Help the Batwa to Help Themselves
The Batwa Pygmies currently live in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are an ancient group of people indigenous to this region who were, until very recently, the long-time hunters and gathers of this area’s forests. They have experienced extreme social and cultural changes in the past several decades due to the loss of their homes and land through aggressive agriculture and poorly executed conservation efforts.
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 were formally evicted from their ancestral forests as they became national parks, losing their last rights to access their land. Since their evictions some 20 years ago, the Batwa have been unable to compete on equal terms with other ethnic groups outside the forest and they remain one of the most marginalised sections of society, both in the region, in Uganda and globally.
You can track this conversation through its atom feed.