It started as a comic event, was later picked up by the locals as a symbol of love and brotherhood with the endangered apes and later venerated by conservationists but now is a crowd moving event echoed worldwide as a heroic banner to save the Mountain Gorilla. The Kwita Izina ceremony is already knocking at the door. For the beginners, the ceremony is a Gorilla naming ceremony celebrated in Rwanda annually to commemorate and celebrate conservation efforts of the endangered Mountain Gorilla and to create more awareness and mobilize more funds to take the project to higher levels.
This September, as the eyes of the soccer fans, will be drawn to Brazil, those of conservationists and Wildlife enthusiasts will be docked to Rwanda. This year’s ‘Kwita Izina’ ceremony will be held on on 2nd September and is expected to draw many conservationists from across the world, according to a statement released by the Rwanda Development Board Tourism and Conservation Department yesterday.
The Week-long country wide festivity will commence with the launch of a Gorilla Conservation and Community exhibition in Kinigi on Monday, June 23, thence from June 25 – 29 an adaptation voyage across all the provinces will acquaint invited guests and media partakers with the range of tourism attractions beyond gorilla tracking.
Also on the menu of this cross country tour is the official launch of Basumba Primary School funded by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) through the Tourism Revenue Sharing Scheme which has for long been providing millions of Rwanda Francs for community benefits like schools, health centers, the provision of clean water and the construction of roads among other infrastructure.
For the week leading to September visitors will be able to experience the Rwandan community self-help model of Umuganda (contribution), where the whole nation, except those on duty, comes together to improve their immediate neighborhoods, clean trenches, slash grass, beautify recreational parks, and engage in other community projects through volunteering to cause a change in the community.
In the afternoon, the RDB is expected to launch a tourism exhibition and border to border meetings as visitors from the entire Eastern African region will be expected to assemble in Kigali to support the festival, which is now one of several activities the tourist boards of Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya jointly organize and support in their new move to market the region as one Tourist destination.
The climax of the festival will be the real naming activity which will be on July 1st in Kinigi and is expected to draw the world’s leading conservationists to join the East Africans in celebrating the Rwanda’s achievements in protecting and improving the habitat of the endangered mountain gorillas.
During this crowd moving festive season, Rwanda will be hosting more other visitors on diplomatic missions. Among others will be the International Conference by Women in Parliament (WIP) which will be held in Kigali from July 1st to 4th and International Conference on Democratic Governance in Africa by the Rwanda Governance Board. This is expected to generate more revenue for the ‘Land of a thousand hills’.