Dispatches
Rwanda, Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge: Community ownership benefits all
April 16, 2008
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge: So many great things to tell you about, just not sure which to start with… the superlatively scenic luxury lodge…or the thrilling strides that were made with the lodge’s unique community-ownership model that financially benefits from every guests’ visit…or visiting the critically endangered mountain gorillas. So, having properly baited you, I do believe that I will lay it all out in that order.
The first effort and reward metaphor in place at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge:
To the first-time western visitor, the rugged walk up to the main lodge surprises, yet as the lungs and legs grow taxed, the path turns, the view delighting the eyes with puffs of chimney smoke emanating from a handful of Mediterranean-styled tile roof cottages, generously spaced and offering jeweled contrast against the impossibly green backdrop of Sabyinyo, one of five volcanoes visible from the lodge.
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge provides extraordinary service without falling to the cloying or invasive. This is not an amenity - overloaded North American chain hotel luxury (yawn), it is African luxury adventure travel, and you’ll never appreciate it more than here. The ideal landing spot for gorilla trackers both for the location and attuned hospitality, you can stomp up the walk in your mud covered boots, met with a smile and an inquiry as to how your expedition fared as you’re slipped into a clean pair of sport slides. In the blink of an eye your clotted boots have been spirited away for cleaning, your hands warmed with a mug of tea. Gravitation toward the baronial fireplaces in the lodge and cottages is a natural response to the calming cool of the neighboring rainforest gorilla habitat, a welcome relief from the stifling heat found at lower elevations.
Effort and reward, part two: Some accomplishments happen in a vacuum, the act of a singular organization or individual. But their successes are never as sweet as those that are shared.
Built and run by safari lodge operators Governors’ Camp, Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge is actually owned by a community trust, SACOLA, marking a shift, a revolutionary approach to lodge management and profit distribution in Africa.
How? When the concept of the lodge was being dreamed up, Governor’s Camp partnered with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP). The partners concluded that the most fruitful structure to the property would endow ownership of the lodge to a community trust set up specifically to receive rental and other income to drive socio-economic development conservation initiatives with the dual goals of improving the livelihoods of residents in the Kinigi area while contributing in a meaningful way to conservation and preservation of the mountain gorilla and its fragile habitat.
Why? Once they realized how they would benefit, the villagers of Kinigi put their shoulders into supporting the building of the lodge, hauling up rock and timber… local women distinguished themselves as grade A masons, creating the pathways from the lodge to the cottages as well as any stoneworker had seen.
In our trips to and from the park, villagers waved and smiled… we were the tourists coming to see the gorillas, the ones who had chosen to stay in the lodge that their community owned. The profits from our accommodation built schools, improved roads and water resources in Kinigi - animosity towards the gorillas, resentment toward the banning of commercial enterprises (aside from tourism) in the protected habitat wanes as tourist dollars fill community coffers steadily and local lives are markedly improved.
Maurice, the interim manager of the lodge, had asked us at dinner if we’d like entertainment the following evening, a group of local singers and dancers… sure, why not?
The next afternoon, I sat out on the lodge’s patio where weather watching borders on contact sport… sunshine, storms, lightning and rainbows worked the valley over the course of half an hour. From the valley below, cattle lowed… and then voices in song began gently wafting up. Hm, must be some sort of gathering in the valley. The sound increased, singers growing greater in number, the choruses more powerful, persistent.
A torrent swept over the property and as the rain subsided, the voices were notably stronger, the lyrics more pronounced. Pen pulls up from journal and eyes dart to where the sound originates. Are those voices coming this way? Anticipation, excitement. No way… those voices?
Fifteen dancers, drummers and singers poured onto the Sabyinyo Lodge patio. Leaping, pounding, chanting, dancing… Between Kinyarwandan lyrics, one energetic singer ran up to us shouting “WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!”
There may have been a script, but this was full gospel “nice to have you here” if I have ever heard it. And at our departure, the earnest, sparkling-eyed staff bid our return.
“You will come again, yes?”
We will be profoundly challenged to stay away.