Kageno Rwanda (Banda Village)

Banda lies in a steep, green valley bordering Nyungwe Forest National Park. More than 11,000 people live here, and since 2007 the community development charity Kageno has worked with the village to build clean water systems, nursery schools and health clinics. Most visitors arrive on foot, following a forest trail down from Uwinka.

Intore dancers greet arrivals, then a village guide leads you between homes and workshops. Learn how traditional medicines and baskets are made, grind maize with hand tools, help cook a local meal and try the village’s own banana beer. Time it right and you may find a traditional wedding under way. Back at Uwinka, Nyungwe’s canopy walkway hangs around 60m above the forest floor, filled with blue, L’Hoest’s and colobus monkeys. Every visit adds income beyond subsistence farming and forest gathering, which eases pressure on the park’s chimpanzees and the forest.