Bridging the gap between the Batwa Elders and their grandchildren

Last summer I traveled to Uganda where I worked with the Batwa Pygmies to help improve their understanding of clean water, sanitation and the effects on human health. The Batwa are a group of indigenous people who lived in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for thousands of years where they created a way of life using the plants and animals for medicine, food and rituals. In the 1990s the Ugandan government decided that it wanted to use the Batwa’s forest home for gorilla trekking because it is a huge source of revenue. Subsequently, the Batwa were removed from the forest and relocated to mountainous, unfertile farming lands outside the forest boundaries. Without the plants and animals they had always collected, these hunter-gatherers had to learn to farm and work for the surrounding tribes in order to make money to live. They lost access to many of the resources they had previously used for their traditional ceremonies and are thought to have stopped performing them. The generation that originally lived in the forest is now dying out and with them their unique accounts of life in the forest.I decided to create a more sustainable project in which I would encourage the elder’s grandchildren to inquire about their grandparents’ lives in the forest and the associated rituals, dances, and music.It could also be a way to connect the Batwa to the outside world and a way for the Batwa to be able to express themselves as they want to be seen, not as we see them.