The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu speaking group native to the African Great Lakes region on the border of Central and East Africa. As an indigenous pygmy people, the Twa are generally assumed to be the oldest surviving population of the Great Lakes region. Current populations of Great Lakes Twa people live in the states of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2000 they numbered approximately 80,000 people, making them a significant minority group in these countries.[2] The largest population of Twa is located in Burundi estimated in 2008 at 78,071 people.[3]
Apart from anthropological literature, the term "Twa" generally refers to the Twa of the Great Lakes region. There are a number of other Twa populations in the Congo forest, as well as southern Twa populations living in swamps and deserts where there has never been forest, but these are little known in the West.[citation needed]
History
Batwa women with traditional pottery
Traditionally, the Twa have been semi-nomadichunter-gatherers of the mountain forests living in association with agricultural villages, much as other pygmy peoples do.
When the Hutu, a Bantu-speaking people, arrived in the region, they subjugated 'bush people' (hunter-gatherers) they called Abatwa, which are generally assumed to be the ancestors of the Twa today, though it may be that the Twa arrived alongside the Hutu, and either were a distinct people from the original inhabitants, or have mixed ancestry.[4] For several hundred years, the Twa have been a small minority in the area, currently 1% in Rwanda and Burundi, and have had little political role, though there were at times Twa in the government of the Tutsi king, and some even obtained a privilege position in the royal court as entertainers, or even executioners.[5]
Unusually for Pygmies, who generally trade meat for agricultural products, iron, and pottery, the Twa are themselves potters.[6]
The Twa are often omitted in discussions about the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis, which reached its height in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.[2] About 30% of the Twa population of Rwanda died in the violence.[7]
A traditional dance of the BatwaMutwa boy in the village Shasha in North Kivu during 2007 conflicts
Due to clearing of the forests for agriculture, logging, development projects, and the creation of conservation areas, the Twa have been forced to leave the mountain forests and establish new homes. As they seek to develop new means of sustaining their communities (such as agriculture and livestock development) most are currently landless and live in poverty. The ancestral land rights of the Twa have never been recognised by their governments and no compensation has been made for lands lost.[citation needed]
Twa children have little access to education and their communities have limited representation in local and national government. Due to their pygmy ancestry, they continue to suffer ethnic prejudice, discrimination, violence, and general exclusion from society.[8][9] Batwa men struggle with alcoholism, known to occur in communities facing cultural collapse as men can no longer carry out traditional roles and provide for families.[10] By 2007, begging was the primary source of livelihood for 40 percent of the Batwa in Rwanda.[11]
While the Batwa adapted to the changes in their environment by adopting new economic activities and thus traditions and identities, they continue to face challenges to their survival. Today, much of the available land, apart from areas reserved for wildlife conservation and environmental protection, is under cultivation. Unable to access their ancestral lands and practise traditional cultural and economic activities, the Batwa now perceive their pottery as an expression of their identity. Although it is no longer profitable since industrialised pottery became cheaply available, the Batwa continue to produce traditional pottery for its cultural and social significance. Not only do they consider it an ancestral tradition, but also it carries a social importance in their current day society.[6] The process of digging the clay and carrying it to their settlements allows for socialisation and a sense of community among Batwa potters.[12] However, in Rwanda the shared access marshes where Batwa harvest clay under an informal communal tenure system are fast becoming collectivised rice-growing plantations due to a 2005 land policy change.[13] They face another crisis as they lose another occupation that defines Batwa identity and provides social livelihood.
Return to Kahuzi-Biega National Park
In 1975, the Kahuzi-Biega National Park was expanded and some 6,000 Batwa who had been living there in their ancestral home were expelled and displaced.[14] As a result, they were living landless in host communities in poverty and destitution. After a long period of failed negotiations and broken promises with the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and park authorities, in 2019 they returned to the park and built new villages on what previously their land. In response to this, the park authorities began a campaign of organized violence in order to frighten the Batwa from their villages and the park and prevent them from returning. This campaign involved surprise attacks by militarized park guards with the assistance of the DRC army armed with AK-47s and belt-fed machine guns, shelling villages with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the group rape of Batwa women, and the mutilation of the bodies of those killed by the park guards.[15][16]
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