Echuya Batwa, mostly known as Pygmies, are the most marginalized, vulnerable and voiceless group of indigenous people in Uganda. The Batwa were the first inhabitants of the forests of Bwindi and Mgahinga, but were affected forever with the establishment of the National Game Parks.

When Uganda Wildlife Authority established the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park in 1991, the indigenous Batwa were evicted from their forests, and didn’t even receive any compensation. They were pushed to live on the edges of the other Ugandan society, experiencing consistent and extensive discrimination. And the Batwa became conservation refugees.

Visiting the Batwa  

You can make a Uganda safari tour to visit this interesting pygmy tribe near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. One of the activities on this Uganda safari is to take on the Batwa Experience in Mgahinga and Bwindi. This activity is created by the Batwa pygmies themselves to educate their children and to share their heritage and traditions with the rest of the world.

Another option would be arranging a visit by yourself through your tour operator or guide. But you can be assured that for both options, your contribution will majorly go straight to benefiting the Batwa community. This is amazingly eco-tourism at its core meaning and will give you one of the undisputed and memorable encounter with a marginalized culture.

And you will need just about a 15 minutes’ walk outside of the main village and lodges of Bwindi as your guide takes you through all the needed information about the Batwa and you will arrive at an area of small, wooden houses, inhabited by locals alone, here you will mingle and experience how this marginalized group of people go about their lives.

This tour gets more interesting since this is the very destination for Gorilla trekking safari tours in the forests of Bwindi and Mgahinga in Uganda.