Mongo Twa

The 14,000 Twa (locally Cwa [tʃwa]) of the swamp forest north and west of Lake Tumba and between Tumba and Lake Mai-Ndombe in the west of the Congo are one of several fishing and hunter-gatherer castes living in a patron–client relationship with farming Bantu peoples across central and southern Africa.

Hunting is easiest for the Twa in the rainy season, the period of seasonal hunger, as the flooded rivers force game to high ground near the villages, which are separated from each other by the marshes.

They exchange the game for cassava, palm oil, iron, and pottery.

Unlike the situation further south, it is the patron Oto who do the fishing.

The Twa were as of the late 1970s being forced to settle, as their foraging territory was being cleared for farming (Pagezy).