Batwa Forest People in UgandaUnknow Truth About Batwa Forest People of Kigezi in Southwestern Uganda.Who are the Batwa forest people in Uganda? Ancient Egyptians thought they were the representations of their sun god, Re, and treated them with reverence. Early explorers to the region thought they had found a new species of great ape. Today in the West, the term ‘Pygmy’ often conjures mystical notions of dark forests and tiny people.
Used by local communities, the word is used to express all that they despise about Pygmy peoples living nearby – for them it creates ideas of lazy, drunk, uncivilised people.
Pygmies themselves often use the word to create harmony and union between different groups of people spread throughout Central Africa. Locals use them as a pool of cheap labour, tourists seek them to watch them dance and hunt, conservationists often evict them from their land and NGOs seek them to help them integrate into lives outside of the forest.
No matter what part of the world we come from, we all have some image in our minds of these peoples. The fascination that most of us have is pursued through films, books and myths. The Pygmies themselves have their own names and lives which do not match the images the rest of the world creates for them. Importantly, across Central Africa, these peoples we call Pygmies often call themselves by local names, which can be translated as ‘Forest People.’ The most famous literature about them is ‘The Forest People,’ by Colin Turnbull, who lived amongst the Mbuti people of Ituri Forest in DRC. 
However, forest people are found from the coast of the Atlantic, in Gabon and Cameroon, all the way to the eastern edges of Uganda. Turnbull describes how, when asked ‘who are you?’ they would simply reply, ‘people of the forest’. Turnbull’s account seeks to demonstrate how this link to the forest is found throughout their entire spiritual, cultural and social world: he writes that the forest is, for them, the womb from which they were born and the only place where they truly belong.
The Batwa Forest People currently live in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC. They all share a history of hunting and gathering. Today, Batwa are involved in agriculture, pottery and fishing, as well as traditional hunting and gathering in a few remaining locations.
The Batwa forest people I will focus on number approximately 3000 and live in the Kigezi region of southwest Uganda. Like other groups of Batwa, they have, in the last century, suffered massive social and cultural changes - mostly as a result of incoming farmers and pastoralists and later through conservation initiatives. Despite the many problems they face, the Batwa have much to show us about the world we live in.
The word Pygmy is believed to have come from the Greek word which described the distance between the wrist and the elbow. It was used to describe the height of Forest People when they were first encountered. Many people wonder how tall a Pygmy really is. The height varies and there is no strict definition of how tall a Forest Person should be; there can be differentiation in size within a community and also between communities.
The important point to understand is that, for these people, their height is not what defines them. You are not Mutwa because you are shorter than your neighbours but because you come from the forest and call it your home.
Recent genetic studies suggest that Forest Peoples are one of the oldest groups of people inhabiting the earth. Their societies date nearly 60,000 years, compared to 14,000 years for most of the peoples of the world. The first contact the Batwa forest people had with other peoples in Uganda came around 2,000 years ago, when Tutsi pastoralists and Hutu agriculturalists migrated north from what is now Rwanda.
Initially, trade relations between these people existed: the Batwa provided valuable materials from the forest, like honey and meat, in exchange for farming goods. When the Tutsi kings first came into the Kigezi region, they acknowledged that the Batwa were the owners of the land and paid tributes to them, even requiring their approval before kings were crowned. Famed for their music and dancing, the Batwa also found place in the royal courts as entertainers and were regarded with great esteem. 
As human pressure on the forests and deforestation increased, the Batwa were forced to look outside of the forests in order to survive. Lacking specialist skills, they mainly worked as labourers for land owners. In 1991, the Batwa forest people were formally evicted from the remaining forested areas of Bwindi and Mgahinga and lost their last rights to access their land. Since their evictions 15 years ago, the Batwa have been unable to compete on equal terms with other ethnic groups outside the forest and today they remain one of the most marginalised sections of society, both in Kigezi and Uganda.
