Batwa

Paleoanthropologists have long argued—often contentiously— about the climbing abilities of early hominins and whether a foot adapted to terrestrial bipedalism constrained regular access to trees. However, some modern humans climb tall trees routinely in pursuit of honey, fruit, and game, often without the aid of tools or support systems. Mortality and morbidity associated with faculta- tive arboreality is expected to favor behaviors and anatomies that facilitate safe and efficient climbing. Here we show that Twa hunter–gatherers use extraordinary ankle dorsiflexion (>45°) dur- ing climbing, similar to the degree observed in wild chimpanzees. Although we did not detect a skeletal signature of dorsiflexion in museum specimens of climbing hunter–gatherers from the Ituri for- est, we did find that climbing by the Twa is associated with longer fibers in the gastrocnemius muscle relative to those of neighboring, nonclimbing agriculturalists. This result suggests that a more excur- sive calf muscle facilitates climbing with a bipedally adapted ankle and foot by positioning the climber closer to the tree, and it might be among the mechanisms that allow hunter–gatherers to access the canopy safely. Given that we did not find a skeletal correlate for this observed behavior, our results imply that derived aspects of the hominin ankle associated with bipedalism remain compatible with vertical climbing and arboreal resource acquisition. Our findings challenge the persistent arboreal–terrestrial dichotomy that has in- formed behavioral reconstructions of fossil hominins and highlight the value of using modern humans as models for inferring the limits of hominin arboreality.

Se estima que la población de los Batwa en Ruanda ronda entre
25.000 y 30.0001 habitantes, lo que representa menos del 1% de
los aproximadamente 12,4 millones de habitantes de Ruanda en
2019 (Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Ruanda). La legislación
posterior al genocidio impide la recopilación y divulgación de datos
desglosados por origen étnico, por lo que no se pueden calcular
las cifras exactas de los Batwa. Aunque el Gobierno de Ruanda
ha tratado de luchar contra la extrema pobreza, los Batwa siguen
siendo el grupo más marginado y desfavorecido, desde el punto de
vista socioeconómico, del país. En Ruanda, los Batwa también son
conocidos como: “alfareros”, una ocupación históricamente asociada
a los Batwa; el “pueblo históricamente marginado”, una referencia
no étnica a su condición de segunda clase a lo largo de la
historia de Ruanda; y abasigajwe iynuma n’amateka (los que la historia
dejó atrás). Fuera de Ruanda, los Batwa son conocidos como
Twa, “Pigmeos” (un término peyorativo), gente de los bosques y
(antiguos) cazadores-recolectores.

Los Batwa carecen de una representación sólida en las estructuras
de gobierno y actualmente solo tienen un senador que
los represente oficialmente en el Senado nacional. Este cargo es
uno de los ocho designados por el presidente para representar a
los grupos “históricamente marginados”. Los esfuerzos de justicia
de transición realizados por el Gobierno de Ruanda después
del genocidio de 1994 han eliminado las designaciones étnicas,
han rechazado el reconocimiento de categorías especiales de la
población y han penalizado todo discurso o acción considerados
“divisionistas” dada la historia de políticas y retórica divisivas que
condujeron al genocidio. Por lo tanto, los Batwa no son reconocidos
oficialmente como grupo indígena ni se les conceden derechos
y protecciones como tales. Ruanda es un Estado Parte en las
siguientes cartas: Carta Africana de Derechos Humanos y de los
Pueblos (ACHPR), Carta Africana sobre los Derechos y el Bienestar
del Niño (ACRWC), Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos,
Sociales y Culturales (ICESCR), Pacto Internacional de Derechos
Civiles y Políticos (ICCPR), Convención Internacional sobre la Eliminación
de todas las Formas de Discriminación Racial (CERD),
Convención sobre la Eliminación de todas las Formas de Discriminación
contra la Mujer (CEDAW), Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño (CRC) y otros; sin embargo, el país no ha ratificado la Declaración
de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos
Indígenas (UNDRIP) o el Convenio N.º 169 de la Organización
Internacional del Trabajo (OIT).

