No land; Batwa squat on non-Batwa land.
Ø They’re critically impoverished.
Ø Kisoro district local government is against any project for
improving Batwa livelihoods, alleging that it would put them in higher
positions than their counterparts who are also impoverished.
Ø Overdrinking amongst Batwa – men and women.
Ø Batwa are marred by conflicts and killings.
Ø Reintegration is not easy due to past history – the conflict
between Batwa and non-Batwa communities (Bahutu) stemming from Rwanda.
Ø Some NGOs/CBOs (community-based organisations) have taken
advantage of the Batwa hopelessness and turned donor funds into personal
gains under the guise of ‘developing Batwa’. They also think they ‘own
Batwa’ and should be the focal entry points into Batwa communities!
Poverty and other vices among
ethnic minority groups
Uganda’s Participatory Poverty Assessment Project (UPPAP)
has emphasised the multidimensional nature of poverty and vulnerability
across different locations and social groups. Lack of basic commodities
(consumption poverty) is one dimension but other self-reported aspects of
living in poverty include: lack of productive assets; lack of social
networks and informal support systems; ill health and illiteracy;
powerlessness; lack of access to markets and community-level
infrastructure; lack of productive employment opportunities (especially
for the youth); vulnerability to shocks; and domestic problems such as
alcoholism and domestic violence.10
The problem of poverty and vulnerability in Uganda can
also be analysed in terms of spatial and social aspects.
The ‘social’ aspect refers to vulnerable groups while the ‘spatial’
refers to the geographical location. The two however are inseparable and
highly affect ethnic minority groups because they remain isolated from the
rest of Uganda’s dominant ethnic groups due to their poverty as well as
their lack of access to information, education, health services, economic
infrastructure and their low self-confidence in being able to take
advantage of opportunities open to them.11
For several decades Batwa have been segregated and
marginalised by their neighbouring communities, particularly the Bakiga
and Bafumbira. This often stems from resentment of their hunting and
gathering practices, often perceived by other communities as backward and
primitive. Some of their neighbours do not even wish to socialise with
them and consider it abominable to eat or drink with them, marry their
daughters or even sit on the same bench. Due to this segregation, the
Batwa are often forced to live in isolation from their neighbours and
collect water from different sources than those used by other communities.
Others have concluded that this state of affairs has often led their
children to abandon schools, citing discrimination in the form of bullying
by pupils from other tribes.12
Further, the general access to health care in rural areas
is limited, as there is a severe lack of clinics or hospitals and those
that do exist are understaffed and poorly equipped. The Batwa’s access to
the limited health care facilities is further exacerbated by their
marginalisation by the dominant communities. A medical need survey
undertaken in 1999 observed that lack of safe drinking water, latrines,
schools, clinics and access to government health care facilities were the
major problems faced by the Batwa. For example, the child mortality rate
for Batwa was 41 per cent while for non-Batwa it was 17 per cent and the
infant mortality rate for Batwa was 21 per cent and for non-Batwa, five
per cent.13
The Batwa suffer injustices and discrimination in local
council (LC) courts and there are numerous accounts of bias in
adjudication of disputes between Batwa and other communities. As a result,
many Batwa are discouraged from filing complaints in LC courts. The Batwa
are also inhibited by the fees charged on filing complaints in these
courts, which render access to the courts too expensive for them.
