SUMMARY
The Batwa (sing. a Mutwa, also called Twa or Bambuti) people are a Pygmy people residing around the Kivu lake region in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the DR Congo. In DR Congo, they lived in forest and forest–savannah areas of North and South Kivu, Maniema and northern Katanga/Tanganyika provinces. They were widely regarded as descendants of some of the earliest inhabitants of the equatorial forest, and conservative estimates put their population in the Lake Kivu region at around 100 000. Most Batwa were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers whose livelihoods and cultural practices were closely tied to the forest, although many also engaged in casual labour and petty trade along the forest margins.
The Batwa were among the most marginalized groups in central Africa. In DR Congo, political access and customary rights were closely linked to recognised control over land. The Batwa’s forest-based, mobile way of life and lack of formalised customary chieftaincies meant that they were largely excluded from the land tenure arrangements that underpinned access to authority and services. A land tenure law in 1973 (often implemented from the late 1970s) vested rural land in the state and was interpreted as granting rights primarily to those occupying or cultivating land, further undermining Batwa claims to their traditional forests. Conservation initiatives, including the creation of protected areas and World Heritage sites, shielded some forests from logging and agricultural encroachment but frequently treated Batwa presence and hunting practices as threats to biodiversity. As a result, Batwa communities were evicted from ancestral territories without compensation or alternative livelihoods, were pushed to the margins of villages and towns, and were often subjected to stigma, exploitation and, in some cases, forms of servitude by more powerful Bantu neighbours.
Batwa marginalization extended beyond land to most areas of social and political life. They were severely under-represented in formal politics, had limited access to education and health care, and faced widespread prejudice that portrayed them as “backward” or less than fully human. In eastern and south-eastern Congo, Batwa and related Pygmy communities were frequently targeted by militias belonging to larger Bantu groups. In particular, Baluba and other Bantu-speaking communities in Katanga and Tanganyika provinces were reported to have subjected Batwa to systematic abuse, including killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence, often framed by beliefs that contact with Batwa or Batwa women conferred special powers. During the Congo wars, armed groups of various affiliations, including Rwandan rebel factions and Congolese Mayi Mayi, also preyed on Batwa and Bambuti communities, using them as porters, guides or sources of forced labour, and in some cases committing extreme atrocities such as the “Effacer le tableau” campaign in the early 2000s.
In response to these conditions, Batwa and other Pygmy communities formed representative organisations at local, national and international levels to advocate for recognition as indigenous peoples and to seek legal protection of their rights. Alongside these non-violent efforts, segments of the Batwa population resorted to armed mobilisation. From 2013 onwards, in Tanganyika and northern Katanga, Batwa in some areas took up arms against Baluba and other Bantu communities in a series of clashes often referred to as the Batwa–Luba conflict. Batwa fighters organised initially into loosely structured self-defence bands and later into more clearly named militias. One of the most prominent was the Perci militia (from personnel civil, “civilian personnel”), a Pygmy/Batwa-majority armed group active in Tanganyika that attacked Luba villages and confronted Bantu Mayi Mayi and local defence forces. Another Pygmy militia in Tanganyika, Hapa na Pale (“here and there”), also drew heavily on Batwa recruitment and participated in attacks on Bantu-inhabited localities and clashes with state forces. These groups became key vehicles for Batwa participation in local non-state conflicts over land, status and access to forest resources.
Batwa militias also developed links to more structured armed and political actors. During the First Congo War, Laurent-Désiré Kabila reportedly mobilised Batwa and other Pygmy communities into auxiliary forces to support his rebellion against the Mobutu regime, taking advantage of their knowledge of forest terrain and their grievances against Bantu elites. Under his successor Joseph Kabila, organised Batwa militias were at times used as local allies and informants in operations against other insurgent movements such as the secessionist Kata Katanga, particularly in areas where Batwa and Bantu groups were already in conflict.
