Category: History & Culture
Subcategories:
Our Stories:
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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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We Know What We Are (Finally)
• “Gorilla Highlands” is a tour company specialising in tailor-made offers in Rwanda, western Uganda and eastern Congo • “Gorilla Highlands Experts” is the non-profit wing engaged in tourism and non-tourism projects that boost peace, security and economic/social development of our region • these adjustments are a result of 4 years of considerations, introduced for the sake…
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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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Is This Where You Come In? (Gorilla Highlands 2018-2021 and Beyond)
This is the fourteenth and final instalment of a series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I. A man at peace because his mission had been accomplished, I stretched my legs and listened to the faint voices in the night. A new year…
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Three Bunyonyi Love Stories (Gorilla Highlands 2016-2017)
This is the thirteenth instalment of a weekly series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I. By 2016 the Gorilla Highlands idea had matured enough to call for a professional team in Kigali, and I was part of that group. I wasn’t just…
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Idealistic Without Being Naïve (Gorilla Highlands 2012-2015)
This is the twelfth instalment of a weekly series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I.
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The Split (Kabale, Nkozi & Bunyonyi 2011)
This is the eleventh instalment of a weekly series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I. When I woke up in a small room at Backpackers in Kampala one morning in 2006 I panicked. For the first time in my life I was…
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