“I talked to the Kabale Chief Magistrate on Monday, I had gone to inquire if any ruling regarding the Batwa rights had been delivered in his court, and he gave me a state insight, that the state considered the Batwa as as illegal occupants of the forest they lived in, since the forests had been gazetted during colonial times.
I further asked him to explain why then, they were not compensated and he told me about the laws of time limits etc …
The honorable judge told me in honest brutality that the Government considered the Batwa as wild animals who were just in the forest and deserved no compensation!
I asked about why the Government did not think beyond the colonial period when they were living completely on the providence of the forest, the magistrate gave me a detailed lecture about the Batwa being original occupants of no land! His was the most successful discussion I have had from the government’s point of view … ”
Anthony Ayebare, Executive Director, Global Batwa Outreach.
The Batwa have lived in forests since time immemorial. Their livelihood is complementary to forest life and do not threaten the survival of the forest but sustain it, the same way teh forest sustains their wel-being, culture and livelihood. However, the Batwa of south-western Uganda were later to suffer due to their pride in their culture and heritage when brutal force and outright manuevring all conspired to dehumanise them and deligitimise ther culture, identity, heritage and well-being.
The land that the Batwa have long-known as their home (read forests) was declared as forest reserves in the 1930s by the British colonial government, thereby at law limiting the access to the Batwa ancestral land and life. However, it was in 1991, several decades after independence that the Batwa saw the brutal face of the colonial changes. Government of Uganda designated the Batwa ancestral land as Mgahinga and Bwindi national park and Echuya central forest reserve. This effectively banned the Batwa from their traditional forest activities and displaced them from their traditional homes.
As if that was enough, there was no compensation or anything like that. So, the Batwa became homeless, landless and this added to their already bad state as an extremely poor community, and became increasingly marginalised.
Thus on 13th, February, 2009, fourty one members of the Batwa community from Kabale, Kanungu and Kisoro districts wrote a declaration to the Government of Uganda raising their matters and the violations of their rights guaranteed under the national constitution and international human rights instruments Uganda is party to. (See Declaration here;
It should be apparent that a government that is in control of all corners of Uganda’s territory knows all that is happening in the country. When presenting its first and second periodic state reports to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights during the May 2006 and May 2009 sessions respectively, Uganda however made no reference to the human rights situation of the Batwa people. The African Commission was quick to note the loud silence of the government and promptly expressed concern about the omission, especially regarding; the new land policy and its potential to address the problem of the Batwa but its failure so far to do so; the risk of extinguishment of the culture and language of the Batwa people; the importance of the forest to the Batwa people both in terms of their livelihoods and the strong religious and spiritual value it holds; the Ugandan government’s failure to respect its agreement with the World Bank that it would compensate the Batwa people evicted from their lands when Mgahinga and Bwindi national parks were created; the need for affirmative action towards the Batwa in order to tackle the marginalisation and discrimination that they face and the need for political representation of the Batwa.
In reaction, the government said that it was aware of, and did not deny, the problems of the Batwa and in particular recognised the religious and spiritual importance of land for the Batwa people. The government went on to declare, before the African Commission, that it will look into giving land back to the Batwa people.
We are in 2011 and despite the commitments made by Uganda at international and domestic levels, the Batwa are not yet recognised as indigenous people of Uganda. They are thus denied specific protection and other entitlements to indigenous people and the average human being. Specifically, the Batwa need land and housing, education and adult literacy, income generating activities including agriculture, and forest access and benefit-sharing. No doubt, the Batwa as a people also are entitled to the right to practice their culture like everyone else. What is interesting is the fact that heavy economic activity that leads to the destruction of the forests is allowed while the Batwa who have a unique and complementary relationship with the forest are being hounded out of it. How can one pretend to preserve the forest without the Batwa who are part and parcel of its ecology?
The Global Batwa Outreach, where I volunteer as advocacy officer, formed in 2007 by Anthony Ayebare aims at providing food, housing, medical services, economic empowerment, skills training, cultural preservation and human rights advocacy to the Batwa community of southwest Uganda, Africa. Currently, the Global Batwa outreach runs five programs; Building of a medical centre; Agricultural Development, Education; Housing and Resettlement and Human Rights Advocacy and Research.
More information on the non-profit organisation is available here http://www.globalbatwaoutreach.org/about-us.html. Volunteers are welcome and it is easy to be involved, just follow this link; http://www.globalbatwaoutreach.org/get-involved.html
Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire 
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