
Rwandese Batwa people culture tour
Rwandese Batwa people culture tour: Rwanda is a unique country with beautiful scenery, colorful culture, and a past that everyone in the international community should learn. It may be a small country but Rwanda has made a giant leap in giving tourists more than what they bargained for, including land of magnificent views of mountains, valleys, and Lakes. It is also inhabited by several indigenous people, the Batwa being one of the oldest aboriginal groups with a culture of their own. The intended purpose of writing this article is to give an interesting understanding of the natural world, traditions, and ways of living of the Batwa people.
Learning about the Batwa People
The Batwa are said to be some of the first peoples of the Great Lakes Region in East Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pastorally, they resided in the rainforests of the Albertine Rift that is in East Africa from Virunga, to Mountains and from Lake Edward. The Batwa have always been farmers and gatherers who dwelled in the rainforest where they took food from trees and other wild resources; they had immense respect for the trees, animals, and spirits of the rainforest.
Their lifestyle was greatly altered when vast regions of the Congo Basin jungle were converted into areas for establishing gorillas and other wildlife national parks and reserves. The Batwa gave up their traditional dwelling, their means of obtaining food, and a major portion of their learning about the forest, which earned them the status of one of the last remaining peoples hunting and gathering.

Exploring the Batwa Social Customs and Beliefs
From the spiritual aspect to the way of life and the system of interpersonal relations, the Batwa have a very diverse history. The second and one of the most important values held by the people is that of imitating the spirits they believe belong to trees, animals, waterfalls, and mountains. The Batwa continue to pay sector respect and authority to these entities for directions, cures, and shields. It also shows the Batwa people’s belief in the existence of spirits, and respect they had for nature, as well as the symbiotic relationship with nature in the past.
Music dance and story telling can also be used to give an insight on the customs and beliefs of the Batwa people. Their songs and dances are backed up by their version of instruments: the ikuru, a tree-bark drum; the indanye, a bow harp; and the ibyivaro, a notched stick with a stick used to strike it and preferably with zither-like sound. Music and dance are inseparable parts of their lives and activities, their interactions with relatives and friends as well as ceremonies and rites that make people close-knit.
Furthermore, the Batwa storytelling is crucial to understanding their past, folk tales and proverbs. These are the types of narratives they tell regarding their forefathers, the genesis of the world as well as the affinity between these people and the rainforest and spirits thereof. All these narratives are important in vesting cultural and historical knowledge that is an integral part of Batwa’s way of finding their identity and voice.
Even today, the descendants of the recognized Batwa people have transmittal means of such knowledge and traditional principles of their conduct. In the process, they are faced with many struggles though they do all they can to preserve their culture and present it to the rest of the world.
Tourism to Access Batwa Culture
For the purpose of grasping more about the cultural and living standards of the Batwa, there are several cultural tourism in Rwanda. The Tour that was specifically designed to cover the Batwa Cultural Trail allows the visitor to interact directly with the Batwa and experience how they live. The tourists can then follow Batwa guides around the Rwandan forests and hills, listen to the legends, respect the tribe’s tight-knit relationship with the forest, and watch them hunt and forage.
In this tour, the Batwa are hired to entertain their clients through cultural activities; including music, dancing, and storytelling. Actually, guests can get knowledge with the help of the Batwa people about the plants that they use in curing and also get to know their culture about nature in their life. The tour also entails a visit to the Batwa people, where they get to meet the people and spend time with them, also as they interact with the people, they get to buy the local art and crafts.
The other chance of the tourist to see the Batwa cultural performance is in the Gorilla Forest Camp. The camp is located near the Volcanoes National Park, tourists are able to have an opportunity to give humanitarian assistance to the Batwa people and listen to their life stories, and know their traditional history. Guests also get to engage in certain cultural activities including the Batwa dances, and native performances, as well as a shared meal with the Batwa people.
Besides these experiences, that can be met during the visit in the forest the tourist can go for a walk in the forest with a Batwa guide who will explain the importance of the trees and the forest to the Batwa people. The guide will give a preview of the subject as the Batwa used to dwell on and depend on the forest, its productivity, and the animals practicing their medicine from natural remedies from mother nature.
Rwandese Batwa people culture tour: Conclusion
Discovering the cultural practices of the Batwa is quite a profound and privileged opportunity to overhear for everyone who is going to Rwanda. These are native people with cultural beliefs that strongly associate them with the traditional culture and values of civilization. Tours and cultural experiences associated with the Batwa are a way of still getting to know these people and their way of life, and, ultimately, help maintain the traditional way of life of these people.
I find the Batwa people, their life, customs, and beliefs informative and interesting as they offer a window into a faction of Rwanda’s diverse cultural face. Tourism can enable interaction with the Batwa people and their cultural practices exposing the tourists to other people who are culturally aboriginal to Uganda.
For travelers who are interested in Rwandan culture, the culture of Batwa is one of the unique things that tourists should experience. With these tours and through their interaction with the Batwa people, the tourists are able to help in the conservation of this tribal culture and in turn help the Batwa pass on this culture to the next generation.