Ibyiwacu Cultural Village
Ibyiwacu Cultural Village is referred to as Gorilla Guardian Village which is a great location to visit and enjoy the amazing traditional culture of Banyarwanda. However, Rwanda as a country offers a beautiful scenery and several green hills thus naming it a land of thousand hills. Rwanda boasts as one of the leading Tourist destinations in Africa, despite her small size and fewer natural resources compared to her neighbors.
The Ibyiwacu cultural village is one of the great stopping sites by visitors in the country on safari, it is located in the district of Musanze and the word Ibyiwacu which is in Kinyarwanda word means ‘’Treasure of our home and heritage’’.
More so, the Ibyiwacu cultural village marks as the leading cultural attraction in Rwanda. The village where it is positioned combines all of Rwanda’s known cultural traditions, people, and history into one place for display and a personal experience. Visitors who visit the village enjoy the sweet lifestyle of the locals, traditional houses and dances, dress code, food, herbs, and how the ancient kingdoms were generally arranged. During your visit, visitors are allowed to learn about ancient hunting skills, weaving baskets –mats, and carpentry among others.
This cultural village has offered a unique experience to the hearts of many visitors who wish to indulge in the culture of Rwanda’s native community after visiting Rwanda’s capital ‘Kigali’’, encountering the mountain gorillas, and hiking a mountain like Mount Karisimbi. You can choose to visit the place for relaxation while offering opportunities to purchase local crafts, and gifts and buy a souvenir to take back to your loved ones.
Apart from generating revenue and publicity, the Ibyi’wacu cultural center works as a unifying factor for Rwanda’s cultural/tribal groups like the Hutus, Tutsis, and Batwa. This center helps encourage the feeling of oneness found in a commonly shared ideology. Despite this fact, many of the local entertainers such as the Batwa were once poachers, and the Gorilla Guardians Cultural Village thus gives visitors a great chance to do something different in act of helping them earn a living for their families while keeping them away from poaching.
What to expect on a visit to Iby’Iwacu
Cultural Village?
Well, the Iby’Iwacu cultural center is designed to offer amazing learning activities while also allowing visitors to relax and get a feel of the local culture. Tourists are usually welcomed by loud dancing and drumming at the main gate which is only an indicator of the many fabulous activities.
Below are activities tourists can engage in while on Rwanda Safaris;
Home visits and community walks;
The home visit and community walks offer the best way to understand the diversity within the human race faced in day-to-day life through sharing, interacting, and generally as you get to know the cultures of different communities. More to that, the home visits and community walks while visiting the Gorilla Guardians Village allow tourists to have a great opportunity to understand the cultural uniqueness of the Kinyarwanda culture and heritage. During a visit to the Iby’Iwacu cultural village, you get a chance to experience the life of locals in their traditional homes and grass-thatched huts. During your visit here, visitors are allowed to sit down and the elders share with you amazing information and stories about Rwanda and its rich history. You will also be amazed at the opportunity to visit the local banana and vegetable plantations. On your visit, you will learn about the art of preparing one of the traditional foods or using a special grinding stone to make fine millet flour.
Community Walks
The community walk is also a learning experience that one needs to engage in during their visit to Rwanda. The activity can be done by the guide who leads you to visit some of the local schools around and interact with the pupils and students. You will also get interested in visiting many local art shops offering local paintings, woven clothes, and beautiful pots among others.
Watching /Traditional Skills
During a visit to the center, expect to enjoy watching and listening to traditional music, and dance as it gives one a sense of belonging. Those interested in traditional music, take a visit to Iby’wacu cultural center which offers rewardable opportunities to listen to several unique local musical sounds including the Ingoma, Umuduri, Iningiri, Amakondera, Ibyivugo, and Agakenke. However, each sound sounds perfect with special musical instruments and dancing styles. The Intore is one of the most popular warrior dances performed by men with grass clothing and little bells wrapped around their legs while holding out spears in a mock battle or as a way of celebrating victory over an enemy. On your visit here, you be excited about men and women with their smiling and happy faces as they invite you to take part in the dance or try out to learn how to drum.
Visiting the King’s Palace
While visiting the Ibyiwacu cultural village you can combine it with a visit to the King’s palace where you will learn about the ancient king ruled and managed their courts. You can take part in some kingdom activities and ceremonies that were conducted within the king’s palace under the watch of the king, queens, princesses, princes, clan leaders, and high-level visitors.
A visit to the king’s home in Iby’iwacu offers true pictures of an ancient African kingdom setting with all symbols to represent power, including information about each clan and you will be guided by the guide who will help explain and answer all your questions as you go through each symbol.
Visiting the Batwa Community
On a visit to Iby’icuwa cultural village, you can go visit the Batwa pygmies who are the former forest hunters and fruit gatherers who once lived in the dense forest of Rwanda and Uganda with mountain gorillas. But the government had to get them a new location outside the forest for their life to settle. Today, most of them work as local guides around and they act as tourists attraction to visitors who visits the place thus contributing to Rwanda and Uganda’s Tourism Sectors among others.
Visit Iby’icuwa Cultural village combined with encountering gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park Rwanda or Mgahinga National Park Uganda
Get Started A visit to Rwanda’s Tourist Destination Now! You can contact us at Achieve Global Safaris for more information.
