BY OLIVIA SAYERS
POPE BENEDICT XVI and his aides have decided to leave a tortoise given as a gift by Pygmies in its native Africa.
Last Friday Pygmies from the Baka ethnic group met the Pope outside the apostolic nunciature in Yaoundé, Cameroon. They gave him a basket, a cloth mat and the tortoise, which is a symbol of wisdom in Cameroon.
Originally there was talk of the brown, eight inch-long tortoise residing in the Vatican gardens, but in the end officials asked staff at the nunciature in Angola to find it a proper home, according to Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi. He told reporters that the tortoise was “in good hands” and would be better off at the nunciature because Africa is its natural habitat.
The tortoise had caused consider