Entanda cultural experience is one of the most fascinating cultural tours in Uganda. The cultural tour takes travellers through the astounding rich cultural heritage of the Baganda tribe and Buganda kingdom – Uganda’s most significant kingdom.
About Entanda Cultural Experience
Entanda is a lovely word in Uganda that refers to a package that you give to your loved ones. The package could include important advice or tangible assets that you offer to aid someone in the future. Entanda can be given to a daughter, son, cousin, friend, or anyone you truly adore.
The Entanda cultural experience was founded in 2013 with the goal of preserving and revitalizing Buganda cultural practices and the natural environment through tourism. Buganda Kingdom is one of the largest and most influential pre-colonial kingdoms in Uganda. The Kingdom has a rich history and a vibrant culture. A variety of cultural practices, attitudes, and conventions have emerged and evolved in Buganda over the course of more than two millennia. Music, dance, theatre, rites of passage, language, dressing, architecture, technology, economic activity, religion, politics and government, warfare, gastronomy, and gender roles are among those practices.
However, the majority of this culture was tied to man’s surroundings, effectively integrating culture with natural resource management: for example, Buganda’s taboos and totems. Despite this extraordinary journey of over 2000 years, there is concern that much of Buganda’s cultural and ecological legacy will be lost owing to modernization. Entanda was created in part to revive this tradition.
The Entanda Cultural Experience is run by the Entanda Initiative, a community-based tourist organization in Mityana, about an hour and a half from Kampala’s capital city. The initiative supports traditional music, speeches (Ssenga and Kojja), hunting, bark cloth making, games, traditional medicine, food preparation and dining, taboos and totems, and religion, among others. The Entanda initiative also employs an innovative methodology for preventing wildlife devastation such as safeguarded hunting trips. As a result of this technique, many hunters have abandoned their tools.
The Entanda Initiative also provides a authentic visitor experience in a non-staged setting. Visitors can learn a lot about this cultural experience by actively participating. In the end, they return home with a wealth of knowledge and lessons to utilize in the future. Visitors explore, learn, and have fun. Furthermore, the settlement of Entanda is called Kijjudde, which means “a community blessed with riches.”
The Entanda Cultural Experience
Travel to Kijjude Village for the Entanda cultural experience. Appreciate the gorgeous scenery as you drive through fertile land covered in green natural vegetation. At some point, you will also drive through big pieces of land covered in tea plantations. Enjoy strolling through natural rainforests and wetlands, which are home to many bird species. When you arrive at the hunter’s community, you will be greeted with a traditional dance performed with locally crafted instruments.
While enjoying the dance, you will be served a variety of fresh fruits such as guavas, local pineapples, fresh jackfruit, sweet bananas, sugar canes, mangoes, and passion fruits. You will also be allowed to enter farmers’ gardens, pick the ripe ones, and even transport them home if you like. Among other exhilarating activities, you will take time to explore the local swings. These are classic swings, consisting of a couple of ropes tightly connected to trees. There are bicycles available for those who know how to ride them, and you must follow the footpaths in the village. The rides take you through tea plantations and woodlands before returning. This cultural experience is intended not only to be enjoyable but also to expose you to the lifestyles of Ugandans who live in remote areas.
At around midday, the men will be preparing to go hunting: even the capable females who are interested can accompany. Meanwhile, the rest of the ladies will stay at home to prepare lunch. Preparing meals will entail making several types of Luwombo (a local dish of the Baganda). However, before this chapter’s cultural experience, you will be briefed right before you walk into the jungle to hunt wild animals and enter the kitchen respectively. On your way to hunt, you will pass through other homesteads, across wetlands, forests, and hills, putting your trekking skills to the test. Furthermore, the natives will be able to help teach you the skills of a hunter, since they have done it for ages.
Enjoy the sights and sounds of the numerous bird species that inhabit the forest, as well as the beauty of the butterflies flitting throughout the forest, as you hunt. The main point is to observe what happens when people go hunting.
Back at home, the Sengas will be extremely helpful ladies during the traditional food preparation process. The ladies will walk you through the entire process from harvesting all of the food you wish to prepare that day from the gardens until it is ready to serve. It is critical that you actively engage so that at the end of the day you have learned how to prepare various meals such as luwombo, matooke, and other local delicacies.
After lighting the food on fire and utilizing the traditional method of cooking that requires the use of firewood, the Ssenga (auntie) may accompany the ladies who are interested in the “bush” so she can teach them about more confidential marriage topics. She will also have great advice on how to care for a husband. The Ssenga will also teach you how to use various local plants, including herbs you never believed would be so crucial to human life.
The guys will seek guidance from their Kojja (uncles), and he will choose a secret location where they can discuss their male problems. They can also do this during the hunting session when they are resting in the bush. The Kojja will be happy to answer any questions they have about sex, marriage, and relationships. These chats are frequently entertaining because the Kojjas are eager to share their personal experiences. They will discuss traditional lifestyle standards and ideas such as clothing codes, respect for others, and so on.
There will be a demonstration of how the bark cloth is manufactured, what it is used for, particularly in the ancient days of Baganda life, an illustration of the general tasks of a male in the home, as well as educate how to treat women.
Lunch
By 4 pm, you should be prepared to enjoy a delicious lunch that will include the traditional local food (luwombo) that you prepared, and will be presented in a traditional Kiganda manner. Plus, the food will be 100% fresh, right from the garden. Aside from Luwombo, there will be a range of vegetables and greens such as cabbages. You will sit around the serving point like most Baganda do when eating. Only the man of the house is provided a stool to sit on in a home, and the rest of the family members must sit down.
End the day with play
You should be through with your meal within an hour, and then it will be time for the games. Among these, will feature a soccer tournament between locals and guests, with the winner receiving a goat. There is a football field where the soccer match will take place. If the guests win the game, the goat is roasted and eaten there and then, but you also have the option of carrying it with you anywhere you like.
After such a long day, everyone will be ready to go home and rest. Entanda cultural experience is one of the top cultural tours in the central area because it incorporates many cultural experiences that you may not discover in any other cultural site. The site offers many more activities such as drumming and dancing, visiting and participating in the process of manufacturing local beers and wines, etc. Please note that time is typically a constraint here, so you can always choose what is most fascinating to you. You can also go to the local tea processing factory and see how they process tea locally, among other things.
