Hagumimana Kanyabichingi epitomises the once proud and independent Batwa Pygmies (also known as the Twa or forest people) who following evictions from the Lake Region forests of western Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi were rendered landless, and are now living as squatters, surviving as potters and beggars, while others have resorted to petty crime.

Traditionally, the Batwa are a semi-nomadic “hunter-gatherer” community, living and depending solely on the resources of the mountain forests of the Lake Region, which they have called home for over 4,000 years. They are the first known inhabitants of the mountain forests of central Africa.

With economic activty in the region expanding and causing the clearing of forests for agriculture, logging, development projects, or creation of conservation areas, the Batwa were forcibly evicted and some forced into new settlements on the fringes of the now gazetted and protected forests, while others were forced to move to urban areas.

At 42 years old today, Kanyabichingi is now a guide in the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Had they not been evicted from the forest, he would probably have been an expert hunter or soldier.

While some Batwa have taken to drinking alcohol to cope with the misery of having lost their ancestral homes in the forest, entire Batwa communities in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo have never recovered from the trauma of living outside the forests.

The ancestral land rights of the Batwa have never been recognised by their governments and no compensation has been made for lands lost.

According to Minority Rights Group International, there are about 80,000 Batwa in the Great Lakes Region, while the international movement for tribal peoples, Surviva says there are about 250,000 pygmy people living in the East and Central African forest stretching from western Uganda to Cameroon and parts of West Africa.

Uganda’s Kisoro district has about 10,000 Batwa living on the edges of the protested forests and in Kisoro town.

The older Batwa are nostalgic for their forest life, with others expressing bitterness that while they had freedom and controlled their own destiny in the forest, today they are under the control of others.

“The forced evictions were not good for us — but we had no say in the matter,” Kanyabichingi said, adding: “The Bafumbira landlords have offered to settle some of us on infertile land in exchange for our labour on their farms. Our wages is to scavenge for the remains after the major harvest.”

Kanyabichingi recalls that life was hard immediately after the eviction from the forest, and most Batwa had to beg to survive. “During the evictions some of our people died while others were completely separated from their families,” he told The East-African in Kisoro district in western Uganda.

However, 40-year-old Nyirabatariyana, claims she is happy to be living out of the forest. “In the forest we only lived as one isolated tribe, but now we can communicate with other tribes. Life in the forest was basic.

“Growing up in the forest, we ate food from leaves which served as plates, now we have real plates. We now eat beans, Irish potatoes, maize meal and take local porridge (obushera) made of millet, sorghum or wheat. Some of us would not want to return to the forest, but we want land to settle here.”

Married with five children, Jessica Joy Kiderina would wish to return to the forest because she finds it difficult to feed her family in the new environment. “But if I got my piece of land here, I wouldn’t return to the forest,” she adds.

Kanyabichingi believes that owning land will enable the Batwa to improve their lives. “If we cannot be allowed back into the forest, we should be given land. Without land we cannot get food or better houses for ourselves. And we don’t want to be relocated far away from each other because we are used to living as a family or group,” said Stephen Serutoke.

“No Mutwa owns more than one acre of land, and as squatters, can be evicted at will by the landlords,” said Penninah Zaninka, the programme co-ordinator of the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda, adding, “A few who have land are competing with the non-Batwa.”

Historically, western Uganda was covered by forest and was the ancestral home of the Batwa Pygmies. In their folklore, the forest people also consider themselves the “first people.” Indeed, they are Central Africa’s most ancient ethnic group, their traditional hunter-gatherer activities predating farming and cattle keeping by 4,000 years.

In recent centuries however, the Batwa have lost most of their homeland to farmers and are no longer forest people. But agricultural encroachment was only the start of their woes. Most recently, the Batwa have become casualties of a battle to save forests. In the 1990s, the Mgahinga and Bwindi forests were gazetted as national parks.

This was good news for animals and trees, but not for the Batwa, the forests’ longtime guardians.

Today, the forest people are the forgotten people. Landless, with their traditional skills redundant, they have been reduced to squatters, existing in extreme poverty on park-edge farmland.

“We don’t encourage evictions, but if the Batwa were evicted they should be compensated,” Zaninka argues, adding: “If they had been consulted, maybe they would have refused or asked for compensation. The Batwa are living in abject poverty today as a result of losing their homes and not being consulted.”

Asked if she would be willing to return to the forest, Zaninka’s face lights up with a big smile, “That would be a dream. We would be happy. But of course we know the government will not let us resettle back in the forest.”

FACTFILE
The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a pygmy people who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes region of central Africa.
Current populations are found in 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.