Godber Tumushabe et al, in ‘Living on the Margins of
Life’, observe that despite the historically acrimonious relations between
the Batwa and their neighbours, the surrounding communities are
continuously influencing Batwa culture and language as a result of the
interactions between the two groups. For example, the language of Batwa
living in Kabale and Kisoro districts is increasingly becoming more of a
mixture of Kinyarwanda and Congolese.14 This is due to the social
relations between Batwa women and men of neighbouring communities, leading
to children of mixed background. Increasingly, cases of defilement of
Batwa girls by neighbouring communities are being reported,15 putting
them at risk of HIV/AIDS. The explanation for these increasing cases of
defilement is that there is a dominant belief among the neighbouring
communities that when an HIV-infected man has sexual intercourse with a
Mutwa (Batwa) woman, he is cured of HIV.16 In addition, while Batwa girls
have relationships with non-Batwa men, the Batwa men cannot access non-Batwa
women in other communities. As such, Batwa complain of lack of women to
marry and possible extinction. Further still, non-Batwa men abandon the
Batwa women following sexual affairs with them and many Batwa children do
not know their fathers.17
Exclusion
There is general exclusion of the indigenous minorities in
Uganda as far as linguistics, economic and social services are concerned.
In order to tackle the widespread poverty, the Government of Uganda
launched the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) in 1997; this was
subsequently revised in July 2004.18 Through the PEAP, the government’s
overarching goal is to consolidate the economic gains, achieve rapid and
sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty on the basis of detailed
sector priorities and strategies designed. Poverty priority areas are
selected and budget resources are mobilised for these priorities.
Uganda’s new PEAP aims at key strategic results in areas
of increased GDP growth, reduced poverty and inequality and improved human
development, structured around five pillars including: (i) Economic
management (ii) Enhancing production, competitiveness and incomes (iii)
Security conflict resolution and disaster management (iv) Good governance
(v) Human development.
Ethnic minorities are often not accommodated by dominating
development paradigms and in most cases they are victimised by mainstream
development policies, policy analysts and policy thinking. Even the
‘consensual’ style of policymaking pursued by Uganda’s ministry of
finance, planning and economic development through the UPPAP programme
that has institutionalised direct consultations with the poor is yet to
benefit ethnic minority groups.
Even the millennium development goals, set out by the UN
in the late 1990s to benefit the poorest of the world in the interrelated
areas of food security, health, water and sustainable development, focus
on aggregate results and rapid development. Achieving the greatest good
for the greatest number could mean that particular needs of the most
excluded groups – of which minorities form a major part – will be ignored
in the interests of meeting the targets on paper. In addition, the
indicators of human development listed by the UN Development Programme are
less likely to lead to improvement in life expectancy, adult literacy and
children’s school enrolment amongst ethnic minorities, as these are issues
that are easier to tackle in urbanising environments hence governments’
reports provide information without segregation to highlight the situation
in areas where minorities reside.
There is no universally accepted definition of ethnic
minority groups in Uganda; distinct ethnic groups are usually classified
according to linguistic similarities.19 It has been emphasised in
international legal frameworks that the first step towards legal
protection of ethnic minority groups is to clearly identify and recognise
the communities themselves. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics during the
2002 census classified ethnic minority groups on the basis of a
demographic facet of or less than 25,000 persons in total in the whole of
Uganda. It also emphasises that any group facing disempowerment,
regardless of numerical size, should be considered a minority.20 It is
pertinent and essential that any definition of ethnic minorities
recognises their uniqueness and values vital for survival, equity and
equality.
In the words of the World Bank’s legal adviser, ethnic
minorities are recognised as: "a group of people who, because of their
numbers, historical, physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out
from the others in the society in which they live for differential and
unequal treatment and who therefore regard themselves as objects of
collective discrimination. Membership is objectively ascribed by society,
based on an individual’s physical or behavioural characteristics; it is
also subjectively applied by its members who may use their status as the
basis of group identity or solidarity."21
In the words of the International Labour Organisation,
ethnic minority groups are considered to include groups who by:
"self-definition as indigenous are distinctly different from other groups
within a state; on a special attachment to and use of their traditional
land whereby their ancestral land and territory has fundamental importance
for their collective physical and cultural survival as peoples; [and] on
an experience of subjugation, marginalisation, dispossession, exclusion or
discrimination because these peoples have different cultures, ways of life
or modes of production than the national hegemonic and dominant model."22
Failure to recognise the basic characteristics and
standards in international legal instruments portrayed in the definitions
above is partially responsible for the discrimination, isolation and
exclusion of ethnic minority groups. Indeed in the words of the UN
Subcommission Report on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities, 1986, it is asserted that there is little evidence that Uganda
is committed to addressing the problems of its multiracial and
multi-ethnic diverse population.
