Depicting Human Rights Abuses in the Batwa Community Through Painting for Empowerment in Southwestern Uganda

Abstract

The Batwa community of Southwestern Uganda, which was forced off the forests they have inhabited in the early 1990s, have been facing decades of marginalization, forced displacement, and the systematic violation of their human rights (Twinamatsiko, 2017; Nkurunziza, 2020). Voices of Batwa people are still not heard in mainstream education, political and cultural conversations, even with continued advocacy. This article explores the use of painting as a medium of documentation and pedagogical tool as an empowerment. The study is based on a practice-based research project that yielded three series of paintings, each representing a theme: Shadows of the Forest, Beneath the Surface, and Voices in the Soil and shows how creative expression can be used to raise awareness of injustice, challenge stereotypes, and assist in the process of transformative education. The article also claims that painting is a knowledge production method that is easy to access and emotionally compelling to produce knowledge that can be used to spark conversation around indigenous rights and social justice in Uganda.