Great Lakes Twa

The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu speaking group native to the African Great Lakes region on the border of Central and East Africa. As an indigenous pygmy people, the Twa are generally assumed to be the oldest surviving population of the Great Lakes region. Current populations of Great Lakes Twa people live in the states of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2000 they numbered approximately 80,000 people, making them a significant minority group in these countries. The largest population of Twa is located in Burundi estimated in 2008 at 78,071 people.

Apart from anthropological literature, the term "Twa" generally refers to the Twa of the Great Lakes region. There are a number of other Twa populations in the Congo forest, as well as southern Twa populations living in swamps and deserts where there has never been forest, but these are little known in the West.^{[citation needed]}

Traditionally, the Twa have been semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers of the mountain forests living in association with agricultural villages, much as other pygmy peoples do.

When the Hutu, a Bantu-speaking people, arrived in the region, they subjugated 'bush people' (hunter-gatherers) they called Abatwa, which are generally assumed to be the ancestors of the Twa today, though it may be that the Twa arrived alongside the Hutu, and either were a distinct people from the original inhabitants, or have mixed ancestry. For several hundred years, the Twa have been a small minority in the area, currently 1% in Rwanda and Burundi, and have had little political role, though there were at times Twa in the government of the Tutsi king, and some even obtained a privileged position in the royal court as entertainers, or even executioners.

Unusually for Pygmies, who generally trade meat for agricultural products, iron, and pottery, the Twa are themselves potters.

The Twa are often omitted in discussions about the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis, which reached its height in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. About 30% of the Twa population of Rwanda died in the violence.

One of the reasons why the Twa were looked at unfavorably was because they ate sheep, which was taboo to both Tutsi and Hutus because sheep skin was used to carry babies on womens backs and sheep were believed to keep herds of cattle calm.

In Rwanda, there was a belief that sleeping with a Twa woman could cure acute backache. Tutsis and Hutus suffering from backache would find twa women to sleep with. Children born from these encounters were called "Abasyete" and were said to have a "different morphology". Most Abasyete were found in the Nyanza District but many were killed during the Rwandan Genocide.