INTRO
What happens when you ask local community members, who are professionally involved in tourism, to present and promote themselves and their places to tourists?
It depends.
In East Africa, for example, we have seen the same story repeating itself. There are two parallel universes: the one they live in and experience every day, and the one tourists see. It is astonishing how different those two worlds are, co-existing next to each other but invisible to one another.
This was also the case on the trip to Uganda we experienced in September 2022.
This is the tale of my discovery and unveiling of the local living culture and traditions of a beautiful region in southern Uganda. A little pearl hidden between green hills, at the foothills of the volcanic Virunga massive, which is rich in stories untold to visitors.
ONCE UPON A TIME…STILL UNSEEN
Once upon a time, there was an invisible town surrounded by a majestic volcano, a lake formed by an ancient eruption, a forest reserve and two national parks.
At an altitude of 1,900 metres above sea level, and 10 km from the borders of Rwanda and Congo, Kisoro appears on Google maps as a small dot among bigger names: Muhabura Volcano (4,127m) and Bwindi National Park, the national destination for gorilla trekking but also loved by birdwatchers for the 350 bird species registered there. There is also a crater lake lost in the summit clouds of the Mgahinga volcano, part of the homonymous National Park, and you would need a challenging hike to be granted the view of three countries from the peak of sister volcano, Sabyinyo. The 22 square km serene waters of Lake Mutanda are on one side of Kisoro and on the other side lies the lesser known Echuya Forest Reserve, 34 square km of dense bamboo forest which is extremely rich in biodiversity.
Distracted by all these incredibly diverse natural environments, travellers usually stay in Kisoro town only for a brief pit stop, tired after a demanding hike, or excited for the imminent trek with the mountain primates.
They could stay longer in these surroundings after their adventure, but travellers can’t see any reason to do so. It can seem to visitors that there is nothing left to do beyond the gorilla trekking and safari opportunities – and the only information shared with them is about those two options. The rest is simply not seen.
I arrived in what a renowned UK travel guide calls an inherently unremarkable small town, with a blank notepad that I would soon be filling with new, exciting stories. But not without a little struggle.
MINDSET – PREPARATION
I could see – and can still see – a profuse number of SMMEs competing with each other on exactly the same few services.
Traveller Storyteller had been invited to visit the Invisible City to help a local tour operator with the marketing and visibility of their nature-based adventure trips.
I couldn’t believe that there was nothing else to see or that this was just a small anonymous town squashed between a volcano and a National Park. I went there looking for the hidden culture and found that a portal opened up on treasures overlooked by most tourists.
THE COMMUNITY STORYTELLING WORKSHOP
INTRO
We organised an unplanned workshop in the perfect location, a metaphor for the place we were about to work around: a serene green oasis hidden behind a gate on the side of the main road.
With the invaluable help of our local connection, we gathered a small group of local stakeholders, including local tour operator owners, experienced tour guides, small hotel owners and managers, local business owners, DMCs, professional birdwatchers, environmental warriors, organic coffee farmers, hikers and local authority representatives. The group slowly gathered around a coffee table on a circle of chairs for a one-day workshop on Community Storytelling.
I arrived at the secret garden with many questions and big frustrations, but a solid conviction: there must be more stories of positive impact here that they are not currently telling. We were determined to unveil some of those stories and share them with a bigger audience, to plant the seed of more future responsible tourism practices to support local sustainable development.
UNEXPECTED QUESTIONS WERE ASKED
People attended to learn about digital marketing and to collect information from me, but they found that I had questions for them.
My public was a group of business professionals eager to increase their visibility on social media and attract more visitors. My attention turned towards the hidden paths, the forgotten routes, the legends, the traditions.
I invited them to stop and think and I noticed a certain astonishment while they were rethinking their answers and some resistance in the form of sceptical questions.
What is the point of telling other stories if they only come here for the safari?
Gorilla trekking is the only thing they are looking for here.
And then came my comment that proved to be a turning-point: Well, how would they know if no one is telling them what is here?
A dent was created in the solid brick wall of their certainties. They could see that the world didn’t end there but that there was another world on the other side of the wall, full of bright colours and sparkles.
