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The Twa people are a small African ethnic minority, also known as Pygmies, living in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. They have a unique culture and traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but have been heavily repressed and discriminated against by larger ethnic groups. They face challenges such as land pressures, violence, and difficulty accessing education and healthcare. The UN has expressed concern about their steep decline and destruction due to displacement and exposure to violence.
The Twa people are an African ethnic minority found in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. They are sometimes referred to as “forgotten people”, as Twa society and culture have been heavily repressed by larger and more powerful ethnic groups. Some people have expressed concern about the survival of the Twa people in Africa’s highly volatile political climate, as they are vulnerable to discrimination, land pressures and other problems.
In Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, the Twa make up about one percent of the population. Overall, there are an estimated 80,000 Twa people in Africa. This small ethnic group lived in Central Africa long before other African peoples colonized the region and are part of a larger group of African peoples who are classified as Pygmies due to their characteristically small stature. Typically, the term “pygmy” is not used, and ethnologists prefer to identify the various groups of pygmies based on their unique ethnic groupings, as “pygmy” can be perceived as derogatory.
Traditional Twa life is semi-nomadic, with a hunter-gatherer approach to foraging for food. Through thousands of years of existence in the Great Lakes region, the Twa people have developed their own unique culture which includes dance, music and religious traditions that vary from those of other ethnic groups in the region. With the arrival of large ruling tribes, the Twa culture began to undergo dramatic changes.
Many ethnologists are concerned about the Twa people because they have been deprived of their traditional hunting and gathering grounds. Many modern Twa are landless, poor, and heavily discriminated against due to their diverse ethnic identity and obvious physical differences. The Twa often have difficulty accessing education, health care and other vital services and are excluded from the wider society in parts of their traditional homeland. They also face problems with violence; during the Rwandan genocide, for example, it is estimated that up to 30% of the Twa population may have been murdered.
Members of this ethnic group are also sometimes referred to as Batwa; as an ethnic minority, they often struggle for recognition and limelight with global organizations that are supposed to protect minority and refugee populations. The United Nations estimates that the Twa population of Africa has suffered a steep decline and that this ethnic group has suffered great destruction due to forcible displacement from their land and exposure to the wars and violence plaguing parts of Africa .
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