Five years ago, on 22 December 2011, the Gorilla Highlands initiative was first made public. We circulated a photocopied concept sheet at a Banyakigezi convention at White Horse Inn in Kabale stating:
– the region had immense tourism potential but suffered from remoteness, insufficient travel information, excessive focus on gorillas and lack of branding
– the “Gorilla Highlands” project would tackle most of these obstacles and target both international and domestic tourists through a free booklet, a website, a promotional video, an information centre in Uganda’s capital and a mobile app
We never did much about the Kampala info centre but the rest has grown into an intiative much bigger and deeper than envisaged in December 2011. Most interestingly, while the original concept presented Rwanda as Uganda’s competitor, in December 2016 Gorilla Highlands moved its headquarters to Kigali.
No, we have not been bought or co-opted. We just feel we need to be as Rwandan as we are Ugandan to make our trans-boundary region a reality. We have long been promoting Kigali as the entry point into the region and having our team there makes sense.
Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi will remain our Ugandan base, conveniently located only 2.5 hours from Kigali. But the company pushing the Gorilla Highlands idea will be MYL from Rwanda.
A small team of East African employees can now provide support to international volunteers and partners in Uganda and Rwanda. The idea is still the same: Gorilla Highlands as something that belongs to everybody, an informal cooperation of private sector players and everybody else who cares about Uganda and Rwanda. We will continue to utilise tourism as a tool to uplift the poor, as a means of economic and social development.
We have, however, definitely grown up.
📸 photography by:
Yakub Ibrahim was the volunteer designer of the Gorilla Highlands Pocket Guide in 2017. After more than 15 years in the advertising industry, Yakub now guides the creative direction of a regional team of designers, writers, and strategists at The Partnership Africa in Kigali, Rwanda. [bio updated: 2026-03]
🎨 illustration by:
Samo Ačko volunteered for Gorilla Highlands Experts several times, mostly as a graphic designer. Nowadays, his thinking time is spent on how to improve digital tools for organic farmers. Secretly, however, he’d rather just play the piano non-stop or walk some ridiculously long trail far, far away from his home in Ljubljana, Slovenia. [bio updated: 2026-03]
🖋️ text by:
ML Rwebandira is an adventure and cultural tourism expert, writer and multimedia producer who co-founded Gorilla Highlands Experts. Born as Miha Logar, he now combines his initials with “Rwebandira” to honour the Bakiga elder Karwemera, who gave him the name. ML’s most recent publication is the Pocket Treasure. A national of both Uganda and Slovenia, Rwebandira resides with his son Lan in Musanze, Rwanda. Click for his personality-infused quarterly newsletters. [bio updated: 2026-09]
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