Uganda case study: The COVID-19 pandemic sees hunger and poverty on the rise among the dispossessed Batwa

This article is part of a series on the impacts of COVID-19 on indigenous and tribal peoples. The full policy report, “COVID-19 and indigenous and tribal peoples:  the impacts and underlying inequalities” which features 10 case studies, including this one, is available here.

By Marie Joyce Godio through the help of Penninah Zaninkah and Aisha Nyiransenga

When the Batwa’s traditional lands in southwestern Uganda were demarcated as national parks in 1991, they lost access to the forests that had been their home for millennia. Dispossessed of their land, the majority of Batwa people now live in extreme poverty. Their situation has pushed them to become dependent on aid from the government and NGOs. 

The United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) is a Batwa organisation that aims to support their struggles on land rights and on sustainable alternative livelihoods. UOBDU believes that the current food relief as part of the support in the time of the pandemic is not sustainable and that the relief will very likely be discontinued even before the lockdown is lifted. 

Most of the Batwa community depends on cheap labour for survival. But the lockdown as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 prevented people from leaving their homes to look for work, and businesses that would normally require their labour are also shut down. 

Before the lockdown, the Batwa would sell used bottles on the roadsides, work as potters, clean and pick up rubbish around homes and hotels. With their source of income cut off, hunger is an evident concern; they can only eat when they have worked. Even for Nyiransenga Aisha, a Mutwa, who has more stable work as an office attendant of UOBDU, finds it hard to get by. Although she still gets a salary despite not working on a daily basis due to the lockdown, she still finds herself unable to provide food for her family which can last for two days. It doesn’t help that prices of basic commodities are increasing. She does some cleaning work to get additional income. 

Farming could have offered another means of livelihood but the Batwa have been left with little to no land to grow food, even just for their own consumption. The pandemic has made the survival of the Batwa absolutely uncertain and precarious. It is particularly hard for Batwa women and girls [1] as they are more vulnerable to domestic violence, including insults, beatings and rape by their own husbands and to threats of rape and sexual assault by non-Batwa men. 

Due to limited transport, the Batwa don’t have proper access to medical services. They live in very remote areas where they have to walk long distances to get treatment. Some who cannot walk remain home without getting medical help, leaving the matter in God’s hands. They also do not have access to information in general, and that’s no different at this time of the pandemic. 

UOBDU knows it will take a while for society to stabilise and go back to a time where the Batwa are free to leave their homes and look for work. They can only brace themselves for the exacerbation of the Batwa’s hunger and poverty during the pandemic and any long-term impacts of this current difficulty. 

Ultimately, the Batwa are demanding land for resettlement. 

 

"Since we were evicted from our traditional forests in the 1990s to make way for national parks, we have been marginalised and landless. We also seek renewed access to the forest for our cultural practices,” 

 

say the community representatives from five districts who submitted a declaration to the government demanding land for resettlement in 2009. But since its submission, the Batwa community has never been given their land back or been resettled. This has not discouraged them from filing a petition in the constitutional court in 2013. The case is due for hearing. Since the petition was filed in the court, the government has tried to provide some interventions and is slowly trying to involve the Batwa in some of their interventions, an act that has never been seen before. 

[1] https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/community-institutions-rights-land-natural-resources-gender-issues-economic-social-cultural-rights