Bushmen denied visas to build mud huts for a Virginia museum

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For those who are interested in the lives of West African bushmen, their culture and traditions have to wait until the bushmen learn to speak English, according to the custom officials.

The Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia wanted to have mud-hut villages of the bushmen from West Africa so that they can show the early history of slave trade from West Africa and know more about the bushmen's culture. Instead of building it on their own, the Museum officials wanted to bring in three bushmen from West Africa for a short visit.

When the three bushmen applied for a visa in Nigeria, the closest area from their home, the custom official at the U.S. Embassy rejected their visas. Debra Hein, a U.S. consular official in Nigeria, said the men were barred from visiting Virginia because one was unable to describe the building project and another improperly filled out his form. She described two of them as unable to make a living.

Museum director John Avoli said museum officials were heartbroken. Avoli told AP:
"They were denied because they were considered poor dirt farmers who lived in mud huts and can't speak English and supposedly have no business in America."

Debra Heien probably doesn’t know that the bushmen live in the forests; they don’t speak English and mostly live modestly.

U.S. Senator John W. Varner, R-Va sent a letter to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to recommend the bushmen’s visit to Virginia, but Hein remains steadfast and has refused their visas. Hein wrote a letter to Sen. Warner and said the following:

Should the applicants decide to apply again, they must make appointments using our on-line appointment system.

Besides the above problems, the bushmen have to be Internet savvy if they want to come to America.

Warner was upset with this decision. He told AP:

But the whole point of recruiting the bushmen — who would, of course, be poor farmers with no English skills — was that they built and lived in mud huts and so possessed the skills to construct a real Igbo compound.

Despite the efforts by the Museum and Warner, the bushmen’s visas were rejected.

The museum, however, wants to go ahead and build an authentic mid-1700s style African compound to show the history of slave trade. Many slaves in Virginia came from West Africa.