Batwa Cultural Experience in Uganda

Batwa Cultural Experience in Uganda takes you to visit the Batwa people who lived in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park together with other forest creatures, in the early 1900’s the Batwa’s lives have changed lot ever since the forest was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in the 1994, as a result they were evicted from the forest due to conservation purposes, the Bwindi impenetrable national park is located in the western corner of Uganda hosting half the population of mountain gorilla a sub species of the eastern gorilla beringei, the bio diverse  ecosystem is placed with exotic plants. Most common resident is the Mountain gorillas.

The forest is also home to the Batwa people and are known as keepers or guardians of the forest they were the pygmies of the forest despite them having intermarried with the Bakiga people, they are the last remaining group of short structured people in Uganda, they are indigenous people original dwellers of the forest, they survived by hunting form the forest and used it for medical purposes, the eviction of these people from the forest displaced so many of them as a result of conservation, however they continued living around the park premises passing their culture onto the young generations.

The Batwa cultural experience was established by the displaced Twa people, to share and educate their children about their cultural norms customs and traditions, a day spent with these people will have experience the hike through the forest region, the Batwa guide will take you to the forest having the chance to see it through their eyes, they are very knowledgeable about the forest. See how they lived and survived in the forest, teach you about their local traditional medicine, they will show you how they used to light fire in the forest without the help of the modern day matchbox. The activity takes about 5 hours doing it depending on your hiking time, it can be done in the morning and afternoon time. The hike through the Buninga forest can be strenuous rewarding on a lucky day it is possible to spot animal species in the park including the L’hoest monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys.

The Batwa cultural experience is one of the best things to indulge in during your visit to Bwindi impenetrable national park, you need to pay in order to experience the Batwa culture an initiative to support the local communities, and Bwindi impenetrable national park is the destination to experience these people. Other popular thing to do is the gorilla trekking habituation activity, it takes place early in the morning beginning from the park headquarters its takes 2 or more hours doing the activity depending on how far the gorilla families have moved. Birding is key in the national park, there are forest birds some of which are endemic to the destination for example the African green broad bill in the Ruhija sector.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park can be accessed by road taking approximately 9 hours drive to arrive at the destination, it can be accessed by flight to the Kisoro airstrip with a shared transfer to the accommodation that has been booked for your stay, there is a wide choice in each of the four sectors of the park ranging from the best budget to Luxury.