About

We are a community-based tourism organisation based in Mityana, about and an hour and half from Kampala Capital City. We promote traditional practices in the area of music, talks (senga and kojja), games, hunting, barkcloth making, medicine, food preparation and dining, taboos and totems as well as religion among others. We also use an innovative model for reducing wildlife destruction. We undertake hunting expeditions with the visitors to save wildlife. As a result of this approach, many hunters have laid down their tools.

Entanda was initiated in 2013 to protect and revitalise the waning Buganda cultural practices and natural environment through tourism. Buganda Kingdom is one of the largest and most influential pre-colonial kingdoms in East Africa, occupying a total area of 61,403 square kilometres. The Kingdom has a rich history and a strong culture dating back to AD400 during the reign of Kabaka Tonda. For more than two millennia, there has been birth and evolution of a number of cultural practices, values and norms in Buganda. These include music, dance, drama, passage of rites, language, architecture, dressing, technology, economic activity, religion, politics and governance, warfare, cuisine, ceremonies and gender roles. A majority of this culture was linked to man’s environment which in effect integrated culture with natural resource management. A good example was the taboos and totems of Buganda. Despite this remarkable journey of more than 2000 years, there is worry that much of the cultural and natural heritage of Buganda may wane due to modernisation. Entanda was born partly to restore this heritage.

We have developed a number of activities with the members which have attracted more than 1200 happy tourists. As a result, Entanda was voted the best Cultural Tourism Initiative in Uganda 2017 in the Pearl of Africa Tourism Excellence Awards by Uganda Tourism Board. Entanda also finished among the top 15 best cultural tourist destinations under the UNDP Global Equator Initiative 2017. The initiative was also chosen as a model inclusive tourism model by UNDP in 2016 and was taken on as a case study for all delegates in an international meeting in Kampala. The initiative also enjoys a formal partnership with Makerere University Business School.

The funds got from the tourists have been used to support the community in terms of training, grading the community road, supporting the only village school, formation of a SACCO and supporting agriculture. Most importantly, many members of the initiative receive some income which has helped to improve their livelihoods. The community also enjoys strong social capital and energy that is necessary to engender local economic development.