Uganda Safaris News: Mountain Gorilla Trekking Tours, Wildlife Safari, Primates Tour

 By Nakiboneka Halimah
Uganda Safari and Travel News Reporter
Kampala Uganda

Exhibitors of handicrafts were the most organised and impressive at the just concluded Uganda Manufacturers Association trade fair at Lugogo. Most of the handicrafts exhibitors were from neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania with a handful from Uganda and Rwanda.

 Besides being the first set of exhibitors to put their stalls in order, they managed to put together beautiful handmade products from different areas in the region. Some of the products on exhibition were ornaments and other goods of aesthetic value.  Most of the ornaments are locally made from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda using precious stones, bark clothes and cowries shells among others.

 Handmade items such as necklaces, bracelets, ear rings, wallet and handbags were among the most popular products. Such ornaments are very much liked and treasured by tourists who visit Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The tourists usually find these handicrafts at tourist destinations when they come to East Africa, these are locally made by the people living in surrounding communities near national parks. In Uganda, take an example of the Bigodi Women Group in Kibale National Park where tourists enjoy chimpanzee tracking safaris and birding safaris at Bigodi Swamp as well as nature walks. The ornaments have a mixture of different precious stone and shells that can only be found in areas where there are rivers and seas in the region.

 Although the handicraft exhibitors were not in the main exhibition hall, they managed to register one of the most impressive attendances by the show goers because there crafts are not only admired by the foreigners (tourists) but also the locals too.

 “We have not really made big sales but most of the show goers are impressed by our creativity and generally admired our product and to me as business person that is not too bad,” Ms Gorrety Nakku, a Ugandan handicraft exhibitor said.

 Ms Nakku added that, “Few years ago our products were considered backward by our own people and we heavily depended on tourists for livelihood but now the locals are slowly embracing our products,” Ms Nakku