Members of the Batwa community, alongside Bakiga residents from Ruhija in Mpungu Sub-county, Kanungu District, travelled more than 500 kilometres to Entebbe Municipality to showcase their indigenous knowledge of natural medicine during World Wildlife Day celebrations held on Tuesday.
The Batwa, once forest dwellers of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, were evicted in 1991 after the government gazetted the forest as a national park.
Since then, they have lived alongside Bakiga communities at the park’s periphery, working to rebuild their livelihoods while striving to preserve their cultural identity and ancestral knowledge.
Through their community-based organisation, Change A Life-Bwindi, the Batwa are advocating for improved livelihoods and the protection of their traditional knowledge, particularly in herbal medicine.
Led by Christina Katushabe, the group displayed a variety of medicinal plants and explained how different herbs are used to treat common ailments such as stomach disorders, respiratory infections and skin diseases.
“They grew up in the forest. The plants were our hospital, our pharmacy and our survival,” Katushabe said. “Even after leaving the forest, we have kept this knowledge alive. It is part of who we are.”
She described their participation in the national celebrations as a significant milestone for the community.
“This is a great opportunity to share indigenous knowledge. Being forest people is one of our identities, and we need to keep our identity and culture alive,” she said.
Katushabe noted that much of the deeper medicinal knowledge remains concentrated among elderly members of the community.
“Most of those with deep knowledge are between 60 and 70 years old. We need more support to document this knowledge for the next generation,” she urged.
She called on government and conservation stakeholders to prioritise profiling and documenting indigenous communities rich in traditional medicinal knowledge to prevent its loss.
“There is a need to properly document and profile these communities. Our knowledge is valuable not only to us but to the whole country,” she added.
This year’s celebrations were held under the theme, “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: Conserving Heritage, Health and Livelihoods,” highlighting the critical role wild plants play in supporting community health, biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
For the Batwa and Bakiga communities of Ruhija, the long journey to Entebbe was more than a cultural exhibition.
It was a statement of resilience and a call to recognise, preserve and invest in indigenous knowledge as part of Uganda’s conservation and public health heritage.