|  Empowerment for the Batwa
simply go somewhere and do something, while teaching others to do the same
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The Batwa indigenous people are the aboriginal occupants of southwest Uganda. They
Self-identify as indigenous people and have been recognised as such by various international
human rights bodies. The Batwa were traditionally hunter-gatherers who lived in and on the
Margins of the region’s montane forests since time immemorial. Today there are
Approximately 3,135 Batwa living in southwest Uganda. These Batwa are former inhabitants
of the Bwindi, Mgahinga and Echuya forests.
The Batwa have been expelled from their traditional forest lands by a combination of historical encroachment by agriculturalists and pastoralists, who were responsible for massive clearing of the forest, and by the establishment of conservation zones in their territory. These zones, which were first created by the colonial regime in the 1930s, were gazetted as national parks by the independent State of Uganda in the 1990s with the result that the Batwa were formally and finally evicted from their remaining forest lands. There was no consultation with nor participation by the Batwa in any of the decision-making associated with the establishment of the national parks and their consequent eviction.
The Batwa were thus entirely dispossessed of their ancestral territory and their various
relations therewith have been forcibly severed due to the imposition and enforcement of
legislative enactments that deny them any property rights in or access to their traditional
forest lands. They are denied access to these lands for any purpose and have suffered
physical abuse and legal sanction when caught attempting to enter these areas for cultural,
religious, subsistence or other reasons. They cannot, for instance, visit and care for the
graves of their ancestors and their other sacred sites in the forest and nor can they hunt and
gather forest produce and their traditional medicines.
The Batwa as a collectivity and as individuals have not been compensated for their
expulsion and the loss of their territory, and no meaningful attempt has been made to
otherwise repair the ongoing violations of their rights caused thereby. Non-Batwa who lost
their lands were compensated however. It is no exaggeration to say that the Batwa have
suffered and continue to suffer irreparable harm to their basic rights and integrity and that
their very existence as a physical and cultural entity is gravely threatened due to Uganda’s
acts and omissions.
Once expelled, the majority of Batwa became landless sharecroppers, forced to eke out
a tenuous existence on parcels of land owned by non-Batwa living around the national parks.
In the vast majority of cases, these relationships are tantamount to bonded labour or worse.
Many Batwa are therefore also forced to beg in the streets in order to meet their basic needs.
Further, the Batwa experience severe discrimination that has apartheid-like qualities in the
social, political, economic and other spheres of life. This discrimination translates into gross
and pervasive violations of Batwa civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. When
their existence is acknowledged, the Batwa predictably fall at the bottom of all indices of wellbeing in Uganda. |
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