Norah (see the video above) was one of the 10 Batwa “Pygmies” of Rwamahano who got a Batwa Community English Class certificate at Edirisa today. In other words, they completed an introduction to the English language to help them with their guiding and with the Gorilla Highlands Batwa Jamboree that they are co-organising (April 2019…
Category: Batwa “Pygmies”
Stories from our work with the Batwa people of Uganda and Rwanda.
Book Your Easter 2019 for the Batwa Jamboree
UPDATE, April 2019: The jamboree has been moved from Easter to Christmas 2019 (more here) The Batwa community of Rwamahano and Edirisa through the Gorilla Highlands Initiative wish to announce the international event: Gorilla Highlands Batwa Jamboree taking place at: Bunyonyi Safaris Resort, Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda during Easter: 19-22 April 2019 The word jamboree means a large festive gathering and…
How to Support Kigali’s “Historically Marginalised People”
At first sight, the nursery beds and tiny cactuses in painted pots by the roadside look unremarkable. As in any other East African city, the residents of Kigali can conveniently buy decorative plants and earthenware straight from their cars. But the gentlemen who run the neatly arranged gardens that extend towards a swamp rich in…
What Powerful Simple Thing Do Indigenous People Crave?
Dear reader, allow us to transform your mind into a supersonic airplane and fly you to the remote areas of a continent of your choice: Africa, America or Australia. No matter which one you opt for, sooner or later you will land near a cluster of shanties, makeshift homes or houses that whisper — or…
Progress in Pride and Self-Consciousness
What a coincidence! On the ridge separating the bamboo of Echuya Forest Reserve from hazy views of Lake Bunyonyi, five tents were pitched that early February morning. A laptop lit up one of them. And then the email came; from Riesstraße 25 in München, from Studiosus Reisen. Exactly five years after initiating Batwa Today, Studiosus…
Revolutionary Ideas by Batwa “Pygmies”
Every New Year’s Day, a few hours after Edirisa’s traditional dugout canoe celebrations, we sit down with representatives from two Batwa communities. With some heads possibly still heavy, it may seem less than perfect time for an annual meeting, but it is close to an ideal moment. Batwa join the new year’s party not as…