There is however no recognised minority status for any
ethnic community in Uganda hence they are discriminated against. They are
routinely the subject of criticism in the mass media for their
backwardness and are blamed for constituting an obstacle to development.
Discrimination is typically manifested23 as:
Ø negative stereotyping – for example, the "backwardness" of the
minorities has been the subject of intense debate in Uganda’s mass media.
Ø denial of their rights – for example, rights to land and the
right to represent and speak for themselves; and
Ø segregation – exclusion from the sphere of public action and
decision-making. In all communities where minority people exist, there is
an implied refusal to recognise them as people who deserve equal rights
like others.
In spite of the Uganda Constitution having very
progressive provisions in relation to the enjoyment of cultural rights,
such as Article 37 which states that: "Every person has a right, as
applicable, to belong to, enjoy, practise, profess, maintain and promote
any culture, cultural institution, language, tradition, creed or religion
in community with others", there is lack of progress in implementation. In
practice, ethnic minority groups have either had to drop the use of their
languages or let them be assimilated into the languages of the dominant
groups as a way of escaping segregation and discrimination on linguistic
grounds.
For example, "the Banyabindi in Kasese, they have changed
names to access education or attend school, they have accepted to be
absorbed into the culture of the Bakonzo in order to be able to access
economic opportunities. For those that have acquired wealth, they
disassociate themselves from fellow Banyabindi and change to fit into the
culture of the Bakonzo; all this is done to escape exclusion."24
In addition, "the Kasese district local government, in
response to the ministry of education and National Curriculum Development
Centre’s directive on language of instruction in lower level primary to be
conducted in the students’ indigenous languages, passed a resolution
providing for the teaching of only the Lukonzo language throughout the
district despite the presence of other ethnic minority groups that have
their own mother tongues (languages) within the district of Kasese."25
Similarly, "the Banyala have been forced to abandon their
identity and adopt Kiganda names in order not to be ridiculed at school
and fit among other students. Even after school one must keep the Kiganda
names for improved employment opportunities. Speaking the Lunyala is not
encouraged in the schools, offices or business environment; the sanctity
of the language is reserved for home. In other instances where marriage
relations have been forged between Baganda and Banyala, the language
preferred to be used in such a home is not Lunyala."26
Among the Tepeth (So) on Mt Moroto, the threat of
assimilation with the dominant Ngikaramojong language is very high just as
witnessed with the Nyangia27 in the same area. Such processes deprive
ethnic minority groups of the right to enjoy and pass on to their children
their histories, language, traditions, modes of internal governance,
spiritual practices and all else that makes them who they are. This denial
leads to a general and gradual disintegration of culture.
For most ethnic minority groups it has become virtually
impossible to participate in the economy of Uganda because their skills
are not considered very "marketable" in society. While they are well
versed in natural medicine and the ecosystem of their environment, they
are ill-equipped to assert themselves in a society that rejects them
because they are an ethnic minority. This rejection has left them without
saving or investment capacity and thus weakened and isolated them. They
are neither consumers nor manufacturers of high value-added goods and they
are often geographically scattered in small communities. Their capacity to
accumulate capital or develop cash surplus as disposable income or savings
is negligible or extremely low. Consequently, with minimal economic weight
or influence, they are effectively excluded from national economic life.
