The Batwa are a pygmy people found today in the pockets of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. Originally, Batwa were forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers based in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, and are widely accepted as the original inhabitants of the region.

As their traditional forest lands and territories fell under the control of agro-industries and conservation agencies, the Batwa became squatters living on the edges of society. The establishment of the Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks for Mountain Gorillas in 1991 enabled the authorities to evict the Batwa definitely from the forest.

In 1991, the Batwa in Uganda the Batwa were evicted from the forests they had lived on since time immemorial.  As a result, most were left landless and impoverished and, to survive, resorted to begging and life as laborers on other people’s land.

The Batwa are widely accepted as the first inhabitants of the region, later joined by farmers and pastoralists. The Batwa are still to be found living in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with an estimated total population of 86,000 to 112,000.

The Batwa were known as “The Keepers of the Forest.” The history of these people is long and rich. The Batwa survived by hunting small game using arrows or nets and gathering plants and fruit in the rain forest. They lived in huts constructed of leaves and branches, moving frequently in search of fresh supplies of food.

The Batwa lived in harmony with the forest and its creatures, including the mountain gorillas, for millennia. Some anthropologists estimate that pygmy tribes such as the Batwa have existed in the equatorial forests of Africa for 60,000 years or more.

Visiting the Batwa People, the People of the Rain-forest in Uganda without compensations for their losses, now living outside of their ancient homelands as squatters at the mercy of others, as outcasts, the Batwa Pygmies were now a people without an identity reduced to begging, poaching, stealing and working for others who paid them a mere pittance and not a fair wage for their work.

Without land of their own or the skills to compete in the modern marketplace, the Batwa have become marginalized, existing in extreme poverty on the parks’ boundaries, looking in where they used to live. The other tribal communities are for the most part non-supportive.

In 2011, the Uganda Wildlife Authority assisted by money from The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Netherland’s Embassy in Kampala began the now famous Batwa Cultural Trail in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.

Where members of the Batwa Community lead tourists through the forest in the shadows of the Virunga Volcanoes and teach the visitors about their ancient ways of hunting and gathering and the Batwa Guides get to return to the rain forest and keep their traditions alive, at least in spirit.  The Batwa communities also receive half of the Batwa trail fees. The Batwa Trail is a destination where the magic of the old home of the Twas are discovered.

Some of the Batwa are now tour guides to visitors of the Batwa Trail. When engaged as tour guides to tourists on the Batwa Trail, they demonstrate their hunting techniques, point out medicinal plants, gather honey, and demonstrate how to make bamboo cups.

The Batwa also invite the visitors to the sacred Ngarama Cave, which was once the home of the Batwa King. The women entertain the visitors with a performance leaving the guests with a moving sense of the richness of the Batwa fading culture.

In Rwanda, even the 2001 film 100 days, the first feature film to be made about the 1994 genocide, mentioned only two groups, despite the fact that an estimated 30% of Batwa lost their lives in the genocide, mentioned only two groups, despite the fact that an estimated 30% of Batwa lost their lives in the genocide as against 14% of the population overall.

Both currently and historically, their role in Rwanda’s culture is as exponents of a strikingly distinctive and highly reputed dance, and they are also known for their attractive and traditionally made pottery. In olden times, some had a niche as dancers and potters at the Rwandan Royal court.

Less than two millennia have passed since almost all of eastern and southern Africa was populated by semi-nomadic hunter-gathers, including the Batwa, living in harmony with nature and doing no harm to the environment. Later colonization introduced new industries and construction.

Recognizing the threat to the forest, the colonizers gazetted tracts of it as protected reserves: the Batwa could still hunt and forage there, but it now belonged to the government and eventually some decades later. Most Batwa were evicted from conservation areas and of course, from the new national par.

Some Batwa in and around the Great Lakes region had already developed an alternative occupation: they worked as potters, using the clay found in the marshes that lie between Rwanda’s many hills. Today they still use just their feet to trample it into malleability and then their hands to shape cooking pots, stoves, decorative vases traditional lamps, candle-holders and little replicas of local animals, from cattle to gorillas. The pots are fired without kilns, largely in hollows in the ground, by burning grasses and natural debris and sealed with earth.

The Batwa in Rwanda are now known as the Rwandese Community of Potters and as such with no hint of ethnicity in their name are able to receive official help. The Rwandan government has taken positive action in the fields of education, health and housing and the community is supported by charities such as the Pygmy Survival Alliance, Community of Potters of Rwanda, together with various international bodies. In addition, tourism is increasingly providing the potters with a showcase for their skills like dancing pots and some of the men work usefully as porters for gorilla trackers in the Volcanoes National Park.

Today there are Batwa Communities benefiting from tourism and making a living that keeps them from poaching and turns them toward conservation of the forest and of the wildlife and Primates.