Kwita Izina Rwanda- Gorilla Naming Ceremony
Kwita Izina is a mountain gorilla naming ceremony that takes place in Kinigi, Rwanda at volcanoes national park headquarters where mountain gorillas can be trekked. The ceremony does not only aim at naming and celebrating a newborn baby mountain gorilla but also aims at creating awareness about the importance of mountain gorillas.
The gorilla naming ceremony is named after the ancestral naming of newborn baby gorillas in volcanoes national park Rwanda to monitor the newborn babies and protect them in their natural habitats. The ceremony has contributed a lot to the maintenance of mountain gorillas both locally and internationally.
Baby mountain gorillas are named after observation and monitoring each mountain gorilla with its family in their natural habitat on a daily basis, since the ceremony was established over 200 mountain gorillas have been named. The ceremony began years ago when trekkers, guides, researchers, and veterinarians gathered every year to celebrate and name baby mountain gorillas born that year, the event was introduced in 2005.
The people chosen to name the baby mountain gorillas are carefully chosen, gorillas are mostly named according to their social behaviors or the environment in which they were born. The names include local and international conservationists, diplomats, and philanthropists. In 2018, 23 mountain gorillas were named and the theme was conservation is conservation and it was the 13th event of gorilla naming since it began.
Other activities at Kwita Izina
Several local traditional dancing groups are always invited to perform at the Kwita Izina gorilla naming ceremony, you will enjoy the Rwandese traditional dances and there is also a section where you can see how weaving of baskets is done and make and taste Rwandese local food. A lot of the local people benefit from the event by bringing local handmade crafts and many more things, you can buy many nice kinds of stuff as souvenirs to take back home for memories or as gifts for your loved ones.
Gorilla trekking is one of the main activities done in Rwanda, you can go gorilla trekking before or after the ceremony. Gorilla trekking offers you a unique opportunity of meeting mountain gorillas face to face in their natural habitats and observe them for a maximum of one hour. Gorilla permits in volcanoes national park cost $1500 and you are advised to book them in advance of 3-4 months before the final trekking day to avoid inconvenience most especially in the dry season cause the demand is so high.
Rwanda is home to 5 out of 8 Virunga volcanoes straddling across Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo. You cannot afford to hike to the top of the mountains to look for mountain gorillas in their natural habitats when visiting volcanoes national park, the mountain slopes are not only home to mountain gorillas but also other primates such as red-tailed monkeys, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys as well as birds such as African green broadbill, western green tinker bird, short-tailed warbler, regal sunbird, Kivu ground thrush, impressed African emerald, fine banded woodpecker, Shelley’s crimson wing, black bee-eater and bar-tailed trogon among others not forgetting the spectacular views of the thousand hills of Rwanda which you get at the peaks.
