The Batwa occupied the forest belts of the Great Lakes region at a time when those environments were more extensive than they are today. Their economy centred on hunting and gathering, with large game such as elephant and buffalo among the animals hunted. Their presence represents an early layer in the settlement history of the interlacustrine region.

In Rwanda, Batwa communities are also associated with pottery and basketwork. As Bantu-speaking agriculturalists cleared forests and founded permanent settlements, the hunters entered exchange relationships with them, bringing skins and meat in return for salt and iron goods. This interaction connected forest economies with the emerging agricultural villages.

The Batwa were not merely a population displaced from the historical narrative of the region. Their communities formed part of the social landscape into which agriculturalists and later pastoralists were incorporated. The excerpt presents them as an early population whose relations with cultivators contributed to the formation of Great Lakes societies.