The common saying of the Batwa was that "those who fight are they that have their stomachs full".

Zaterdag las ik dit artikel: http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=78213&c=20 Nu zij die mij kennen weten dat ik nooit slim genoeg ben om iets voor kennisgeving aan te nemen. Ik bedoel Oeganda (Uganda) dat mag toch ver genoeg liggen om daar mijn aandacht dus niet aan te besteden. Immers aandacht of beter het vasthouden van die aandacht, dus concentratie is momenteel toch al niet mijn meest sterke kant. Maar hé, uiteindelijk hebben we het over mij en als ik iets ben is dat onverstandig genoeg om deze wetenschap naast me neer te leggen. Laat ik mezelf hierin verontschuldigen door te stellen dat ik, door gebrek aan concentratie, me niet lang genoeg kan richten op dit gebrek, om het gebrek te kunnen vaststellen, waardoor mijn pogen dus een geëxcuseerde bezigheid mag zijn. Hierbij bent u natuurlijk zo aardig om de door mij zo vrij uitgesproken zelfkennis van eerder te vergeten. Uiteindelijk heb ik mij dus omwille van het immer aanwezige gebrek aan kennis maar eens een beetje ingelezen in de Batwa. Met die kennis zal ik toch zeker in de toekomst profijt kunnen behalen. Toch? Uiteindelijk weet ik hierop zelf ondertussen het antwoord, het verhaal van de Batwa is namelijk zo treurig en zo idioot dat ik het met mijn cynisme en pessimisme al van tevoren had moeten kunnen uittekenen. Wat kun je namelijk zoal lezen over de pygmeeënstam Batwa in Uganda die met uitsterven wordt bedreigd. Nu allereerst blijkt de Batwa pygmee de meest oorspronkelijk bewoner van Uganda: "The earliest man in Uganda lived around 60,000-50,000 B.C. This was the early Stone Age man known as Homo erectus. Traces of Homo erectus in Uganda were found at Nsongezi. He had the knowledge of making and using stone tools, especially the hand-axe. Between 50,000 and 150,000 B.C., there emerged the Middle Stone-Age man. During this period, man invented fire and more stone tools and began to become widely distributed. In Uganda, sites of the Middle Stone-Age man can be traced at Nsongezi and Sango Bay. The development of the present man is said to have taken place lace during the period 10,000 to 1,500 B.C. This falls within the Late Stone-Age period which is said to have lasted between some five hundred to six hundred years but traces of which still exist in most African societies. Between A.D. 500 and 1,500, other peoples began to migrate to Uganda from different parts of Africa. The first and largest group of such people was the Bantu. The earliest surviving inhabitants the Bantu found in Uganda are the pygmaean Batwa and the Bambuti. The closest relatives to the Stone-Age people in Uganda can be said to be the pygmoid Batwa and the Bambuti. They live by hunting and gathering and they do not have permanent dwellings. They tend to be semi-sedentary, camping for a time where food can be obtained." Niet erg interessant natuurlijk ik bedoel maar van wat eens was kan men nu geen brood meer bakken immers. Maar de vraag hoe deze groep nu tot een uitstervende stam is komen te behoren blijft of beter wordt eerder groter. Het was immers zogezegd niet een experimenteel stammetje dat zich reeds snel niet meer wist te handhaven. Eens verder gelezen: "The Batwa were once recognised as the owners of the high montane forest. The men used to hunt, and collect honey and other forest products, which were exchanged for village goods, while the women gathered vegetables, mushrooms and fruits as well as working for local farming peoples. Even during colonial times, attempts were made to drive pygmies out of their traditional habitat, the primary forest. At the end of the 19th century, when what is now southwest Uganda was part of the Kingdom of Rwanda, the Batwa, like their counterparts in Rwanda, Kivu and Burundi, were valued as court entertainers and soldiers. At the beginning of the 20th century some Batwa leaders became powerful enough to claim tribute from their neighbours. In the 1930's the Batwa, traditionally 'hunters and gatherers', would still hunt buffalo, elephant, wild boar and antelopes in a forest which stretched without a break into the great Congo rainforest. They could roam freely. In the 1960's large tracts of land were cleared for such things as a pyrethrum (insecticide made from plants) project in Rwanda. Thin strips of forest were cut to put through roads and the tree clearing broke the link between the forest and the wildlife reserves of the Congo. Large game and people could no longer migrate. Planners and cultivators ignored the very existence of the Batwa as more forest was cut down to provide arable land. The animals were hunted out of the shrinking forest and wood was cut for fuel by cultivators until finally to protect what was left of the natural habitat the government banned the Batwa themselves. The parks were originally set up in the 1930s, but it was only when they were gazetted in 1991 that the Batwa were finally evicted. Non-Batwa farmers who had destroyed the forest to make farms received recognition of their land rights, and compensation, while the Batwa who had lived for generations before and after 1930 without