The gorilla naming ceremony is here again
It is known as the most prominent ceremony in Rwanda and many people from different parts of the world including tourists embrace it annually. You may be wondering what ceremony but this is non-other than “Kwita Izina”. Kwita Izina is a naming ceremony in Rwanda where all the newly born mountain gorillas are given names for easy identification. Whenever it reaches 1st July every year, all young gorillas that were born in that year are given names during the event that is highly recognized worldwide. This ceremony is one of the oldest cultural ceremonies in the country and initially, it was meant to give names to newly born babies in the country. In the past, young babies in the country were assembled in one place and the elders organized to give them suitable names which were picked basing on their clans. This is the ceremony that the Tourism industry coped 10 years ago and it is done annually this time not naming human beings but mountain gorillas.
With this year’s Kwita Izina ceremony, the tourism industry of Rwanda is expecting to use the event to market its other adventurous sites that a visitors can visit and have a wonderful experience. It will enable the country to reach out to the rest of the world highlighting its rare sites.
Different delegates from different countries including those from Europe are expected to attend the event and they will be provided with all the relevant information regarding Rwanda’s tourism which will be used when they get back to their respective countries. The delegates will be driven around the country after the ceremony and also get a chance of participating in the various adventurous activities like chimpanzee trekking, bird watching, game drives, nature walks, cultural walks and many more. This will help the country to save money which would have been used to market the country’s tourism fraternities.
Rwanda is one of the few countries in the world where mountain gorillas are found and this has marketed the country leading to an increase in gorilla safaris. With about 900 gorillas left in the world, a quarter of this is found in this East African country others found in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Though these rare primates can be found in the three countries, for a better tracking experience, a tourists is advised to visit Rwanda or Uganda simply because the gorillas of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are hard to find as they keep on migrating from one place to another crossing the borders.
If you have never seen a young gorilla being given a name, then you should not miss out this year as a lot is going to be witnessed. In fact a Rwanda safari at this time of the year is the best because of the chance one gets of attending the event. It doesn’t matter where to start the trip from because even those visitors on a Uganda safari can extend their trip to Rwanda and attend the event.
