The Batwa cultural experience

The Batwa Forest experience, a better forest experience is one of the famous activities. It is mostly done in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. This activity gives one room to understand how best the Batwa people lived inside the forest and to know more about their history. You will look at how the Batwa people came into the forest. The story has it that there was a man who was called jihanga, jihanga had three sons. That is the bahutu, gatusi and gatwa.

How did Batwa came into existence

One evening, he came home and gave his sons each one of them a jug full of milk. In the morning when he woke up, he called his beloved Sons and asked them to bring the milk he had given to them. Gatusi brought the milk full in The Jug, the father was so pleased with him, and he rewarded him by giving him the cows because his attitude of spending the whole night with the milk demonstrated that he would be the right person to take care of the cows. Gahutu brought the Jug half of milk, Still the father was pleased with him, and he gave him the land so that his elder brother would graze on his land.

Then, Gatwa brought the jug empty of milk, and the father was completely disappointed with him so he gave him the spare and said to him ‘have the spare, it will be for your Survivor, go, all your life will be inside the forest. Go and survive in the jungle.’ That’s how the Batwa people found themselves inside the forest, the Batwa people lived in the forest.

How did Batwa people used to survive

Batwa people mostly survived on hunting which they used to do communally whereby people would always join in groups and go for a hunt. Sometimes where need be even breastfeeding mothers would join their husbands to go for hunting. That’s why they used to make resting hats up in the trees where they used to keep their children. After the hunting, they could share their meat, and everybody would cook the meat.

The social life of Batwa

The Batwa people never used to have permanent settlements, reason being since their Survival was basically on hunting, in case they would realize that the animals have moved away, there was need for them to reallocate to other areas where they can easily have access to the animals. They also survived through harvesting honey and through some of the fruits and then some of the vegetations, there are some plants inside the forest which are edible or a delicacy to human beings. The Batwa people used to make their own fire. While doing the Batwa Forest experience, one will be taken through how these people used to set fire inside the forest through rubbing the wood together until it would produce fire.

Then they’ll also take you through how they used to lay their traps when they used to hide the most targeted, the antelopes whereby have the dikers, most commonly the black fruity dikers, then the bushbucks which are also found in Mgahinga gorilla National Park. That is what they could easily Target for them to survive on.

Entertainment on Batwa cultural experience

Then, when you look at the entertainment, Batwa people always end this experience through a massive entertainment, which always happens at garama Cave. garama cave is an underground cave, which is said to be one of the areas where the elders of the Batwa people used to live. while at the cave, no one can access the cave without a torch even in a broad daylight one needs a torch to access the cave because there is a lot of darkness inside the cave.

The cave has also got some good Breeze and a nice scent. When your inside, you will be enjoying a very good scent inside the cave and currently the cave is occupied by the bats, the cave is estimated to be about 50 meters long. And the height is estimated to be 14 meters high.

The Batwa experience trails

Doing a Batwa forest experience brings one too close to understand the lifestyle of these people. The Batwa experience always has got two Trails. There is a short Trail which starts from in Tobacco Visitors information center, then you take a walk and come and finish the experience at the garama cave. A long Batwa Forest experience always start from muhavura Ranger Outpost. Come walking through the forest. It also finishes at garama cave

The popular Batwa and Gorilla vacation safari packages

The 3-day gorillas and Batwa experience will take you to walk with the gentle giants of east Africa in their natural habitats at Mgahinga gorilla national park. The park is the home to one family of these habituated great apes. Beside trekking, you will also visit the Batwa community who are the natives of the Mgahinga national park. These people are commonly known as the pigmies of Africa due to their physical nature.

Hiking Mount Karisimbi offers you an interesting adventure in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. The amazing adventure enables you to encounter a range of wildlife and offers you breathtaking views of different geographical formations. Mount Karisimbi offers a steep, rocky and un even terrain. The weather changes from rainy, windy, to cold due to the high altitude.

Golden monkey and mountain gorillas are both found in Virunga massif range shared by Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo. The parks that make this mountainous area include Mgahinga gorillas national park of Uganda, volcanoes national park of Rwanda and Virunga national park of DRC. Whereas mountain gorillas live on the higher altitude of the parks, golden monkeys can be found at slightly lower altitude