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 Geography:
Rwanda is a landlocked mountainous country in Central East Africa, occupying 26,338 km². Land use is about 35 % arable, 20 % pasture and 11 % forest.
Principal exports for Rwanda are coffee, tea and tin. In the north Rwanda borders Uganda, in the east Tanzania, in the west it borders Zaire, in the south Burundi.
People:
Population
According to the UN, the population of Rwanda is 8,440,820. Recent estimates show that only between 20 000 and 27 000 of Rwanda’s total population are Batwa. The Batwa are one of Rwanda’s three ethnic groups. They make up only 0.4 % of the population whereas the Hutu and Tutsi comprise 85 % and 14 % respectively of the total population in Rwanda.
In 1994, the Rwandan genocide resulted in the deaths of nearly one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu Rwandans – nearly 14 percent of the Rwandan population, more than two million fled the country. During the period of genocide rough estimates based on a provisional census carried out by the UNPO in late 1994, indicate that up to 10,000 Batwa died, another 8,000 to 10,000 fled, leaving the post-war Batwa population in Rwanda between 10,000 and 20,000.
In view of the fact that the majority of the victims where men and children and many of the surviving men were imprisoned, the responsibility for rebuilding homes, feeding and caring for the remaining children now falls mostly to Twa women.
The Batwa population is rapidly decreasing. According to a micro study by the Minority Rights Group international (MRG), a comparison of census figures from 1978 and 1991 indicates a 40 per cent fall in the Batwa population, as opposed to a 50 per cent (approximately) rise in the population of other Rwandans.
Culture and Language
Like all Rwandans, the Batwa speak Kinyarwanda, and in religion, the differences are negligible.
Most Batwa are Christians, while some still practice their traditional religion. Nevertheless, the Batwa people stand out in its cultural distinctiveness. Batwa tradition is rich in song, dance and music and cultural gatherings are firmly integrated in the social life of the Batwa.
Pygmy societies such as the Batwa are characterised by anthropologists as egalitarian ‘immediate-return’ societies. There culture greatly differs from the other ethnic groups present in Rwanda. They are mobile and flexible; they seek a direct and immediate return for their labour, they do not accumulate property or store surpluses, and are strongly orientated towards the present rather than the future. Obligatory sharing amongst the Batwa eliminates economic inequalities.
Social inequalities are resolved with avoidance, teasing and joking. Collective decision-making eliminates the need for an overall leader, although, in some relevant situations, experienced and skilled individuals might be accepted as such. Conflicts, problems and embarrassing situations are avoided by moving away from the source of difficulty.
The forest is an important and integral part of the Batwa identity. Forest-based Pygmy peoples consider themselves to be in an intimate, nurturing relationship with the forest, the forest will always be therefore them and provide what they need.
They believe that the forest is the source of all abundance, and this is maintained by proper sharing between people or between people and forest spirits, and by singing and dancing rituals which ensure the support of spirits to help them satisfy all their needs. Forest-based Pygmy peoples have a wide range of specialised skills and knowledge necessary to carry out their forest-based livelihoods, including an incomparable knowledge of plants and animals, and skills in medicine, music, dance and crafts.
Economy
As the Batwa were driven out of their forest many turned to pottery and to some extent, this craft is now synonymous with Batwa ethnic identity. The men collect and carry the clay to the Twa women who then make and fire the pots before they are sold. Modern industrial substitutes are a menace to the livelihood of the Batwa and have replaced many of their hand made products, thus depriving them of an important source of income. Others are day laborers, small-scale cultivators or beggars.
Due to their low social status, they have limited access to education, which make illiteracy rate high among Batwa. Consequently, very few Batwa have salaried/ regular jobs. The Batwa earn well below the per capita income of 200 US $.
According to (MRG) there are fundamental factors that demonstrate the widespread phenomenon of exclusion and marginalization experienced by Batwa, and their continuing alienation from their traditional culture and values, these include:
• Only 1.6 per cent of Batwa have sufficient land to cultivate, and very few own livestock. Most are squatters or tenants on other people's land.
• Over 91 per cent of Batwa have had no formal education.
• The Batwa's extreme poverty prevents them from participating effectively in the national economy.
• The post-1994 government has refused to recognize the Batwa as a group that is marginalized and discriminated against, and this has led to them being ignored in government programmes to provide social welfare and development services such as primary healthcare, education, shelter and clean water.
The land is an important factor for the vast majority of Rwandans, more than 90 percent of the population depends on farming for its livelihood. Considering that the Batwa currently don’t survive solely from pottery and are no longer nomadic, they should receive plots of land to practice farming and livestock rearing, diversify their activities and produce new products out of clay.
History
The Batwa forest people of Rwanda (also known as Pygmies) are recognized as having been the first inhabitants of the land. The Batwa are the indigenous inhabitants of Rwanda in Central East Africa, a pygmy people traditionally living as hunter-gatherers in the forests of Rwanda.
In the 1970s, legislation outlawed hunting, effectively threatening the Batwa way of life. By the 1990s, the Batwa population forced to practice clandestine hunting and gathering, where forcefully expelled from their ancestral forest to make way for national parks and military training areas. With no compensation and no alternative livelihoods, most have become beggars and landless labourers. Today, very few Batwa still have access to forest resources and the Batwa forest knowledge is no longer being passed down from one generation to the next.
The Batwa form an isolated and marginalized group in Rwandan society. The other groups traditionally look them down upon as backward and dirty. As a result they have little access to- and representations in- government, they are excluded from education, health care and media, are discriminated against in the job market and have suffered from being cheated out of land without legal recourse to fair trial.
Like all Rwandans the Batwa suffered and continue to suffer from the consequences of the genocide and civil war in 1994. The Batwa were not specifically targeted as a group. Their political role was limited and many were not aware of the tensions that had arisen at the political level.
However, a large number of Batwa died at the hands of the Interahamwe (mainly Hutu militia sponsored by the government) and in the chaos of the war. Many others fled to refugee camps in the neighbouring countries, where they continue to suffer traditional discrimination. Acts of intimidation and violence continue unabated by former Rwandan soldiers and militia living in the refugee camps. Based on a resolution by the UN, the Rwanda Tribunal was set up to punish those responsible for the genocide.
Moreover, according to a CAURWA report to the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in May 2004, most of the political administrators that have governed the country have failed to acknowledge the marginalization of the Batwa people in the name of a non-tribal Rwanda, it does not want to recognize the Batwa as indigenous, because to do so they claim, would cause tribalism.
Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy, thus exposure to conflict has jeopardized the Batwa way of life.
Organizations:
In 1991, a handful of educated Batwa created the Association for the Promotion of Batwa (APB).
APB’s aims were to defend the rights and interests of Batwa of Rwanda: to act as intermediary for the Batwa community in its contacts with national and local authorities, to promote the socio-economic and political development of the Batwa, with the emphasis on primary health care, education and employment and to promote Batwa culture. In January 1993, the Batwa of Rwanda represented by APB became a member of UNPO.
In 1995 the Batwa founded the Community of Indigenous Peoples of Rwanda (CAURWA) uniting three existing Batwa organizations: the Association for the Promotion of Batwa (APB), the Association for the Global Development of the Batwa of Rwanda (ADBR) and the Association for the Protection of Unaccompanied Children in Distress (APEDE).
Through CAURWA, different Batwa organizations have reconciled their differences and have joined forces in the struggle for the rights of the Batwa community. Today, the CAURWA is working with more than 70 local Twa associations in Rwanda to develop, amongst other things, alternative sources of income for the Batwa.
Statistics:
Population: 20.000
Language: Kinyarwanda
Religion: Christianity
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