Category: Bantu
Our Stories:
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What Tom Meant to Us (And Why You Should Care)
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers It is notoriously difficult to find a decent nightwatchman in the Gorilla Highlands region. The local mentality is that “you can kill two birds with one stone, do two jobs at once — one during the night, one during the day,” Edirisa staff Moses Oshaba explains. That puts the…
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Lake Bunyonyi’s Island of Death
Smack in the middle of Lake Bunyonyi floats a scruffy little island with a few dead trees and a whole lot of baggage. You wouldn’t give it a second look, unless locals tell you that the forlorn patch of land is called Akampene, or Punishment Island … Back in the day, if a girl was…
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The Virungas’ Most Intriguing Ethnic Group
Of all the cultures found around the Virungas, the Bafumbira are perhaps the most intriguing. Though they speak a dialect of Kinyarwanda, they live in Uganda’s southwestern corner, in Kisoro District. Their influence in Uganda far outweighs their numbers. They are a small minority, as there are only around 700,000 Bafumbira in their district while…
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Digital Superman under Rwanda’s Famous Breast
“Cows are everything to me. They are my siblings, my comfort zone, my love. They raised me, fed me, and shaped who I am,” says Alexis Ngabo Karegeya. His passion for cattle is contagious, and it’s turned him into a fascinating guide for visitors to the lush pastures of Bigogwe. Found on the southern side…
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No Land, No Problem: Lake Bunyonyi’s House Boat
Tourism round Lake Bunyonyi? Still pretty fresh, buddy! Before Dr Sharp opened his guesthouse in the 1920s, hardly anyone beyond the town of Kabale had a clue this slice of paradise even existed — land was dirt cheap ’cos it was all just farmland. You could spot the locals who wandered into Kabale from a…
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SABA Episode #3 — Africa’s Secret History
This episode of SEE AFRICA BREATHE AFRICA might surprise those who thought we would be a podcast preoccupied with conventional travel questions. We are literally open to any question about Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, and when a distinguished member wants to know how history is taught at schools, we go full blast! But the…
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Ancient MasterCard
70 mm, f5.0, 1/160s, ISO800 When I first started travelling, traveller’s cheques were still a thing (though I don’t think I ever made much use of them). So was bringing cash — usually USD back in those days — to be turned into local currency at dodgy foreign exchange counters, or expensive hotels. I remember…
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Sacred and Cursed Tree
The tree called ekiko among the Bakiga is usually known as flame tree but also red-hot poker tree or lucky bean tree in English. Its Latin name is Erythrina abyssinica. This tree is indigenous to the Gorilla Highlands region and found in various other parts of the world, up to 2,000 m/ 6,500 ft above sea level. It grows to 12 m/ 40 ft, with…
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Rough and Tough People of the Hills
The Gorilla Highlands Initiative was born 10 years ago in the land of the Bakiga (pronunciation: “Bachiga”; singular: Mukiga; language: Rukiga), the tribe from southwestern Uganda. This is a little peek into their history … The term Bakiga was first used by the British authorities in the 20th century to refer to independent clans who had…