IMAGINATION
The moment that we change our traditional perspective is a moment of bliss. The world expands and everything is possible.
I presented them with the most recent market research, and we discussed the new tourist demands, needs and preferences. They were pleased to hear that travellers are looking for more immersive experiences, cultural encounters and contact with the local communities.
Guided by the new types of questions, they started taking notes on a fresh blank page. Those questions provided a glimpse into a reality they had not considered before: that visitors were interested in listening to the stories from their community.
What if you all start telling the stories about your destination?
And, if you could choose, which kind of stories would you like to share with the visitors about your place?
Then the magic happened.
The energy shift was so powerful, and their eyes started to sparkle with an ocean of possibilities. I saw those sparkles while they watched the image slowly appearing in the mirror that I was virtually holding up in front of them.
UNCOVERING OLD STORIES
Some stories were told to the group, while others were experienced in-person during guided tours.
Do you know what happened on this hill at the end of the WWII?
Do you know what was there?
Following the tip of the wooden stick that one of our hosts in Kisoro was pointing to show a location ahead of us, the historical relevance of this region emerged. While listening to the local storyteller’s words we were catapulted back in time, and those green hills we were walking through suddenly became the battlefield of colonialist empires.
The birds we watched during the forest walks gained additional layers of meaning when the tour guide started embedding additional cultural information into his descriptions of the wildlife, already rehearsing the new version of his tour. The local myths and tales enriched his explanations and made them more relevant and vivid.
At the organic coffee farm we visited, near Lake Mutanda, we learned about the steps of coffee production while discovering the story of tea and coffee in the region since the British arrived.
A stroll in the museum gave us the opportunity to see real artefacts of daily life, and the roots of the modern customs and traditions the inhabitants of the region continue to respect.
We lost count of the names of the plants grown in the small garden behind our workshop space, and we smelled many medicinal plants in the so-called forest pharmacy, near the garden.
We learnt about the Batwa community and their struggles since they had had to leave their forest, but also about their love for music and craftwork, their knowledge about the medicinal herbs, and their conviviality.
Finally, at sunset the next day, we immerse ourselves in the middle of the volcanic lake, protected by the Virunga volcanoes before embarking, the following day, on a birdwatching canoe trip and a history lesson about the lake and the residents’ communities.
NEW STORIES I WROTE WITH THEM
The interview with a local eco-warrior
(Coming Soon)
NEW WIRES
The cultural layers hidden under the flat surface were lifted for the Ugandan people during the COVID pandemic. In those dark years for international tourism, domestic tourism flourished, creating the opportunity to reconnect with their own history and roots.
Perhaps, in a similar way, those cultural layers can also be lifted for international visitors who are, now more than ever, eager to learn about the local community lifestyle, and its heritage and historical traditions, and engage with the living guardians of the culture.
Nature is just the tip of the iceberg in Uganda – immense and diverse as it is – but just the tip of an iceberg.
***
Storytelling is undoubtedly the heart of tourism; without stories, there wouldn’t be any tourism activities. We build our dream vacation around the stories we see in images, what we hear from the tales of friends and relatives, and what we imagine from the lines in a book.
But stories are NOT NEUTRAL.
As tourism professionals, we in an era with a growing awareness of the lack of sustainable and responsible tourism practices, and its devastating consequences. And so we finally recognise that STORIES MATTER, however, WHO TELLS THEM MATTERS EVEN MORE.
Individual storytellers can help enrich the narratives told and shared.
But are the voices of the local communities the ones we want to highlight and take to the bigger stages.
What happened on that day was a little revolution, which we at Traveller Storyteller hope to continue in Kisoro and other places in Uganda.
If you want to support the next step of this journey of self-empowerment of local Ugandan communities, moving towards local sustainable development through tourism, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.
(Photo credits: Elisa Spampinato, unless otherwise specified)
One Response
Thank you for promoting our region. We finally got someone to tell our untold stories! Uganda is indeed beyond Mountain Gorillas. It was a pleasure hosting you at Gahiza Island Retreat.