The Batwa are a people classified as “pygmies,” a somewhat pejorative term used to refer to various hunter-gatherer groups living in African equatorial rainforests, characterized by their short stature and their tendency to associate primarily with one another. Along with the San people, pygmies are considered among Africa’s earliest inhabitants, with their origins estimated to date back around 70,000 years based on DNA studies.

The Batwa are the indigenous people of Rwanda, but with the arrival and dominance of the Bantu-origin Hutus, their population significantly diminished. Later, with the arrival of the Nilotic Tutsis from Ethiopia, the Batwa were further marginalized and subjected to both ethnic groups. They have historically faced marginalization and discrimination, lacking even ethnographic recognition from the government.

As hunter-gatherers, the Batwa lived in the forest, but they have now been displaced from their small settlements in the jungle to protect endangered mountain gorillas and prevent poaching.
This conservation measure has endangered their culture and ancestral way of life, relegating them to subsistence agriculture and pottery. Some have been forced to sell themselves for minimal amounts of money to buy alcohol and cigarettes, leading to an ongoing spiral of degradation. This marks a tragic end for a people who were once profound experts of the forest, now reduced to a shadow of their former selves.