Indigenous Peoples in Uganda include former hunter-gatherer
communities, such as the Benet and the Batwa. They also include
minority groups such as the Ik and the Karamojong and
Basongora pastoralists who are not recognized specifically as
Indigenous Peoples by the government.
The Benet, who number slightly over 8,500, live in the
north-eastern part of Uganda. The 6,700 or so Batwa live primarily
in the south-western region and were dispossessed of
their ancestral land when Bwindi and Mgahinga forests were
gazetted as national parks in 1991.1 The Ik number some 13,939
and live on the edge of the Karamoja/Turkana region along the
Uganda/Kenya border. The Karamojong people – whose economy
is traditionally based on livestock – live in the north-east of
the country (mainly drylands) and had an estimated population
of 1,094,1002 according to a mid-2018 estimate by the Uganda
Bureau of Statistics. The Basongora number 15,897 and are a
cattle-herding community living in the lowlands adjacent to Mt.
Rwenzori in Western Uganda.
All these communities have a common experience of
state-induced landlessness and historical injustices caused
by the creation of conservation areas in Uganda. They have experienced
various human rights violations, including continued
forced evictions and/or exclusions from ancestral lands without
community consultation, consent or adequate (or any) compensation.
Other violations include violence and destruction of
homes and property, including livestock; denial of their means
of subsistence and of their cultural and religious life through
their exclusion from ancestral lands and natural resources. All
these violations have resulted in their continued impoverishment,
social and political exploitation and marginalization.
The 1995 Constitution offers no express protection for Indigenous
Peoples but Article 32 places a mandatory duty on
the state to take affirmative action in favour of groups that have
been historically disadvantaged and discriminated against. This
provision, which was initially designed and envisaged to deal
with the historical disadvantages of children, people with disabilities and women, is the basic legal source of affirmative action
in favour of Indigenous Peoples in Uganda.3 The Land Act of 1998
and the National Environment Statute of 1995 protect customary
interests in land and traditional uses of forests. However, these
laws also authorize the government to exclude human activities
in any forest area by declaring it a protected area, thus nullifying
the customary land rights of Indigenous Peoples.4
Uganda has never ratified ILO Convention No. 169, which
guarantees the rights of Indigenous and tribal peoples in independent
states and it was absent in the voting on the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007.

"I. Introduction: 1. As  less  than  1% of the population of Rwanda and the smallest ethnic population in Rwanda,  the Indigenous Batwa People, one of the oldest surviving tribes in Africa and the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa (later met by farmers and pastoralists), and whom Rwanda does not  recognize  as  indigenous,  are  an  extremely  vulnerable  people with endangered culture  and  lifeways. Estimates state that 30% of the Batwa in Rwanda were killed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, making them the most-affected group in the country, proportionately. Yet, the Batwa were not formally recognized as  victims  of  the  genocide.  Today,  Batwa  survival  and  continuation  as  an  Indigenous  People  remains at-risk. The  Batwa  currently  reside  in  Rwanda,  Burundi,  Uganda  and  eastern  Democratic  Republic  of Congo, as well around the world as migrants, asylum seekers and refugees...."
[With Recommendations]

Researched and written by India Reed Bowers, submitted by International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE) in collaboration with Association of Global Development of Batwa in Rwanda (ADBR) to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), 89th Session / April-May 2016; 3 April 2016.

The Kahuzi-Biega National Park (‘PNKB’) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo presents an existential threat to the indigenous Batwa people. For millennia, Batwa occupied the forests surrounding Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega, utilizing traditional ecological knowledge and sustainable practices to foster one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. The creation of the PNKB in the 1970s forced Batwa from their ancestral lands, rendering them deeply impoverished, landless, dependent and culturally disconnected. When they seek to return home and access their lands and resources, they are subjected to extreme violence by park authorities who treat them as trespassers, poachers and enemies of conservation.

This report situates the serious human rights violations suffered by Batwa in the PNKB within the broader global phenomenon of ‘fortress conservation’ and analyses the respective roles and accountability of the park’s core international partners. Ongoing violence against Batwa in the PNKB is a stark reminder of the immense human and environmental costs associated with pursuing conservation policies that prevent indigenous peoples from owning, governing, accessing and benefiting from their territories and resources. These policies are bolstered by donors, global NGOs and international organizations which enable and tacitly uphold a violent and anti-indigenous status quo in the PNKB and other protected areas.

Indigenous peoples such as the Batwa in Uganda are predominantly seen as marginalised groups, leaving little room for foregrounding their power, influence and involvement in tourism and development. Inspired by Fou-cauldian discourse theory and Actor-Network Theory [ANT], we use the concept of relational agency to analyse how the Batwa contribute to conservation and tourism development, and deepen our understanding of agency in the context of the Batwa at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda). Based on this conceptualisation we analysed the dominant (academic and non-academic) discourses on the Batwa in the light of in-depth ethno-graphic research to seek for alternative Batwa realities. Whereas scientific, NGO and governmental literature predominantly reduced the Batwa to marginalised, poor and oppressed victims of development, our ethnographic research observed the Batwa as a vibrant community that deploys expertise on forest ecology, tourism entre-preneurship, organisational capacity and political activism. With such insights we discuss the consequences of agency reduction and the ways to take the Batwa's situational agency into account. Highlighting the multiple realities of Batwa-ness provide a starting point of relating with the Batwa in ways that acknowledge them as agential, rather than only marginalised.