Iby’ Iwachu Cultural Village is located near Parc National des Volcans in Kinigi. Its has been developed to display local and traditional lifestyles, activities and artefacts. Local communities benefit and earn directly from this community based tourism initiative to improve their socio-economic ways of living and as an incentive for conservation of the gorillas and their habitat. Given the cultural value attached to it, the Iby’ Iwachu Cultural Village is a platform to showcase the Rwandan ways of living, traditional lifestyles and dances to tourists and community members in a way that encourages them all to be a part of it while generating income for local people. The money generated is used to support their household income based activities; encourage sustainability; reducing unemployment and empowering local people politically, economically and socially to alleviate poverty (which is the underlying cause of poaching) while developing these entities as linkages towards conservation of the endangered mountain gorillas.
Iby’ Iwachu Cultural Village gives you the rare chance to meet and interact with local people, in their environment with a taste of Rwandese culture and traditions. This has been developed by the community for the community. The activities include:
(1) Visiting a replica of the King’s place guided by local historical and cultural guides.
(2) Visiting local traditional healers / clinics and pharmacies to learn about the different medicinal trees, shrubs and grasses and their uses and the way there are administrated to the patient.
(3) Visit local schools and if one is a teacher, you can offer to conduct a lesson to know how children are taught in a Rwandan school.
(4) Attend a local banana brewery and see how the local beer is made and have a taste.
(5) Igitaramo is where everyone gathers around a camp fire to listen to stories and riddles and also dance to the drum beats. Intore and Ekinimba dancers can perform eight different dances – Ibyivugo, Umuduri, Ikembe, Iningiri, Inanga, Ingoma, Amakndera, Agakenke.
(6) Join food gatherers in harvesting and preparation of food like ubugari, umutsima, ibirayi and igikoma. Guests can also participate in millet grinding with stones and see whether they have enough balance to carry potatoes and water on their heads.
(7) A 3 hour walk through Nyabigoma village offers tourists a chance to visit homes and farms hence experiencing the rural Rwandan ways of living.