The Batwa Trail in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

The Batwa Trail is a cultural experience tour in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The Batwa cultural tour takes visitors through the Batwa forest peoples’ lifestyle before they were evicted from the forests in the early 1990s. The Batwa livelihoods solely depended on the forest economy, mainly through hunting and fruit gathering until they were removed from their ancestral homes.

The Batwa tour, which takes about four hours, costs USD 80 per person. The guides are Batwa themselves. Part of the income is kept by the Uganda Wildlife Authority to aid Batwa development projects, whereas the rest of the funds go to the Batwa guides as a source of income to support their families.

The Batwa Trail gives a chance to the Batwa guides to showcase their ancient lifestyle through various demonstrations. The guides showcase cultural norms such as harvesting herbs for medicine and wild honey, their old ways of fetching water using bamboo-made “mugs,” and a construction demo of grass thatched huts.

​The tour ends with a cultural showcase by the Batwa community at the Garama cave entrance, a ceremonial ground for Batwa cultural leaders. The cave was such a symbolic place in the Batwa culture, and you will be proud to be part of this experience.

The Batwa Cultural Trail experience takes place inside Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, managed by Uganda Wildlife Authority. The Batwa Trail tour is different from the Batwa Community Cultural Experience, where visitors explore the lives and cultures of the Batwa people through a village experience.