If you’re looking for kingfisher stories in Africa, you will encounter people as well as birds. When I began my search, Derek Pomeroy, emeritus professor at Makerere University in Kampala and also an expert ornithologist, advised me, ‘As written sources are few or non-existent, you have to make do with conversations with hunters, farmers and fishermen.’ Often it’s not the birders who can tell you the story behind a bird, but the people who work in the field or know the local culture. Sometimes different stories about the same bird are told in different African cultures. So in the world of bird myths and folklore, both the bird and the storyteller are important. There is no story that stands alone.
Paul Tamwenya is a leading bird and culture guide in Uganda and Rwanda. He was born in 1982 in Uganda’s Eastern Region near Mount Elgon National Park, in the village of Nangaiza in Kibuku district. From a young age, Paul would accompany his grandfather, Enock Summer Kiuto, into the surrounding countryside. Enock was a hunter of birds, large rodents and small mammals, a master in the use of the hunting stick and catapult. During their days out together he would often tell his grandson the stories about Uganda’s birds and wildlife that he in turn had learnt from his grandfather. Enock died in 2012 at the age of 102.
In our conversations in Uganda, when we would contemplate the country’s rich avifauna after a day spent birding, and via e-mail too, Paul has shared with me kingfisher tales known to the Gwere people for at least five generations. He is clearly more than just a trained guide who expertly produces one endemic bird species after another to the appreciation of his clients. For him it’s not simply about ticking offnew bird species. Reflecting on the bird you’ve seen, the splendour of its plumage, its brilliant song in the early morning, its characteristic courtship display – these are experiences that are not only shaped by your eye and brain, but are also coloured by your feelings. Birds can touch your soul.
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