Twa

The Twa (plural: Batwa) are a pygmy people from Central Africa. They are the oldest recorded inhabitants in the area of the African continent that now comprises the territories of Rwanda and Burundi.

When the Hutus, a people of Bantu origin, arrived in the region, they dominated the Twa and reduced their population. Around the fifteenth century AD. C., the Tutsis, a Nilotic people, possibly arrived from Ethiopia and dominated both the Twa and the Hutu. The Batwa (plural of Twa) live mainly in rural and inaccessible areas and are marginalized from modern African societies. They dedicate themselves to pottery and subsistence agriculture. They live in small settlements scattered in remote areas, in adobe and cane huts called poto-poto. They are small in stature like all pygmies and only interact with each other. They are members of UNPO. According to a gorilla documentary, this tribe has been driven from their small settlements to protect endangered gorillas. This may mean the extinction of their ancestral culture and way of life.