The Batwa are thought to be one of the oldest surviving indigenous people in the Central African Region. Known for their unique culture in the forests, the Batwa of the Virunga Mountains survived in the forest and carried out various activities such as; hunting small game, gathering plants and fruits, living in caves and constructing huts of leaves and branches of trees. This group of people stayed behind when the park was gazetted for gorilla trekking.
During the Batwa community walk, the trails lead you through the forest where you view variety of species living in the forest of Mgahinga national park. The trail through the Muhavura caves is fantastic as it brings you closer to the Batwa people, during you’re visit, you will learn about the Batwa people known as the pygmy’s tribe that used to live in the Mgahinga National Park. They are known as the hunter-gatherers and fierce warriors who depended on the forest for shelter, medicine and food. Due to establishment of Mgahinga National Park in 1991, the Batwa people were displaced out of the park and few that refused to live and stayed behind, re-established and settled around the national park. Many of them later got jobs and wark in the park has ranger guides, porters and many other services offered in the park.

Why visit the Batwa

The Batwa community walk is a community-based project that was started by the locals as why to develop their community and for the support of the people. During your visit to Batwa people, you will about the tribe and the traditional life style, the way of life, you will learn about these people how they managed to survive in the forest alongside the wild animals. You will also visit the old women and men who understand and have versed knowledge about the ancient Batwa people before the setup of the national park.

The Batwa guides can demonstrate their past hunting methods used in the forest for survival and hunting for food, the guide is knowledgeable enough to point out the medicinal plants that they used to cure them of diseases, the trails will also lead you to the Ngarama Cave, Ngarama cave which is the home of the king.

The Batwa women also take part in various activities that can be of much interest to the visitors for example they do art and craft such as; weaving, making baskets, craft shoes, souvenirs among others and also cultural dances from you can to join. The visitors may also need to purchase some products which is a great service rendered as this money they use to provide basic needs for their families like food, school fees for the children, clothing, medical care among others. Therefore, you visit to the Batwa villages is one of best services offered to the community.

Key facts about the Batwa trails

Originally up to date, the Batwa people are still hunter gathers but today, they have also incorporated other activities such as cultivation the cultural trails was launched on 7th June 2011 as way of preserving the Batwa culture and traditions. The community project, has been a great opportunity to the community in many ways such as; it has offered employment to Batwa people who participate in the day-to-day activities in the park and in the community including the dancers and guides this has helped in improvement of people’s standards of living. This means after your incredible gorilla trekking or golden monkey trekking experience in Mgahinga or Bwindi impenetrable national park, you can as well engage in Batwa cultural tour where you will enjoy some of the traditional dances and get to taste the local foods prepared by the Batwa women.

This is one of the activities you ought not to miss during your safari tour in Mgahinga gorilla national park, the experience is captivated with lots of amazing things about the Batwa people and its worth visiting. You will also have an opportunity to see original Batwa grass-thatched huts and they are free and willing to demonstrate how the process of constructing the huts, will also show you the traditional herbs that they used during that ancient time up to date, teach you how water is fetched using bamboo mugs or cups, show you the skills used to gather honey and how to make fire by friction while using sticks.

The Batwa community trail

The Batwa trails is quite an interesting trail that runs across the dense forest of Mgahinga National Park and goes through the foothills of Mount Gahinga and Mount Muhavura in Mgahinga National Park. The Batwa trails begin by pray to small gods asking gods to bless the walk and this is done by the guide who first stops to the gods and kneels down at a certain hut. This is the same point where the men of long ago used to kneel and ask gods for blessing before they could start to marvel into the forest to hunt.

The walk made in Batwa trails brings out the hidden treasures, as you continue with the walk, you also get time to stop in the midst of the forest to pick berries that used to be a meal to the hunters of olden days. Visit their natural pharmacy and see the local herbs got in the forest. The guides will teach you about different plants and roots that Batwa used as medicine to stop breeding even cure wounds, blood pressure plus other diseases. What you may take as a useless thing, these people take plants of this forest as an important thing about their health. And what seems to be a wild yellow fruit or plant, for them they see it as a delicious vegetable source.

Batwa Trails in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

These are friendly people and on one who visits Mgahinga or Bwindi leave without visiting the Batwa cultural trails because this is a quite memorable experience that you can engage in during your amazing gorilla trekking experience in one of these national parks. And besides these gorgeous activities, the showcase includes honey gathering harvesting skills, hunting skills, demonstration of making bamboo cups, visit to the natural pharmacy, walk made to sacred Ngarama cave. Your visit to Batwa cultural trails will support a community and improve their standard of living through your funds and worth tom be encountered in.