destroying the forest or its wildlife, and even had historical claims to land rights, only received compensation if they had acted like farmers, and destroyed part of the forest to make fields.' Since then however, as the forest has been cut down by local farmers, the Batwa have become destitute and despised. Most are entirely landless; they live as tenants or squatters on farmers', church or state land, and pay the landlord with their labour: collecting firewood and water and doing farm work. Those who do manage to get a little land are liable to be evicted by more powerful neighbours, and find it almost impossible to get redress. Despite legal provision for Batwa to use, and even live within the national parks (Ugandan Wildlife Statute, No. 14, 1996, sections 23-6) they remain excluded from them. Access to the parks is controlled by the Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Trust, the NGO CARE and the Uganda Wildlife Trust; it is negotiated through 'multiple use committees' which include almost no Batwa representation. In 2000 the Batwa set up their own organisation UOBDU (United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda) since when the attitude of these official bodies has become rather more open, but to date they have taken no actual steps to allow Batwa legal access to the forests. This exclusion is encouraged by the stereotype which represents the Batwa as destroyers of the gorillas. In fact however Batwa do not eat gorillas, and they have coexisted with them for centuries. Any gorilla-hunting they may engage in, is done at the instigation of others. Nevertheless the Batwa are stigmatised as gorilla-slayers and poachers, and get the blame for any poaching that occurs. The ban on hunting and collecting forest produce has affected the Batwa economy disastrously. Deprived of forest resources and not yet entitled to land, they now only have their labour to sell to farmers; but these maintain the old established custom of rewarding them only with food, a vicious circle that perpetuates their domination. Up to 30 per cent of the Rwandan Batwa died or were killed between October 1993 and June 1995. Those left in Rwanda were predominantly poverty stricken women and children with few sources of income and inadequate land. Batwa men had been killed during the massacres, while others had participated. Due to the stereotyped views of the Batwa, whole communities became labelled as supporters of the Tutsi, or conversely, as their murderers, and often as both. The implications of this for the future of the Rwandan Batwa are profoundly distressing. Prejudice against the Batwa is deep-rooted. The dominant local groups refuse to intermarry with the Batwa or even eat with them. Discrimination and poverty prevents the Batwa from sending their children to school or taking them to local dispensaries for treatment. There is random violence and harassment of the Batwa. For instance, in 1999 a Batwa man was murdered in Mgahinga forest, while collecting firewood. Those responsible were three local men who killed him for no apparent reason. When (in response to demands by an outside NGO) the murderers were arrested, their relatives threatened the family of the dead man, saying 'If those in prison are to die, we will kill you all.' There is little government concern in Uganda for the Batwa or Basua. Several NGOs and church groups are trying to remedy the situation by running relief or housing projects. However many of these, particular the church projects, are extremely 'top down' and do not involve real participation by the Batwa or Basua themselves" Kijk aan daar wordt een wat simpel mens als ik niet erg vrolijk van, zoveel domheid over het hoofd van een volk dat om te beginnen met praktisch niets reeds tevreden leek te zijn. Maar gelukkig zijn daar altijd nog de kerkelijke instanties met een helpende hand. Voor de niet zo zeer door God verloren, maar eerder door de mens verbannen en als achterlijk en zonder bestaansrecht beschouwde, zelf toch niet direct veeleisende minderheid, is daar dan toch altijd weer die menslievende hulp. "The rhythmic beat of the drum was the first sign that we had almost reached the end of our journey - one that had taken us almost 4000 miles by air, bus and Toyota, finishing with a two hour hike, from our homes in England to bare hilltop about 9000ft above sea level, in SW Uganda. Then we could hear singing, a chorus of twenty-five African voices, joined in unison with a powerful voice leading. As we approached, we could at last see them, poorly dressed, all less than five feet tall, some breast-feeding mothers looking as though they were children of only perhaps 8 or 10 years old by UK standards. These, at last, were the Batwa, the pygmies of the African rainforest. The choir led the way up the last few yards of our journey, past three tattered huts to the grassy summit and a unique structure - three sides of green bamboo shoots, the fourth side open and recessed in the hillside, the whole covered with a (borrowed) blue UNHCR tarpaulin. We were ushered in and sat on (borrowed) benches. Then it dawned on us - this was no ordinary building, this was their church! Simple yet elegant, humble but proud. The Batwa are not accustomed to visitors. They are nomadic forest dwellers who had lived for centuries in the rainforest, surviving in harmony with nature. They have now become some of the world's most unacknowledged refugees - ousted from their forest home by a well-intentioned international agreement to protect the rainforest for the gorillas. This windswept, steeply sloping land, perhaps four acres, has been purchased for them by AICM to give them a new stability in life. 