Batwa cultural visit is an extraordinary experience in a village near Bwindi Forest where most visitors find it worthy to visit the unique indigenous Batwa after gorilla habituation experience in Bwindi National Park to discover how the Batwa used to live and survive on row fruits, bush meat, wild honey and then gather at their home forest.
This is an interesting and important opportunity to see and learn more about the Batwa cultural way of life. These people were forced out of the forests when the government nationalized them in 1991, and their rich and interesting traditions are now a thing of the past. The Batwa cultural experience gives you a chance to see how they lived for hundreds of years, as well as meet some of the community, and learn about the challenges they now face in cities/towns. BOOK NOW
Batwa Cultural Encounter in Uganda
Many tourist find interesting about the Batwa women and boys perform traditionally beliefs such as the songs, dance, demonstrations how they used to harvest herbs for medicine and wild honey, the old ways of fetching water, fire making, hunting techniques and construction demo of grass thatched huts they used to live are all amazing. A fee is charged by Uganda Wildlife Authority an organization in charge of the trail to benefit the local community and their families.
It’s great to know that amidst all the glory and allure of the mountain gorillas, the management of UWA has not forgotten about the native community of the Batwa people who once shared the forest with the great apes. These people you could not think whether they indeed existed in the world but to their satisfaction experience to visitors, they come out saying they are still existent in that part of the world.
The Batwa is commonly known as pygmies (they are called Pygmies because of their short height), are an endangered group of people around Bwindi National Park and Echuya Forest Reserve in Kisoro and Kabale Districts of South-Western Uganda. The Batwa are the original people of the rainforest who are the primary inhabitants of the Montane Rainforests of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. They lived, gathered and hunted in the rainforest since time in memorial. They were never involved in farming, there was no destruction of the forest, no charcoal making, their shelters did not disturb the environment, and they lived in harmony with their beloved forests, wildlife including the Mountain Gorillas and left a low ecological footprint behind them. Tourist visit Mgahinga National Park for gorilla trekking in Mgahinga National Park and golden monkey trekking in Mgahinga also do Batwa trail experience which is a great complement to such activities.
Visiting Batwa cultural visit you will get to learn how they led a simple and harmonious way of life, there is a Batwa saying “A Mutwa (Singular Batwa) loves the forest as much as he loves his own body.