The Batwa Cultural Trail and Experience takes you to the Batwa people also called the forest pygmies. Who stay within the forests close to both Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. A visit to the marginalized hunter-gatherers flashes you into a comprehension of their real lifestyle.
The Batwa people forced out of their ancestral forests. And left to scatter around the forests of Bwind and Mgahinga. However, by the 2000s, the Batwa people were collected and relocated to various forests. Where cultural trails were established to preserve their once-extinct culture. The Batwa cultural trails and experiences good platforms for the source of these endangered people. The intention of its formation was to preserve and teach the Batwa children their values and customs. And share this fascinating culture with the world.
About the Batwa people
The Batwa people are nomadic gatherers who once lived deep in the tropical forests of the Albertine rift and close to the Virunga zone. Today, the area is classified as Uganda, Rwanda, the DR Congo, and Burundi. The same tropical forests are home to endangered mountain gorillas. Which are only endemic to the forests of Virunga Conservation Areas and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
In the 1990s, the concern was to preserve the mountain gorillas. Later turned into national parks. The dwellers in the forests (the Batwa) were forcefully evicted without being replaced anywhere. The displacement fashioned an instant of adversity for them. To leave their ancestral forests for unidentified areas.
Naturally, the Batwa relied on the forest for food, medicine, hunting, and recreation. As though the conservation program could not support their stay within the forest. However, the Batwa lived on the slopes of the Virunga slopes about 500,000 years ago.
The Batwa cultural trials at Mgahings Gorilla National Park
The trail led by Batwa local guides, who share insights into their customary way of living in the woodlands. Guides are often clothed in traditional garb. And the trip includes a leisurely stroll in the tropical forest. The local guides then introduce a show of their peculiar African culture, demonstrating how they can hunt, gather, light fires, gather fruits and mushrooms, and manage bees. They will go on to demonstrate how they construct high-up homes on tree branches. In order to shield kids from raptors.
Furthermore, the 342-meter-long Garama Cave’s darkness illuminated for a song and dance performance as part of the tour’s entertainment component. The cave a Twa King’s palace and historical site. All of this belies the countless joys and cultural encounters that accompany the gorilla trek.
The The Batwa Cultural Trail and Experience guides continue to describe how they ate honey and game from the bush. All of this offers an insight into the Batwa people’s past. Showing what they went through both before and after being evicted. You will need to purchase some manufactured goods on the path to bring home as gifts.
After more than 20 years of suffering without a place to call home. The community now able to support their newly realized life since the money from the Batwa trail trip is sent directly to them.
The Batwa today live in permanent residences, their children go to school. And some of them work to provide for their families. Using the Mgahinga Batwa route, people can help their communities produce a new life.
Every day, this tour runs for four hours and costs US$80 per person. The Uganda Wildlife Authority keeps a portion of your payment to assist Batwa Development initiatives such as building schools, and the remaining portion given to the guides to help them sustain their families.