'Their' rainforest was on an adjacent hilltop, frustratingly close. But now they could no longer follow their nomadic ways; instead, they need to adapt to a settled way of life but they lack the skills to build permanent homes and farm crops. AICM is planning to buy more land for several groups of Batwa, to provide them with the basis of self-sustenance. Most of them possess only the clothes they stand in, so that all clothes have become the colour of the red earth. They have to share useful implements such as pangas (the broad-bladed multi-purpose knives) and cooking pots. They need education in basic health and hygiene; they have very few houses because they lack the wood to build; they need to learn to keep sheep, goats and chickens; they need hope that tomorrow will be better than today. We were welcomed and we made speeches, with Canon Kayeeye translating. We felt humbled to take our standard of living for granted and then to be in the company of people who possess so little. I also felt ashamed to be white and thus associated with conservationists who consider the welfare of gorillas to be above that of the 200 people in this group. Where they all lived we could not tell, as there were just two or three other shelters visible on the opposite hillside. They sang and danced for us, with real joy; this was a rare excuse for a celebration, a relief from the daily struggle to survive. We spontaneously gave them gifts, wishing we had come better prepared: money to buy 500 seedlings so that they can plant trees for use in building; new tee-shirts for those who were dressed in only a single earth-coloured rag; support for their pastor and his wife. Time had passed unnoticed and we had a long way to go. But this was no ordinary goodbye; the drum beat started again and the choir led the way down the hill, singing the whole way; boys carried benches and blue tarpaulin on their heads; everyone barefoot while we struggled. And they still sang as we drove off, wiser and sadder, determined to do what we could to restore some dignity to the most underprivileged people we have ever seen. We were privileged to have visited them, and honoured to have given them hope that they are not alone in their struggle. En zo werd er voor de nog resterende Batwa door de goed bedoelende mens van het door hun eigenlijk reeds toebehorende land een te weinig grond aangekocht. Er werd getracht hun te leren hoe als 'beschaafd mens' te leven. Een huis, beetje boeren, wat vee, educatie en vooral het compleet loslaten van zichzelf en alle kennis die ze rijk waren. Waar natuurlijk niks mee verloren zal gaan. Een keuze tussen danken door te aanvaarden of compleet worden vergeten en stil uitsterven. Vermoedelijk is het beide eender. "To preserve the habitat of the rare mountain gorilla, Uganda expelled the Batwa Pygmy people from the forest. In the long run, officials believe, their sacrifice will have been worth it. " Ik hoop dat in ieder geval de Gorilla zal weten te overleven, wellicht is deze door mensen gemaakte keuze te kiezen voor het welzijn van dieren boven het welzijn van mensen het slimste wat ze kunnen doen en met een beetje geluk weten ze zich uiteindelijk allemaal uitgestorven, het mocht de aarde wellicht zoveel beter vergaan. Maar dat laatste is natuurlijk slechts de mening van deze cynicus en de pessimist die van zichzelf weet dom te zijn. Uiteindelijk vermoed ik in de nabije toekomst een film over het drama rond het uitsterven van de Batwa, de mens die te dom was om eeuwen van ontwikkeling waarbij verbetering niet een eerste vereiste is, ook wel beschaving genoemd, in krap een halve eeuw op te pakken. 'Batwa in the mist' als we opschieten kan Sigourney Weaver nog een rolletje meepikken immers een niet onaardige dame om naar te kijken. Geknipt en geplakt heb ik uit enkele van de volgende bronnen. http://societies.anglican.org/aicm/batwa1.htm http://forestpeoples.gn.apc.org/Briefings/Africa/fpproj_kigali_conf_sept01_base.htm http://forestpeoples.gn.apc.org/Briefings/Africa/uganda_batwa_background_oct00_eng.htm http://forestpeoples.gn.apc.org/Briefings/Africa/fpproj_uganda_summ_eng.htm http://www.myuganda.co.ug/categories/about/people_culture/tribes_languages/bantu/bafumbira/ http://www.survival-international.org/pygmy%20submission.htm http://www.visituganda.com/info/people.htm http://srdis.ciesin.columbia.edu/cases/uganda-008.html http://www.maykuth.com/Projects/goril2.htm http://www.minorityrights.org/Outsiders/outsider_article.asp?ID=19 http://www.vso.org.uk/publications/orbit/80/article1.htm http://www.berggorilla.de/english/frame.html http://www.berggorilla.de/english/gjournal/texte/13pygmies.html Naar huis maar weer.