"Ninety-eight per cent of Batwa adults of working age
living in South-west Uganda were reported to be unemployed in 2004. To
survive, many Batwa work merely as casual labourers on the farms of
neighbouring communities and receive as compensation only ‘the right to
stay on the landlord’s property, cultivate a small piece of his land and
[receive] hand-outs of food and old clothing’."28
This situation not only highlights the failure to protect
ethnic minorities’ rights to equitable conditions of work but it also
presents evidence on the extreme and unchecked employment conditions that
can only be considered as a situation akin to bonded labour or slavery. In
addition, because of low education levels ethnic minority groups have low
per capita incomes. What makes this more intricate is the fact that they
are ignored by government in providing basic needs. Hence civil society
organisations, which commit resources in their areas, are looked at as
alternatives to governments.
For example, the Ik (Teuso) in Dodoth county in Kaabong
district put across this realisation during an evaluation of the NKDP29
programme of Oxfam GB in Uganda: "the challenge is to put these
(development) activities and plans into the hands of the Ik themselves so
that they may become sustainable without the intervention of Oxfam or
another NGO but solely through liaison with local government. The latter,
to date, have paid "fact-finding" visits but have yet to commit themselves
to the delivery of any kind of service (notwithstanding the recent
security provided by the central government)."
Because they live in a virtually parallel state,
disengaged from the political and economic life of a nation, socially
subordinate, and often do not constitute a politically dominant plurality
of the total population of a given society, it is difficult to see how
their welfare and rights can improve without positive action being taken
by governments to reverse such trends.
Losing land threatens the very survival of any ethnic
group. Loss of land has impacted negatively on ethnic minorities’
cultures, denying them the right to maintain a livelihood of their choice.
The manner of loss and dispossession that ethnic minority groups are
subjected to is often heavy-handed eviction undertaken without informing
or consulting them or offering them any reparation. The most recent in
Uganda has been the eviction of Basongora pastoralists from their
ancestral land gazetted as the Queen Elizabeth National Park. This has
greatly exacerbated their poverty and has deprived them of an opportunity
to develop alternative or additional means of livelihood.30 The Batwa have
been similarly affected, as seen in the extract below:
"Batwa living in the Bwindi and Mgahinga forests of
South-west Uganda were officially evicted in the 1960s but only finally
excluded from using the forests in 1991 when they were gazetted as
national parks. No compensation was provided for the displaced Batwa
either in cash or as alternative lands. In Uganda, 44 per cent of Batwa do
not even have land on which to build a hut31 and landless Batwa have
nowhere left to go. They remain transient squatters constantly looking for
somewhere they can lodge until they are moved on."
Non-consultation
One of the major problems facing ethnic minority groups is
that often they have little or no consultations on or say in how or when
measures which have or will have a direct effect on their lives are
decided or put in place. International law recognises their right to
participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them. For example, in
South-west Uganda, "the Batwa were never consulted when national parks
were created and in no way participated in the decision to create these
conservation areas despite the fact that these decisions led to their
eviction and exclusion from their ancestral lands without consulting or
seeking their consent as required by international law."32
Another example is the Benet (Ndorobo) on the slopes of Mt
Elgon in eastern Uganda, "who have gone through a series of boundary
demarcation exercises with the Uganda Wildlife Authority on the extent of
the forest reserve vis-à-vis their ancestral lands without their
consultation or consent. This has resulted in ambiguities as each boundary
marking mission never conforms to any of the earlier boundaries
established by earlier survey missions (1993, 1997, 2001, 2006), all this
while extensions are made into the ancestral lands of the Benet."33
In such processes, it is emphasised that the voices of
ethnic minorities are often never heard or even availed of the opportunity
to be heard. Yet when opportunity is availed of, ethnic minority groups
have shown that consultative and consented to processes, especially those
involving alienation or land and the requirement for relocation in the
interest of national development, can be achieved without recourse to
violence or evictions. The example here is that of the Batwa being
resettled by ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) and the Uganda
Wildlife Authority in Bundibugyo, in a process that is largely peaceful
and smooth, one that is understood by the group involved because those
charged with its implementation have taken the due process of consultation
and consent into account.
