Locate in Kisoro district Uganda — 20
years ago Uganda's Batwa, or pygmies, were driven away from the forest to make space
for a national park. But now the penniless Batwa are being
allowed back as tour guides, showing hikers how they lived, this earning the
some money in the process.
 |
| The Batwa People |
Hagumimana Kanyabikingi one of the
pygmies, while standing in the rain under the dripping forest canopy offers up
a traditional hunting prayer. May we kill an animal, he prays, and not be
killed ourselves. For over centuries his ancestors lived here in the
forested mountains of southwestern Uganda. They were painfully cast out in 1991 with
the creation of Mgahinga National Park well know for its gorilla tours, in the neighborhood of the Kisoro town.
Yet now, the Batwa are being allowed to walk their old forest paths once again, as tour guides on the newly created Batwa Trail.
Thinking about the past, Kanyabikingi explains how they used to use strong vines to trap duiker and bush bucks, or hunt them with poison-tipped arrows.
Half of the money received from the trails will go to the Batwa themselves, while the rest of the money will go to goes to the Uganda Wildlife Authority / UWA, which had been looking for a way to attract travelers to the park.
The mountain gorilla family in Mgahinga national park comes and goes, and until recently they have been living in Rwanda Uganda’s neighboring country in the south. “This meant that there were no gorilla safaris in Mgahinga anymore, and for some time there wasn’t really much tourism activity going on in Mgahinga national park. This meant that the Batwa needed to think of other ways of getting tourists to come and be interested in visiting. We needed something new, and this was really kind of like a God-sent idea. They are able to improve people’s livelihoods, but also it is helping out to generate funds for conservation and biodiversity management in the park”.
For the Batwa as well, the money is very essential for their livelihood. Since the time they were evicted, several hundred have been living in poverty in makeshift camps at the forest’s edge. The Batwa are unaccustomed to the ways of the outside world, says Penninah Zaninka, of the United Organization for Batwa Development in Uganda.
“The forest was everything to them. It was a homeland, they used to have shelter inside the forest, have food inside the forest, and they would collect medicinal herbs, as well as fruits for survival,” Zaninka stated.
Batwa guide George Mpagazihe agrees. In the forest, he says, they could eat animals and wild honey, and cloth themselves in animal skins. Now, he says, they are little more than beggars.
According to Zaninka, the main problem is that the Batwa do not have their own land, making it difficult for them to earn a living. “They lacked educating their children, food security, they worked and they are still working as cheap labor for other people in order to keep them on their land as squatters. So all those fsctores cause them alt of misery, yet they have no home. They are also afraid, she adds, of being evicted yet again.
“They are scared. They are so fearful that these people may evict them a second time. They were evicted from their motherland, which is the forest, and now they are put here," she noted. "But because there is no ownership, they are not very sure.”
For years, the Batwa have been urging the UWA to grant them access to the forest. The new trail is, at least partly, a result of these negotiations. Kanyabikingi says he is happy to be able to walk through the forest once again, and to collect the medicinal herbs his people once used.
But a national park is a delicate thing. Because it has to be protected from human encroachment, the Batwa will never again be allowed to live in the forest. “No, there’s no way the Batwa can move back into the park. Because, you see, we are trying to protect the resources that we have. And the reason why we had to remove the Batwa from the forest was because their activities were not in conformity with natural resource management practices. They were feeding on fruits, trees, burning in the forest, stuff like that.
At the end of the trail lies the sacred Garama Cave, former home of the Batwa king. In it, Batwa musicians sing the old songs for visitors.
We would love to return to the forest, says Kanyabikingi, for the taste of wild honey, and for the sake of our spiritual beliefs. He explains that since they left, even their forest-based religion has been lost.
But for now, it seems the Batwa will have to be content with walking their forest trail with strangers, preserving their culture by sharing it.
Yet now, the Batwa are being allowed to walk their old forest paths once again, as tour guides on the newly created Batwa Trail.
Thinking about the past, Kanyabikingi explains how they used to use strong vines to trap duiker and bush bucks, or hunt them with poison-tipped arrows.
Half of the money received from the trails will go to the Batwa themselves, while the rest of the money will go to goes to the Uganda Wildlife Authority / UWA, which had been looking for a way to attract travelers to the park.
The mountain gorilla family in Mgahinga national park comes and goes, and until recently they have been living in Rwanda Uganda’s neighboring country in the south. “This meant that there were no gorilla safaris in Mgahinga anymore, and for some time there wasn’t really much tourism activity going on in Mgahinga national park. This meant that the Batwa needed to think of other ways of getting tourists to come and be interested in visiting. We needed something new, and this was really kind of like a God-sent idea. They are able to improve people’s livelihoods, but also it is helping out to generate funds for conservation and biodiversity management in the park”.
For the Batwa as well, the money is very essential for their livelihood. Since the time they were evicted, several hundred have been living in poverty in makeshift camps at the forest’s edge. The Batwa are unaccustomed to the ways of the outside world, says Penninah Zaninka, of the United Organization for Batwa Development in Uganda.
“The forest was everything to them. It was a homeland, they used to have shelter inside the forest, have food inside the forest, and they would collect medicinal herbs, as well as fruits for survival,” Zaninka stated.
Batwa guide George Mpagazihe agrees. In the forest, he says, they could eat animals and wild honey, and cloth themselves in animal skins. Now, he says, they are little more than beggars.
According to Zaninka, the main problem is that the Batwa do not have their own land, making it difficult for them to earn a living. “They lacked educating their children, food security, they worked and they are still working as cheap labor for other people in order to keep them on their land as squatters. So all those fsctores cause them alt of misery, yet they have no home. They are also afraid, she adds, of being evicted yet again.
“They are scared. They are so fearful that these people may evict them a second time. They were evicted from their motherland, which is the forest, and now they are put here," she noted. "But because there is no ownership, they are not very sure.”
For years, the Batwa have been urging the UWA to grant them access to the forest. The new trail is, at least partly, a result of these negotiations. Kanyabikingi says he is happy to be able to walk through the forest once again, and to collect the medicinal herbs his people once used.
But a national park is a delicate thing. Because it has to be protected from human encroachment, the Batwa will never again be allowed to live in the forest. “No, there’s no way the Batwa can move back into the park. Because, you see, we are trying to protect the resources that we have. And the reason why we had to remove the Batwa from the forest was because their activities were not in conformity with natural resource management practices. They were feeding on fruits, trees, burning in the forest, stuff like that.
At the end of the trail lies the sacred Garama Cave, former home of the Batwa king. In it, Batwa musicians sing the old songs for visitors.
We would love to return to the forest, says Kanyabikingi, for the taste of wild honey, and for the sake of our spiritual beliefs. He explains that since they left, even their forest-based religion has been lost.
But for now, it seems the Batwa will have to be content with walking their forest trail with strangers, preserving their culture by sharing it.
