The Great Lakes Museum

Just along the way on approach to Kabale, always keep an eye for this museum. It has a varied collection of artifacts and masks, information on clans, and original items like the displays on the evolution of phones as well as cameras. There is also a cafe that sells Ugandan coffee that offers accommodation and mountain bike hire. The museum is located on Ntugamo to Kabale road on Rwahi hill in western Uganda. It was opened in 2014 in order to preserve and promote the history of the surrounding tribes; the Bakiga, the Ankole, Banywaranda, and the Baziba people.

This museum is equipped with a collection of artifacts, information on the clans of different tribes, the evolution of phones and cameras, musical instruments, hunting equipment as well as the fighting gear, and many more. You can find the restaurant, craft shop, accommodation as well as mountain bike hire. The museum has old household items like cooking utensils, sleeping mats, musical instruments, hunting equipment’s and the fighting gear used in past battles as advertised but they are scattered with modern-day bikes that could have been bought last week and pictures on the wall of people like Justin Bieber.

There are some items like the wooden bike and the older hospital stretcher that are worth seeing. Some of the other showcases are empty and it’s as if they had a great idea and put the museum together before identifying whether they really had enough items to fill it. That could change but additional acquisitions need the money and it’s fair to say that most Ugandans don’t tend to visit.

The great lakes museum hopes that the collection can be developed to complement the range of other facilities at the museum from traditional dancing and drama, the guided walks, mountain biking, camping, and workshops alongside modern eco-friendly cottages for accommodation, camping facilities, and children playground, conference center and a well-stocked bar, restaurant, and café with high-speed internet access.

The great Lakes museum and the Igongo cultural center are the two museums in western Uganda where you can learn all about the region’s rich heritage. These both provide great insights into local and regional history with artifacts from the past. You can also find great sculptures in the complex itself created by a local sculptor and they are just breath-taking and also make a visit to the center worthwhile in its own right. Many of these can be seen in the slideshow on your left but they need to be seen in person to appreciate them.

The restaurant has got good food at a well-stocked craft shop, friendly and welcoming staff, and it’s worth a half-day out. They charge a few euros for entrance to the museum. The Great Lakes Museum is on a stretch of road in the middle of nowhere it can be reached in an hour either from Kabale or Ntungamo for 25 euros in a cab or a pound in a taxi cab.