Facts about Rwanda And Cultural tours

Rwanda

The Indigenous Peoples of Rwanda: The Batwa (Twa) Peoples

Location:

    Great Lakes region of Central Africa, bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Burundi.

Size:

    26,338 square kilometers, slightly smaller than Maryland

Population:

    About 10 million (33,000 indigenous, 0.4 percent of the population)

Indigenous Community:

    The Batwa are hunter-gatherer Pygmies who have lived in Rwanda and other countries surrounding the Great Lakes Region since AD 1000.
    Prior to their eviction in the 1990s, the Batwa people lived in the forested region that currently comprises the national parks of Mgahinga, Bwindi, and Echuya. The men hunted and collected food from the forest, while the women harvested fruits and vegetables in their villages.
    Pottery production is a valuable cultural and economic asset for the Batwa, though largely out of necessity in the wake of environmental destruction challenging their traditional lifeways.
    Today, most Batwa People make their living as tenant farmers.

Indigenous Rights Concerns:

    The Batwa were evicted from their homelands in the 1990s when the Rwandan government created the national parks of Mgahinga, Bwindi, and Echuya. The Batwa were never financially compensated for this move. Today, most Batwa people are landless and live as sharecroppers, exchanging their labor for insufficient housing and meager food.
    Deforestation, heightened government regulations, and increased levels of tourism threaten the Batwa's access to their traditional lands and means of cultural expression. For example, the Batwa people have, at best, limited access to marshland, which is essential for production of their traditional pottery.
    The Batwa suffer intense racism, discrimination, and marginalization perpetuated by the state and Rwandan society. Many Batwa children are unable to attend school or receive medical treatment at local hospitals, largely because they are often denied the identity cards necessary for state recognition. Violence perpetrated against the Batwa by other ethnic groups is seldom punished