Schebesta’s academic treatment of the BaMbuti pygmies represents the most complete and all embracing account that we possess to date of vitally important people. Other excellent accounts of the physical anthropology have been given, but there is no account so inclusive as ‘Die Bambuti Pygmäen vom Ituri’.” – wrote Colin M. Turnbull in his contribution to the Festschrift dedicated to Schebesta (1963: 3), and added an appreciation of Schebesta’s abilities of empathy, which the latter employed in his work. Schebesta underlined this last point himself in his final publication (Portugals Konquistamission, 1967: 52): “As long as one does not take other people seriously, one considers patronization to be justified, and that means to colonize them in a spiritual and mental sense.”
In addition to the academic side of his research, Schebesta searched for ways to help the indigenous people whom he studied, to discover the way they fitted into the larger picture of the development of humankind, lest they be crushed under the wheels of modern civilization. The Bambuti gave him the honorary title of Baba wa Bambuti [father of the Bambuti], which made him one of them and was a recognition of his personal commitment to the survival of these people.

(May 2026)