They are known as the Batwa or the Great Lakes Twa, a pygmy people who are believed to be, not only the oldest surviving population of the Great Lakes region of central Africa, but the first people to inhabit Africa and the world in general, alongside the Kalahari San people.
Though they currently live as a Bantu caste, current populations numbering over 80,000 people are found in the states of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Once specialists in hunting and gathering, the Batwa are said to have created the first advanced civilization in the world but are now living as squatters in various rural areas. They have become one of Africa’s most vulnerable and endangered groups as they are being forced to leave their mountain forests to pave way for agriculture, logging, development projects, and the creation of conservation areas being spearheaded by respective governments.
There is fear that most of these mountain-dwelling people, who are said to be good dancers and storytellers, will become extinct as their means of survival is being taken away from them without any compensation. How the Batwa became the first African people and why officials should take a second look at silencing them.
Historical accounts state that scientific DNA gene tracing revealed that the first humans were pygmoid Twas (Batwa) or Sarwa (San) in Africa.
“The inter-marriage between Twa, Kalahari San and other Stone-Age Bantu gave birth to various ancient and modern earth’s indigenous tribes which later developed wider knowledge that spread the continent of Africa and the world,” according to accounts published by tripdownmemorylane.
The Batwa, in the distant past, developed a highly technical and advanced type of material culture and even built a boat travelling all over the world. Batwa subsequently spread to modern day Australia, Greenland, Siberia and Mongolia, as well as, Papua New Guinea and Amazon.
Yet, they have over the years suffered ethnic prejudice, discrimination and violence largely due to their pygmy ancestry.
