In 1991, the Batwa were moved out of the Bwindi forest so that the forest could be made a national park. They had lived in the forest, with the gorillas, for an unbroken span that researchers describe simply as "since before". They were not relocated. They were displaced.
For nearly thirty years, the standard tourism response to the Batwa was a one-hour "cultural village visit" with a dance and a basket. It was, in our view, deeply uncomfortable. So in 2019, we stopped doing it.
What we built instead, with the Batwa Development Programme and the council of elders in Buhoma, is a different kind of partnership. A direct revenue share — a fixed percentage of every Soul Expeditions itinerary that touches Bwindi flows into a community fund. The fund is managed entirely by the community council. We do not see how it is spent and we do not need to.
“The Batwa were not asking to be visited. They were asking to be listened to. Those are two different itineraries.”
When our guests now spend time with the Batwa, it is on the community’s terms. There is no schedule. There is no choreographed dance. There is, instead, the chance to walk a forest path with a man whose grandfather taught him which leaves the gorillas eat at altitude — and to sit with that for as long as he wants to sit with it.
It has changed what a Bwindi visit looks like. It has also changed what Bwindi means. The Batwa were not asking to be visited. They were asking to be listened to. Those are two different itineraries.
Filed under
Conservation
