The Smallest People on Earth
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By Angela Saylor
A barefoot woman, dressed in bark cloth, climbs out of a treehouse and down a ladder made from branches. Her two children and her husband follow. The year? 1992.
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The family joins the other members of their community, who have slept on the ground, in little clearings cut out of the bushes, or in thatched huts just large enough for one person. The Batwa (BA-twah) people do not require much room because they are among the smallest people on earth. Boys and girls grow to only a little less than five feet.
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These Batwa belong to one of the oldest surviving African tribes and their people have lived in the forest as hunter-gatherers for 500 years. Other than their height and paler, more bronzed skin, they look like ordinary Ugandan people.
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This early morning is like any other morning for the sixteen community members, looking strong and fit, as they divide up their tasks. Tailors rip the bark off a tree, beat it, and wet it to make bark cloth. Then they wrap the tree trunk in green banana leaves. After several days, they will plaster it with wet cow dung and banana leaves to help it heal. By going through this process, a tree can survive thirty years of annual use.
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Two bee harvesters make a hole in a long branch and tie small sticks together with bendable pieces of vine. With the palms of his hands, the younger man rapidly rotates the bundle of sticks in the hole of the branch until a spark appears, and he blows on it. With the burning bundle in one hand, a basket hanging from his other arm, and the branch in his mouth, he climbs up a high tree. The children watch with open mouths.
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The man holds the smoky bundle near the entrance of the hive. He gently smokes out the bees to drive them lower into their hive. The bees respond by filling up on honey, so they hopefully won’t sting him. With the branch, the young man pries the honeycomb loose and places it into the basket.
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Meanwhile, a gardener hums as she tends the plants that took care of medical needs, like stomach aches. She also uses the black crust of ants’ nests to heal skin infections.
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As dinnertime approaches, gatherers pick edible plants from the rain forest to supplement their meal. A group of men, with a net, bows, arrows, and spears, form a hunting party and go off into the forest. After a while, they return with a pig, hanging upside down from a pole, resting on their shoulders.
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Cooks build a campfire, and delicious smells of roasting meat fill the air. Everyone gathers inside a homestead of mud and straw and eat a hearty meal of pork and plants.
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After everyone’s bellies are full, the elders tell the children fables. Then musicians beat drums and play an African thumb harp made from wood and thin metal strands, while the rest of the adults sing. Soon the children follow the adults’ leads, dancing, jumping, and stomping.
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As night falls, the Batwa return to their sleeping areas. They love their forest home. They get everything they need from it and depend on it.
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The next day, the lives of this community and 2000 other Batwa, change. Army men with guns order them to gather their few belongings – cooking pots and hunting gear – and leave the forest forever.
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Why should they leave their beloved home? They’ve never damaged the land or wildlife. The soldiers tell the Batwa that the Ugandan government wants to make their forest into a national park called Bwindi (B-WEEN-dee). The government and conservation groups from around the world think that the Batwa might spread infection to the 350 endangered gorillas – half the world’s population – that share the forest with them.
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So, everybody must leave, except the gorillas. The government doesn’t give any money to the 2000 Batwa because they’re nomads, never settling in one spot, not having any papers to prove they owned the land.
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Some of those Batwa move to the town of Kabale, a little farther away, or to other parts of southwest Uganda, the Congo, or Rwanda. But many of them stay closer to home at the edges of the forest, living there illegally. Other people treat them badly. The refugees – unprepared to live anywhere else – try to survive, although many of them don’t. Many live until they’re only 28 years old.
In 2001, Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann, American medical missionaries, became interested in the Batwa near Bwindi Park. They established homes in 11 settlements around the park, health clinics, water programs, and a hospital. They built schools at every level, from nursery schools to high school. The Batwa eventually took over these activities through a development program, supported by the Kellerman Foundation in Texas.
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Although the Batwa appreciated what the Kellermanns had done and continue to do for them, the elders still worried because their descendants didn’t know about their ancestral forest life. So, in 2010, members of the Batwa Development Program purchased land outside Bwindi Park and began the Batwa Experience.
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The Batwa Experience is a living history presentation for the Batwa children and tourists from around the world. Batwa, aged 20 to 70, work as dancers and guides, and they demonstrate how their people once lived and hunted. They share a traditional meal, ancient legends, and songs. They teach their visitors how to use a bow and arrow and encourage them to participate in traditional dances. They are happy and comfortable in the forest; they feel like they are back at home. 180 Batwa children take field trips each year to witness the Batwa Experience, sometimes staying the night Tourists trek through the rain forest and pay money to participate in this mind-opening adventure and buy baskets and other crafts. This helps to pay for school fees and books for the children and provides money to buy land. It restores dignity and hope to the Batwa.
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Besides the Batwa Experience, some members of the tribe earn a living by working for the farmers, in exchange for food. Some men learn woodworking; women, knitting, sewing, and basket-making.
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What has happened to the Batwa population in recent years? About 900 of them live in the settlements around Bwindi Park. Their numbers appear to be increasing slightly because of the vast improvement in survival rates. In 2002, 38 % of their children died before their fifth birthday; by 2012, that rate had fallen to 6 %.
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There is more good news. The Kellermann Foundation had its first two Batwa university graduates in 2013 and 2014. The Batwa Development Program introduced animal husbandry in 2013. It gave 19 families each a pair of rabbits to breed. The families sold the rabbits they produced to make money and ate some of them for dinner. Since they had lost their forest home and were forbidden to hunt, the Batwa ate meat only once a month before this thriving program started.
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What the Batwa lacked in stature, they made up in pride. Despite all their hardships, this strong African people has not only survived, but it has preserved its traditions. But why did they have to pay such a huge cost for wildlife to be conserved? A problem they had no hand in causing? Who should determine if it is people or wildlife who is more important? Where is the balance?
In June, 2013, my husband and I visited the Batwa as part of a safari in southwestern Uganda. I learned some of the information contained in this article during that Batwa Experience. Additional information was gathered from Uganda, a Bradt Guidebook by Phillip Briggs; www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africa and indianocean/Uganda/8796056/Uganda-mountain-gorillas-and-Batwa-pygmies-in-Bwindi-Impenetrable; http://uganda.thebeehive.org/content/741/1921; www.africa-uganda-business-travel-guide.com/ugandahoneybee-keeping.html; www.pygmies.net/page/history.html; www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-livestock/beekeeping/harvest-honey,aspx;www.survival international.org/material/20; a phone conversation and several emails exchanged with Sally Stillings, Executive Director of the Kellerman Foundation.