Bangweulu Twa, or the BaTwa of the

Bangweulu swamps The Bangweulu Wetlands is a wetland ecosystem adjacent to Lake Bangweulu in north-eastern Zambia. The area has been designated as one of the world's most important wetlands by the Ramsar Convention and an "Important Bird Area" by BirdLife Internati ...

, are one of several groups of

Twa Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...

living in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

. Others are

Kafwe Twa The Twa of the Kafue Flats wetlands of Zambia are one of several fishing and hunter-gatherer castes living in a patron-client relationship with farming Bantu peoples across central and southern Africa. In Southern Province, where swampy ter ...

and

Lukanga Twa The Twa of the Lukanga Swamp of Zambia are one of several fishing and hunter-gatherer castes living in a patron–client relationship with farming Bantu peoples across central and southern Africa. The Lukanga Twa live primarily among the Lenje, a ...

. They are also known by the names ''BaTwa'' or ''Abatwa''. While other Twa groups that are scattered across equatorial Africa are described as pygmy groups and averaging about 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in height, the Bangweulu Twa are described as taller and at least partly of

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

origin but they may be the descendants of former

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

groups. After the coming of various outside Bantu groups to the area, groups of Twa moved to swamps and marsh land territories in Zambia. In descriptions from the early 20th century Bangweulu Twa are said to live off the land, they had no domestic animals but cultivated around ant-hills and on other raised patches. Through trade with inland neighbours they got meal and grain.

Eric von Rosen and the Bangweulu Twa

Eric von Rosen Count Carl Gustaf Bloomfield Eric von Rosen (2 June 1879 in Stockholm – 25 April 1948 Skeppsholmen, Stockholm) was a Swedish honorary doctor, patron, explorer, ethnographer, prominent figure in the Swedish upper class and a leading figure in S ...

visited the Twa during his expedition in Bangweulu during 1911 and 1912 and calls them the "Swamp people". Von Rosen collected ethnographica and took photographs which are today in Sweden at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm and the

Museum of World Culture The National Museum of World Culture ( sv, Världskulturmuseet) opened in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2004. It is a part of the public authority Swedish National Museums of World Cultures and builds on the collections of the former Göteborgs Etnog ...

in Gothenburg.

After 1912

After von Rosens expedition the Lake dwellers have been steadily moving to the main land. Sleeping-sickness did play an important part in this process.

References

{{reflist Ethnic groups in Zambia