Batwa forest people struggle to get education, health care and the crucial land they need to grow food for their families and provide security for the future. Never having legal titles to the forests they inhabited, the Batwa received little or no compensation and it wasn’t until some ten years after their evictions that NGOs began the process of buying plots of land for them.
Currently, the Batwa are facing a massive challenge to meet this fast-moving world they now inhabit and are fighting against severe racism and discrimination. In 2001, the Batwa formed their own NGO, the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda, and have joined the growing ranks of indigenous organisations around the world fighting for better representation and the reclamation of their human rights within modern nation states.
Today the Batwa realise the land they once inhabited is all but lost to them, but they continue to seek the right to be allowed to live their lives with the same rights as fellow Ugandans.Unfortunately, without access to the forests, it is proving more and more difficult for the Batwa to maintain their traditional knowledge of the plants and animals that live in their forests.
I remember discussing honey with a Batwa community a few years ago, a subject not to be taken lightly and as revered by the Batwa as cows are by the Karimojong. We were discussing the special taste of the honey that comes from wild, stingless bees and I remarked that I had never come across stingless bees before. Immediately, a Mutwa – the word for an individual Batwa – ran off to the edge of the forest and came back five minutes later with a stingless bee held carefully by the wings, between his thumb and index finger.
I asked him how he found it so quickly. He replied that he simply watched them on their search for pollen. After its stingless bottom was displayed, he opened his fingers and the bee flew off to continue in its relentless task. Today the Batwa are unable to collect wild honey from inside the forests. 
Another occasion that demonstrated the relationship the Batwa forest people have with the environment came from a child not yet able to talk. It happened during a human rights workshop in Kisoro and in which one of the participants gave a presentation. In the middle of the speech, one of the babies began to cry. I turned round to glance at the child out of slight annoyance as it distracted me from the speaker. But as I became more irritated, my hearing began to focus on the child’s cry and soon I realised that the cry was actually in a regular rhythm and carried a regular pitch. As I realised this, the baby’s mouth closed and it appeared to stop crying, but in the distance the sound carried on. It was then that I realised the child was not crying at all, but perfectly mimicking the noise of a Red Eyed Dove.
The Batwa Forest People have no participation in the management of Uganda’s unique forests and are offered no jobs by conservation initiatives. Many earn their living through tourism around the edges of the forests they used to live in. Tourists can visit Batwa communities in Bwindi, Mgahinga, Lake Bunyonyi and Semliki and, for a small fee, Batwa will perform their cultural dances and impart some of their vast traditional knowledge.
Most of these trips are not organised and, in the past, communities have been used by their local neighbours to make a profit. I advise any tourists who visit Batwa communities to always give any cash directly to the Batwa forest people and not through ‘guides,’ who should be paid separately. In Bwindi, the Batwa community are involved in the Buhoma Village Walk and this community-owned project has gone a long way to securing the Batwa’s rights in tourism. 
The Batwa forest people want to continue sharing their rich culture with other people from all over the world. We need to see this culture not as the uncivilised raw knowledge of how to survive in the forests, but as a skillful science of how to understand the movements, habits and wisdoms of the many plants and animals that inhabit the rainforests of Central Africa. Whilst the Batwa no longer have the chance to live in the forests of southwest Uganda, they have a necessary and important role to play in the long term future and conservation of these forests.
I hope that soon Batwa forest people will see the day when their unique culture is regarded with the respect it deserves and they will be able to walk back into their forests, maybe not as residents, but at least as guides to share their knowledge with conservationists and help tourists to see the many wonders the forests contain.
The Batwa’s future may lie with conservation. Equally, conservation’s future may lie with the Batwa. The time has come for both these groups to come together and attempt to work side by side to safeguard not only their own individual futures but also the future of the forests. Without the forests, I don’t believe either group will survive.
If you ever visit the forests in southwest Uganda, take some time to visit the Batwa forest people communities and ask them about the forest and their lives. Listen to their stories and see if they can’t teach you something about the forests you will visit: there is a lot more to the Pygmies than just their height.
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