The Batwa people, a group belonging to the “Pygmies,” are a set of hunter-gatherer communities inhabiting the equatorial forests of Africa. Their small stature and innate propensity to engage in only intrapersonal interactions define them. Based on DNA evidence, the Pygmies, along with the San people (also called Bushmen), are among the oldest human populations in Africa, having lived there for about 70,000 years.

Originally from the Rwandan lands, the Batwa have faced numerous challenges throughout history. The arrival and dominance of the Hutu people, of Bantu origin, significantly reduced their population. The Batwa were again conquered by the Nilotic-born Tutsis from Ethiopia. Consistently marginalized and discriminated against, they have even lacked ethnic recognition from the governments of Uganda and Rwanda.

Traditionally, the Batwa lived as hunter-gatherers in the forest. However, with the protection of endangered gorillas and the prohibition of poaching in Uganda and Rwanda, they have been displaced from their forest settlements. While this measure aims to preserve biodiversity, it has endangered the survival of their culture and ancestral way of life.

Condemned for abandoning their traditional way of life, many Batwa have been forced to subsist through agriculture and pottery. Some have succumbed to despair, selling themselves for a small sum of money to acquire alcohol and cigarettes. This spiral of degradation represents a sad ending for people who, as expert forest dwellers, have become a shadow of their former greatness.