In fact, the dam provides
the hospital with the most reliable source of electricity in the
whole of Uganda! Kisiizi can be found in the Kigezi highlands about a mile away
from Rukingiri and Kabale and close to the Virunga
volcanoes.
It's a poor area with no real industry with most of its inhabitants being
subsistence farmers. Whilst the Kisiizi Falls have great beauty and are well worth a
visit if staying at Ruhanga, they are the scene of a dark despair
that took place over many years. The area is home to the Bakiga
("people of the mountains"), who traversed modern day northern
Rwanda and southern Uganda, with some claiming they are part of
the Hutu people of Rwanda, though the Bakiga maintain they are a
separate people.
The Bakiga were known for their independence and dislike of formal
structures and organisations preferring to live without any
formal authority. As such, they reacted badly to the coming of the
European colonists, who in turn found it hard to deal with the
locals as they had no central point of contact or jurisdiction to
impose their authority without military deployment.
This resulted in anti-colonial rebellions such as the one in 1911 led by
Muhumuza, one of the wives of the former Rwandan King Kigeri IV
Rwabugiri who had died in 1885. This anti-colonialist stance was
reflected in the Bakiga's response to the introduction of
Christianity; it was rejected wholesale for decades as a colonial
plot to turn them into "idiots." Instead they worshipped the
creator "Ruhanga".
During this period before Christianity took hold, there was a
Bakiga tradition of throwing any Bakiga girl who had become
pregnant out of wedlock to her death from the top of Kisiizi falls
as an "act of cleansing" (although the boys that got the girls
pregnant in the first place went, as seemingly ever, unscathed).
It is understood that some 1000 girls met their death in this way,
although the practise had stopped in 1958 not least because one of
the final girls who was thrown to her death managed to grab hold
of her brother and take him to his death as well. (Some claim the
figure is higher at 100,000 although based on available population
data that would suggest that many of the girls were thrown over
the falls two or three times each.)
Today the Kisiizi Falls are a popular tourist attraction, although
somewhat off the beaten path as Kisiizi itself is only connected to the
major road way via a dirt track ~ but that's part of the beauty of
Uganda, wild, natural, uncommercialised and unspoilt. Those
visiting can also take in the spectacular wildlife, not least its
magnificent array of birds that can be seen around the falls
including the Arrow-marked Babbler, the Ross Turaco, Sacred Ibis
and Double-Toothed Barbet.
