Twa

The Twa (also Cwa, or Batwa plural and Mutwa singular) are a group of indigenous African Pygmy (Central African foragers) tribes. Name It is often supposed that the Pygmies were the aboriginal inhabitants of the forest before the advent of agriculture. Vansina argues that the original meaning of the (Proto-Bantu) word *twa was "hunter-gatherer, bushpeople", alongside yaka used for the western (Mbuti) pygmies (Bayaka). As the Twa developed into full-time hunter-gatherers, the words were conflated, and the ritual role of the absorbed aboriginal peoples was transferred to the Twa. Batwa and Abatwa are Bantu plural forms, translating to "Twa people". Relation to the Bantu populations