My photos from Uganda


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The Batwa Pygmies
 

The Pygmies lived for more than half a million years as hunters and gatherers in the rain forests of Central Africa and are one of the few remaining indigenous peoples of the world. Furthermore they may be the World's first monotheists hundreds of thousands of years before their late Bantu-speaking neighbors adopted Islam and Christianity.
The 6,250 surviving Pygmies in Uganda were evicted in the 1960s when their forests were turned into National Parks for gorillas. There was no government re-settlement plans for the Batwas and as you can see in my photos they barely hang unto life on steep slopes at the margins of their former forests - squatting on land owned by often very racist neighboring ethnic groups. Average life span is 29 years. They resort to begging or selling crafts to tourists, but are very prone to manipulation from all sorts of "well wishers" - including photographers like me - even though they need "genuine help" rather than "handouts" that perpetuate the begging culture and the low self esteem they have as a result of internalizing the racist views of both their neighboring tribes and us well wishers who see them deepest down as functionally inferior. (As always in racism the victim then lives up to the expectations of their oppressor). 
Look here how at least I in Pygmy eyes looked very "oppressive"!
 

       
Basongora-710 Batwa-Buhoma-004 Batwa-Buhoma-005 Batwa-Buhoma-006
Basongora-710 Batwa-Buhoma-004 Batwa-Buhoma-005 Batwa-Buhoma-006
Batwa-Buhoma-008 Batwa-Buhoma-009 Batwa-Buhoma-010 Batwa-Buhoma-011
Batwa-Buhoma-008 Batwa-Buhoma-009 Batwa-Buhoma-010 Batwa-Buhoma-011
Batwa-Buhoma-012 Batwa-Buhoma-013 Batwa-Buhoma-014 Batwa-Buhoma-017
Batwa-Buhoma-012 Batwa-Buhoma-013 Batwa-Buhoma-014 Batwa-Buhoma-017
Batwa-Buhoma-019 Batwa-Buhoma-020 Batwa-Buhoma-022 Batwa-Buhoma-023
Batwa-Buhoma-019 Batwa-Buhoma-020 Batwa-Buhoma-022 Batwa-Buhoma-023
Batwa-Buhoma-024 Batwa-Buhoma-025 Batwa-Buhoma-027 Batwa-Buhoma-028
Batwa-Buhoma-024 Batwa-Buhoma-025 Batwa-Buhoma-027 Batwa-Buhoma-028
Batwa-Buhoma-029 Batwa-Buhoma-030 Batwa-Buhoma-035 Batwa-Buhoma-036
Batwa-Buhoma-029 Batwa-Buhoma-030 Batwa-Buhoma-035 Batwa-Buhoma-036

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