Category: Batwa “Pygmies”
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Our Stories:
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Trouble for Batwa “Pygmy” Communities: Successes & Failures
Our Batwa friends from Rwamahano happily received six months of accumulated funds this week. They got UGX 2,130,000 (USD 570) that we had saved from several Batwa Today experiences we did with them. Small contributions end up becoming substantial when brought together! Each time we collaborate we put half of Batwa fees aside and deliver…
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Trouble for Batwa “Pygmy” Communities: Lake Bunyonyi
We previously talked about Rwamahano, as an example of Batwa “Pygmy” groups we work with. These indigenous people originate from some of the oldest humans in Africa. They once lived in forests looking for fruits and honey, and hunted with bows and arrows, trained dogs by their side. Towards the end of the 20th century…
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Have You Heard?! We Won a Global Responsible Tourism Award!
Gorilla Highlands was among the winners at the 2022 WTM Responsible Tourism Awards celebrated in London on Monday. We took the global “Contributing to Cultural Heritage” category and also won gold in the “Rest of the World” competition. After a decade of revealing natural and cultural landscapes of our region to discerning travellers, we were…
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Trouble for Batwa “Pygmy” Communities: Echuya Forest
This week we accompanied the last group of tourists into the wilderness of Echuya Forest and to the famed ritual tree of the Batwa “Pygmies”. From now on we are going to be charged USD 30 per person to enter this nature reserve, and we are simply not ready to pay this exorbitant fee. We…
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SABA Episode #10 — How to Be Good Partners to Batwa ‘Pygmies’?
For the tenth episode of SEE AFRICA BREATHE AFRICA (we are now in the double digits!) I was sent on a mission to visit the Batwa “Pygmy” people of Echuya Forest on the Uganda-Rwanda border. Miha was attempting to kill two birds with one stone — introducing me to the realities of the Batwa and…
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Tracking Time
38mm, 1/250s, f/5,6, ISO400 The Batwa are in many ways the Gorilla Highlands region’s forgotten people. The original inhabitants of this part of Africa, the Batwa are — or at least were — traditional hunter-gatherers, living in and off what used to be extensive forests. Marginalised by later arrivals, they were ousted from their final…
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Were Batwa Really Dangerous to Gorillas?
The sad story of the Batwa “Pygmies” of the Gorilla Highlands reached its dramatic peak when they were kicked out of national parks. This was in line with the traditional view of conservation — nature can only be protected in strict separation from indigenous peoples — but was that actually needed? Were they truly dangerous to gorillas? Dian Fossey,…
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Batwa “Pygmies”: History and Present
The Batwa “Pygmies” are one of the oldest peoples in Africa and their origin is unknown. They were hunter-gatherers, roaming the forests in bands foraging for honey, wild yams, fruit, stems and tubers, and hunting small game with trained dogs. They were highly skilled bowmen. Today, the Batwa live as a unified group mainly in people’s imagination. In all the three countries of our…
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Walk-In Theatre
24mm, 30s, f/4, ISO2500 Back in early 2016 we spent a night camping with our Batwa friends at the outskirts of Echuya forest. The highlight was undoubtedly the cinema experience we put on during the evening, sharing a video made by the Gorilla Highlands team about the region and what it had to offer, including…
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