Music Heritage of the Batwa
Due to the interference caused by cultural, socio-economic and political changes currently affecting the Batwa, it is important to grade that the endangerment of their musical heritage could be a factor that encourages them to cling to their musical expressions to this day.
Due to the interference caused by cultural, socio-economic and political changes currently affecting the Batwa, it is important to grade that the endangerment of their musical heritage could be a factor that encourages them to cling to their musical expressions to this day.
Music forms such as songs and local instruments, like the Omudhuri, enable them to remember who they are throughout their lives. It's also important to grade that for them, music is a form of therapy, as it continually instills hope and heroism for the future they envision.
Following their emergence from the forest in the early 1990s, research has shown that most of their indigenous music and performance contexts are disappearing and may not be recovered if no safe guarding measure is put in place.
Batwa music faces the danger that such relocations usually bring to vulnerable groups, namely the loss of a cultural heritage without their consent, as these groups see no reason to hold on to a culture in a changing environment, riddled with poverty or changes due to political imbalances and migration.
Documenting their history, their way of life and their music, which are an integral part of their identity, gives hope to future generations and to other indigenous communities, who will be able to hold on to something and leave a human footprint, a sign of the peoples who once walked the Earth.
