The Twa, often referred to as Batwa or Mutwa (singular), are indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, recognized as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area.

The Twa spend part of the year in the otherwise uninhabited region hunting game, trading for agricultural products with the farmers while they do so.

According to UNHRW more than 10,000 BaTwa are displaced from Virunga Park in the Northern Kivu province's refugee camps such as Mugunga and Mubambiro due to decades of war.

In 1992 the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest became a national park and a World Heritage Site to protect the 350 endangered mountain gorillas within its boundaries.

[9][10][11] The Twa in Rwanda have been designated as “Historically Marginalized People (HMP) a term that reflects their history of discrimination, prejudice, and exclusion.

Oral history and anthropological evidence substantiate their Indigenous status, showing no signs of a prior migration.

The arrival of the Hutu and the Tutsi (as they are ethnically acknowledged today) around 1100 AD marked the onset of Twa subjugation, a practice that was sustained during precolonial and colonial periods and into the era of post-colonial conflict[14] As largely hunter gatherer populations, the Twa were experts of the woodland landscape, well versed in acquiring both plant and animal food sources for hundreds of years before herders and farmers began to clear large sections of forests—decimating arable land for agriculture and livestock.

[9] Twa historical contributions and their indigeneity to the land constitute a vital foundation in the building of the socio-cultural landscape that currently exists in Rwanda today.

Twa culture plays a major role in the oral traditions of history and mythology of neighboring groups as an autochthonous people–the earliest settlers of the land–they occupied critical positions of power in governance and presided over ceremonial traditions to honor the vitality of the earth, reflecting their long-standing and influential impact on the region.

Estermann writes, The southern Twa today live in close economic symbiosis with the tribes among which they are scattered—Ngambwe, Havakona, Zimba and Himba.