Decentralisation in Uganda was developed in response to a
situation where significant successes in economic growth and poverty
reduction during the 1990s were accompanied by gross inequities in
distribution and disparities in welfare. The potential for
decentralisation to be efficient and equitable depends on the
representativeness of local institutions. Currently there is citizen
participation in the selection of representatives through periodic
elections; with this there has been a relative increase in community
involvement in the local government planning process.34 For many
decentralisation was seen as an opportunity affording ethnic minorities
the possibility of empowerment since the district is the key political
unit with its own council of locally elected representatives and managing
its own development plan and budget. The assumption is that the
development needs of ethnic minority communities will be expressed through
a highly participatory and demand-driven process mediated by the structure
of local councils through discussions held right from the village
level.35
However, in reality, the contrary is happening: "it is
also the icon of democracy of the majority and the dominant thus has
consolidated the position of ethnic minorities in the rear in terms of
resource allocation, priority determination, etc. Especially as one
advances in the hierarchy of governance, the issues of ethnic minority
groups, initially captured at the base (LC1, LC2 and LC3), evaporate by
the time planning and resource allocation processes reach the apex (LC5).
To cope, minority groups have to wait for election time and hoard the
vote. This is temporarily effective but the spell is broken as soon as
elections are concluded."36
Instead of decentralisation bringing services closer to
the people, it has in essence further marginalised ethnic minorities in
such instances. It is interesting also to note what is going on in some
districts with regard to cultural identity, given the very complex set of
ethnic composition and heterogeneity in Uganda. For example, "the power of
the districts to employ staff has bred what is locally known as the ‘son
of the soil syndrome’. Within the workings of the district service
commissions, the phenomenon has been for each district to employ people
who regard a particular district as their native home. In such processes,
ethnic minority groups are sidelined by the dominant groups to the extent
that it can lead to more systematic and endemic exclusion of the few
professionals from ethnic minority tribes who are lucky to have some
education or skills training."
Gender and women’s rights
Amongst ethnic minority groups, the double marginalisation
of the group as a whole (in terms of access to social services, education
and health and absence of general infrastructure) is felt on a triple
scale by women, whose ascribed position is subordinated to male, and does
not lessen in any way the traditionally allocated roles and
responsibilities of production and reproduction. The systematic gender
inequality and exclusion from opportunities or ownership of resources is
in essence amplified in occurrence and magnitude, often with little or no
chance at all of being addressed. For example, "Among the Batwa, sexual
exploitation of girls and women is exacerbated by the cultural
superstitious belief that sex with a Mutwa woman cures backache whatever
the cause of the backache. This has resulted in massive sexual abuse of
young girls on grounds of seeking sexual curative abilities of the females
in Batwa society."
4. Conclusion
The indigenous minorities in Uganda are generally insecure
and highly threatened by low living standards. The above account clearly
reflects their insecurity regarding long life due to ill health, HIV/AIDS
due to sexual and gender abuse, peaceful and harmonious living with their
neighbouring communities due to hostility and harassment, the vicious
circle of poverty that engulfs their living conditions and exacerbates
their marginalisation and disempowerment.
Because of the above situation there is disenfranchisement
and powerlessness among the indigenous minorities to tackle the uphill
challenges of life and this has led to many of them resorting to
drunkenness, violence and taking the natural course of justice among
themselves. n
(Frederick Musisi Kabuye is the chairman,
Development Network of Indigenous Development Associations –DENIVA,
Kampala; website: www.deniva.or.ug and executive director, Africa 2000
Network – Uganda; email: [email protected]; website: www.a2n.org.ug.
Paper presented to the Global Minorities Meet, New Delhi, March 6-9,
2008.)
Notes
1 EU Civil Society Capacity Building Programme and
Community Development Resource Network – CDRN Position Paper on Ethnic
Minority Rights in Uganda, July 2007.
