Uganda:
The Batwa issue declaration calling for their rights to be recognized
The Batwa (often described
as “pygmies”) are widely regarded as the original forest-dwelling
inhabitants of the Equatorial forest in the Great Lakes Region comprising
Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In
Uganda, they lived in the forest of the Mufumbira Mountains in the
South West. They were hunter-gatherers that relied on the forests
for their livelihood and found in the forests the sustenance for
their spiritual and social life.
In the 1930’s, the
Batwa’s lands were declared forest and game reserves by the British
colonial power, which implied the Batwa began to have restricted
access to their own land, though the forest continued to be economically
and culturally important to them.
In 1991, and without
the Batwa’s participation, those forest reserves became national
parks along the colonial and neo-colonial construct of “Fortress
Conservation”: Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable
National Park and Echuya Central Forest Reserve. The circle around
the Batwa was closed: they were banned from their traditional forest
activities and displaced from their lands, receiving little or no
compensation at all. At present, almost half remain landless (squatting
on others’ lands and working for non-Batwa masters in bonded labour
agreements) and almost all live in absolute poverty. They have poorer
levels of health care, education and employment than their ethnic
neighbours.
In a recent Declaration
(13 February 2009) submitted to the Ugandan Government and signed
by 41 Batwa community representatives of five districts of South
West Uganda, they state that since that time they are “homeless,
landless and one of the poorest and most marginalised communities
in Uganda”. In their declaration, they add that “because we are
destitute, we depend on casual labour for survival and erect temporary
shelter on land belonging to other communities around us. We are
denied an opportunity to live a dignified life and contribute to
national development like other citizens of Uganda contrary to International
Human Rights Standards and the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda”.
Some 6700 Batwa live in Uganda.
As one Batwa representative
expressed at the recent meeting that produced the declaration, “Why
is it that animals are guarded by guns and yet we the people are
suffering? We have been voting but are we citizens of this country?”
A press release from
the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU)
regarding the Batwa’s declaration, describes the sad and unfair
destitution of an original people that used to live since time immemorial
in coexistence with the environment: “The Batwa temporarily camp
on other people’s land in Kisoro, Kabale, Kanungu, Mbarara and Masaka.
They offer daily casual labour in exchange for food. Where this
condition is breached, the consequence is expulsion from the individual’s
land. The Mutwa [Batwa] woman is limited to receiving food for her
labour and not even enough food to feed her infant children. She
is also compelled to divert her older children from school to provide
labour.”
The Batwa have raised
a basic demand of justice: “Conscious that all human beings are
equal and entitled to all rights and freedoms without distinction
of any kind all human beings deserve to be treated with dignity
and respect”. They remind the government that it is obliged by Constitutional
provisions “to institute an effective machinery to deal with any
hazard or situation resulting in general displacement of people
or serious disruption of their livelihood” –which is the situation
that they are confronting.
In their declaration,
the Batwa claim respect to their “fundamental right to our ancestral
lands” and that -pending the resolution of their land claims- “the
government should provide alternative land” for their resettlement.
At the same time, they demand that “since the forest forms the basis
of our cultural and spiritual heritage, the government should allow
us access the forest for purposes of preserving our cultural values.”
As the UOBDU press
release states, “The declaration of the Batwa, now submitted to
the Ugandan Government, will spearhead their strategy for their
continuing struggle for their rights to be recognised. We strongly
recommend that the Government pay attention to the plight of the
Batwa people and integrate them into the national development efforts
of Uganda. The Batwa are deprived of their access to their forests
and most are landless. The Ugandan Government has obligations under
international law.” It is now time for the government to act and
repair a long standing injustice.
Article based on UOBDU
press release of February 23, 2009, at
http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/africa/uganda_
batwa_declaration_press_rel_feb09_eng.pdf, disseminated by Amarantha
Pike, e-mail: amarantha@forestpeoples.org,
and Batwa Declaration at
http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/africa/uganda_
batwa_declaration_feb09_eng.pdf
