Of gorillas and men! (Kisoro, Uganda – KM 18,075)

“Do not ride bicycles in the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP)! Please, take a taxi”, she implored. “Once, I saw a lion, he jumped on a cyclist and argh!”, she added for dramatic effect. Agnes had rented us a spotless and spartan room for 15,000 shillings in her small guesthouse and was doing her best effort to dissuade us from taking the public road from Katunguru to the Ishasha gate inside the QENP. She planted the seed of a doubt but the machine-gun carrying rangers we spoke to at the Queen Elizabeth pavilion did not bat eyelid when we shared our intention, so we hopped in the saddle and waved at impalas and warthdogs frolicking in the tall savannah grass.

We were heading south towards the Rwanda border, from Fort Portal, at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains, down into the Albertine Rift Valley and up into the Kigezi Highlands. On the way we hoped to meet the indigenous Batwa pygmies, hunters and gatherers who have depended on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. There were strong hints that their recent history was a harrowing one, we were about to find out how tragic.

Despite the remote setting, south-western Uganda is the country’s prime tourist destination, thanks to the mountain gorillas that roam the dense forests of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla national parks. Bwindi Impenetrable boasts 30 groups of the rare primate of which 10 have been habituated for tourism. Gorilla licenses are sold weeks, months and years in advance. For 600$US a person can spend an hour in the presence of a silverback, his harem of females and young. This design is replicated in the near-by national parks of the Virunga volcanoes—Mgahinga Gorilla (Uganda), Volcanoes (Rwanda) and Virunga (Congo) ensuring millions in revenue for the three countries and the survival of the charismatic primate, not counting the other mammals, species of birds, reptiles, butterflies and trees that are also protected by the national parks.

What is less known is that these forests were inhabited for millenia by the Batwa people, until they were kicked out in 1991 for the creation of those national parks. The semi-nomadic Batwa were not compensated or given any land and became landless squatters on the forest edge. They continue to suffer ethnic prejudice, discrimination, violence and exclusion from society. A glimmer of hope is the effort by organisations to help the Batwa help themselves out of poverty. In Buhoma we had a meeting with the well-established Batwa Development Program (BDP).

After a moving day spent between joy—the Batwa’s affection for their forest life is contagious—and sadness—for it is gone forever—Elifaz told it like it is: “We were rich in the forest, we had everything we needed, our children were never sick, we would go back in a heartbeat”. So, if you come to visit the gorillas please stay an extra day and meet the people who are paying a dear price for the survival of the mountain gorilla—a species, along with the chimpanzee, which they never hunted. And beware of private distasteful “pygmy experiences”.

The old Buhoma road crosses Bwindi from Buhoma to the Nkuringo park gate and it was an atrractive option until we talked with the Uganga Wildlife Authority (UWA) rangers. It would be 40$US each for the park entrance fee, then 30$US each for not one but two armed rangers to walk along—in 1999 tourists were kidnapped in Buhoma and murdered with machetes by a Rwandan guerilla group hiding in the nearby DRC—and they added being paid once a month so a hefty tip would be welcome. We needed over 150$US to cover 14 kilometres! We stuck to plan A and set out on the winding and steep road on the park’s northern edge, up to Ruhija and down to the Kabale-Kisoro road. Maybe we could be in Kisoro for Christmas!

Many days on the road in Uganda end, if we are lucky, with a bucket of water, a warm beer and little food. On Christmas afternoon we rolled into Kisoro and reached the Golden Monkey Guesthouse for some outstanding festivities: hot shower, change of clothes, cold beer, gin&tonic, chicken burger and fried bananas, and a wifi connection to our friends and family. Joyeux Noël!

A few days later we followed the Batwa Development Organisation (BDO)’s young director to a Kisoro suburb so we could listen to the newly formed Batwa Music Club, a traditional music group BDO is hoping will help preserve the culture and bring income and purpose to the community. The music was excellent but the outing gut-wrenching. Evidences of alcoholism, domestic violence, malnutrition, disease and depression were laid wall to wall in the small slum. The little kids, covered in soot, with murky eyes and distended bellies, got the better of us. We crossed a line we have rarely straddled during all of our travels and told the BDO’s director “let’s go buy some posho”. Fifty kgs of cornmeal and one kg of soap was our modest contribution to this urban Batwa community, way short of a forest!

A happy new year to you all. May the new cycle bring you what you need. J+P xox