2 As listed in the Uganda Constitution as amended by February 15, 2006.
3 Jonam, Bagwe, Pokot, Babwisi, Bakenyi, Bagungu, Batagwenda, Baamba,
Kuku, Kebu (Okebu), Nubi.
4 So (Tepeth), Banyara, Batuku, Chope, Babukusu, Banyabindi, Lendu,
Basongora, Ik (Teuso), Batwa, Bahehe, Dodoth, Ethur, Mening, Jie, Mvuba,
Nyangia, Napore, Vonoma.
5 The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, Article 36.
6 Chapter 4, Articles 32 and 36, and Chapter 5 of the Constitution of
Uganda.
7 Government of Uganda, the Social Development Sector Strategic Investment
Plan (SDIP) 2003-2008: Integrating human progress with economic growth for
sustainable development, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social
Development, December 2003, p. iv (hereinafter "SDIP").
8 ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in
Independent Countries, June 27, 1989, Article 7.1.
9 The Batwa, according to Jerome Lewis, 2000, are an indigenous community
believed to be the original inhabitants of the equatorial forests of the
Great Lakes region of Central Africa.
10 Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED), 2000.
11 Jerome Lewis, ‘The Batwa Pygmies of the Great Lakes Region’, MRG,
London, 2000, pp. 13-18.
12 Interview with Penninah Zanika during a field study in April 2005,
‘Living on the Margins of Life’.
13 Kristin Rudd, 2002, ‘Development and Primary Health Care in Underserved
Populations: A Case Study of Work of Dr Scott and Carol Kellermann’.
14 EWM Kayeeye, 2004, ‘The Batwa of South-western Uganda and the African
International Christian Ministry Intervention Programme’.
15 John Thawite, 2004, ‘Batwa King Back to School’, New Vision,
August 31, 2004.
16 No medical evidence was found during the course of this study to affirm
or dismiss this assertion.
17 Thawite, ibid.
18 The government made sure that research findings from various
institutions were incorporated into the PEAP review process. Particularly
important in this regard were materials from the Uganda Participatory
Poverty Assessment Project of the MFPED. This participatory project was
established to collect data and information from poor people regarding
their own perceptions and definitions of poverty. Other research bodies
such as the Makerere Institute of Social Research and the Economic Policy
Research Centre were also involved.
19 Most Ugandans speak either Nilo-Saharan or Congo-Kordofanian languages.
Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken across the North, further classified as
Eastern Nilotic (formerly NiloHamitic), Western Nilotic, Central Sudanic.
20 Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2002.
21 World Bank Legal Department, April 8, 2005.
22 ILO, 2000, Manual on the ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples, 1989 (No. 169).
23 Jerome Lewis, ‘The Batwa Pygmies of the Great Lakes Region’, MRG,
London, 2000, pp. 13-18.
24 Participant from Kasese in the CSO workshop for Discussion of the Draft
Position Paper.
25 Participant from Kasese in the CSO workshop for Discussion of the Draft
Position Paper.
26 Participant from Kayunga in the CSO workshop for Discussion of the
Draft Position Paper.
27 Participant from KADP in the CSO workshop for Discussion of the Draft
Position Paper.
28 ‘Living on the Margins: The Deprivation of Community-Based Property
Rights of the Batwa Pygmies of South-western Uganda’, ACODE, 2005, p. 9.
29 North Karamoja Agro-pastoral Development Programme, reviewed by the
author of this position paper, Margaret Rugadya.
30 New Vision, June 12, 2007.
31 United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda, Report about Batwa
data, August 2004, p. 3.
32 A statement by a representative of the MBIFCT at the 5th World Park
Congress in 2003.
33 Participant from Kapchorwa in the CSO workshop for Discussion of the
Draft Position Paper.
34 Supplemental Report on the First Periodic Report of Uganda to the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, State Party, 2006.
35 Ibid.
36 Consultant’s summary of the CSOs meeting in reaction to the Draft
Position Paper.