Indigenous Peoples of Uganda and Tanzania
In this blog series, we are providing a small glimpse of the many vibrant indigenous cultures in countries around the world. This article focuses on the Batwa of Uganda and Hadzabe of Tanzania.
The Twa (plural: Batwa, singular: Mutwa) are indigenous peoples that are spread across Central Africa, with some of them living in southwestern Uganda in the districts Bundibugyo, Kabale, and Kisoro. Believed to be the protectors of the forest, the Batwa are of small stature with a long and rich history.
In 1992 they were evicted from their lands to make space for the protection of 350 endangered mountain gorillas which are the tourist attraction of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Since they held no land title they were not compensated, which led to difficult standards of living: they could not access sacred spaces for their spiritual practices, nor could they access medical care, which hiked their mortality rates.
Non-governmental organizations such as United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) have risen to protect and defend the rights of the Batwa in the courts of law to help them develop sustainable alternative livelihoods. As for the Batwa themselves, they've resorted to creating clay pots and selling them to tourists, both for income and as a preservative marker of their ancestral history, despite the low market available.
Far from the trough at Uganda's southwest border, the Hadzabe indigenous peoples live and thrive south of Tanzania's Arusha region.
Unlike the Twa who are estimated to be a little over half of 10,000 people (2014 Uganda Population and Housing Census), the Hadzabe are even more marginalized as shown in the 2012 Tanzania census to be just a little over 1,000 in number. These hunter-gatherers have likely occupied their current territory for thousands of years.
Amongst the Hadzabe there is no governing hierarchy, and their egalitarian social view puts women at a considerably equal level as men. They raise their children communally, exhibiting in one of the best ways the old African adage: It takes a village to raise children.
One thing to note is that they do not believe in an afterlife, but rather believe that they return to Ishoko (the Sun) after they die. It's also interesting to see that the Hadza concept of the Sun and the Moon is gender-reversed as compared to most of other civilizations' mythology: Ishoko is held in a divine feminine light and is the wife to Haine, the masculine lunar figure.
The fight for indigenous people's rights in East Africa has a long way to go until they are able to have access to basic human rights and have their religions acknowledged by the governments. Their ancestral lands have been poached by the tourism industry with barely any compensation. The Batwa, the Hadzabe and many other marginalized indigenous peoples from all over East Africa are represented in courts of law by different non-governmental organizations, which is one step closer to bringing them and their ancestors justice and peace.
