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UGANDA 2
I visited Uganda in early 2017. |
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Uganda produces some really good raffia and banana-stem basketry, particularly the Toro of the west, who have the most intricate designs and still use natural dyes.*
This community arts centre in Ndegeya village, 7km from Masaka, has a cool outdoor sculpture park and holds art events throughout the year.*
The Ndere Troupe showcase dances from many of Uganda's tribal groups with high-energy shows taking place in a 700-seat amphitheatre.*
One of Africa's most ancient tribal groups, the Twa are now faced with a plight common to many indigenous peoples: they are a marginalised sector of the Ugandan community, often living in squalid conditions.*
Life in the forest was anything but easy, but this is the only life the older generation know, and even those who are making an effort to adopt farming have found it very hard to adapt to modern life.*
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On YouTube, search "Dance 14 Uganda Doug Spencer".
Many Ugandans view the Twa with disdain and will tell you they're lazy.*
The interesting village of Katwe on the north shore of Lake Edward...is famous for its salt industry. Salt mining on the crater lake behind the village dates back to at least the 15th century, and today some 3000 people still used the same traditional methods. Women pull salt from evaporation ponds when it's dry enough while men dig rock salt year round.*
The Vanishing Twa
Diverse cultural perspectives can inspire creativity and drive innovation.
Traditionally the Twa were forest-dwellers. As farming and herding Hutu and Tutsi encroached on and cleared their ancestral forests, Twa were increasingly forced to abandon their traditional lifestyle and culture. By the 1970s agriculture and conservation schemes created ever-greater pressures on the Twa, rendering many landless – without consultation or compensation. |
The Twa (Batwa) people have almost all been forced out of their ancestral forest homes, where they lived as nomadic hunters and gatherers, due to the clearing of forests for agricultural by neighbouring tribes or the creation of national parks.*
But the Twa are uninterested in living in a modern agro-industrial society.*
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*These captions are from East Africa -- Lonely Planet's travel guide.