2015 Annual Kwita Izina
The dates for the 11th annual Kwita Izina, a gorilla naming ceremony have been realeased by the Rwanda Development Board as Rwanda Continues with its Efforts to protect the mountain gorillas in Africa.
The land of a thousand hills is getting filled with excitement as the celebrations of the 11th annual Kwita Izina – Gorilla Naming Ceremony draw close. The famous Kwita Izina is a Rwandan celebration of naming newborn baby gorilla which have been born with the same year period. This ceremony come up as an ancestral cultural baby naming ceremony that happens in the African societies after the birth of a newborn child which is a very important experience that calls for partying and celebrations.
The main reason for this occasion is to catch the attention of the whole world, about the need to protect these endangered mountain gorillas through monitoring each individual infant gorilla and their groups in their natural habitat. Today, the Kwita Izina has caught the attention of both locales and international audience about the importance of protecting the mountain gorillas and their habitats in the Virunga Mountains – the Volcanoes national park located in the north of the country.
This year the annual baby gorilla naming ceremony, Kwita Izina, according to officials from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Tourism and conservation department will be held on September 5th, unlike in previous years when the Kwita Izina was held in July, due to the need form the country to ensure compliancy with the Northern corridor tourism events calendar – a three-some tourism promotion initiative established under a tripartite agreement between Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, each member country set a period to focus on a flagship tourism event.
Looking back on last year’s ceremony, a total 16 babies mountain gorillas at the Volcanoes National Park were given names. Each year a focus theme is set, by the head of Tourism and Conservation at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). Last year’s theme was ‘Conserving – Empowering – Growing’, set to reflect and celebrate the efforts of all those that have contributed to the sustainable regional and national conservation of the mountain gorilla and other wildlife in general.
Today the Kwita Izina has received thousands of regional, local as well as international audience very enthusiastic about travelling to the Virunga mountain ranges to visit the endangered mountain gorillas. So far, the Volcanoes national park mountain gorillas have been receiving substantial resources from international conservation organizations, donors and concerned people for the conservation efforts of the Mountain gorillas in Rwanda. The park is the prime spot for tourists looking for gorilla safaris in Africa given the improved accessibility to the park located in a distance f 3 hours drive from Kigali.
The Kwita Izina largely looks at protecting the remaining home range of the endangered mountain gorillas which for decades is the Virunga Massif – a chain of volcanic mountains comprising of Rwanda’s Volcanoes NP, DRC’s Virunga NP and Uganda’s Mgahinga NP. The Volcanoes national park actually covers two third of the Virunga Massif’s remaining endangered mountain gorillas.