Indigenous Cultural Tourism and the Discourse of Development among the Batwa of Mgahinga, South-Western Uganda

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the Batwa peoples of Mgahinga area, located in Kisoro District, South-western Uganda. Once inhabitants of the rain forests in South-western Uganda, the Batwa’s livelihood was abruptly distracted in 1991 when the Government of Uganda forcefully them from their ancestral lands for the establishment of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. This forced eviction of the Batwa communities left them landless and without sources of basic necessities such as food, shelter and medicine posing a big threat to their livelihood and survival. As a remedy to the aforementioned situation, a number of development projects have been implemented by a number of national and international development agents to promote the livelihood of the Batwa. In this thesis, I analyse the discourse of development and how it affects indigenous people’s livelihoods. Development involves a process of change, aimed at the fulfilment of a potential (Allen and Thomas, 2000:25). Since development implies a process of change which often entails disruption of established patterns of livelihood such as cultural values, traditions and forms of knowledge, it has been widely argued that development is a threat to the survival of indigenous cultures. In this thesis, I explore the possibilities of incorporating development with indigenous livelihood without necessary compromising indigenous peoples’ heritage and culture.