Cultural encounters around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Community Encounters – Batwa pygmies’ – gorilla trekking
Cultural encounters around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Bwindi impenetrable national park is not only a place where you trek mountain Gorillas but a place where you have to learn about culture and ways of the first people to inherit the forest, planning a trip to this part of the world gives you an opportunity to directly support the development of Batwa people . And the funds can be used to construct local schools and many more.
There are two dominant cultural communities around Bwindi impenetrable Forest National Park and that’s the Batwa and the Bakiga. It’s believed that the Batwa were the very first people who lived in the forest and because of their short appearance, they are referred to as the Batwa pygmies.
Their ways of life.
The Batwa lived, hunted and gathered in the forest, the forest provided whatever they needed to have in life from food to medicine. Later on, conservation initiatives and the need by government to protected and preserve mountain gorillas and their natural habitat kicked in. with these initiatives, the Batwa were pushed out of the forest and started living a miserable life. Owning land to them was new since they lived in harmony in the forest but everything changed because of conservation. Because of these conservation initiatives, the Batwa in some ways become refugees in their own land. They lost their traditional ways and culture, ways of living in their normal and beloved forest as they now leave on the edges of forest that once belonged to them.
The Batwa experience.
An experience of the Batwa trail gives you a lifetime opportunity to learn about the day-to-day life of the first people who lived in the forest with the gorillas. spend time with people of small stature yet with very big and generous hearts. Learn as they guide you through the forest, dance, sing and story tell their traditional ways of farming, handling the bow, gather honey, and picking herbal medicine from roots and leaves a local way of treating the local people. Get a chance to share a local meal with them from plants and goat stew. The experience shows you how they lived in grass thatched houses and caves with their families and hunted small animals for food. The trail begins with a nature walk, hike through the forest as you learn from the first keepers of the forest. This can take any time between an hour to a full day depending on how you wish to have the experience.
The Batwa live outside the Bwindi Forest and very popular in the regions of Nkuringo, Ruhija, Rushaga, and Buhoma. Batwa trail can also be an added advantage to your Gorilla trekking to have a chance to spend time with the first people of the forest. The Batwa trail currently costs $80 and takes place in Mgahinga whereas the Batwa experience costs $100 and takes place in the Buhoma sector of Bwindi impenetrable forest.
Contact us any time with any inquiries about booking both gorilla trekking adventures and the Batwa cultural and community experience.
