Mystical 52 crater lakes, valley of the dead of Bunyaruguru

Twin Lakes, Murambi (foreground) and Katinda (background). Courtesy photo 

In Summary

Bunyaruguru County, 350km west of Kampala and north of Bushenyi town on the edge of Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to 52 crater lakes. There are so many tales that revolve around their existance as our writer shares.

Having spent my formative years in Bunyaruguru, despite the mystical tales about these lakes, to access relatives, I had to pass by the lakeshores. The paths linking the different villages go past some of these lakes. And that erased any fear factor for mystics in me forever.

Unknown to many, most of the craters are twin lakes and those that stand out are Katinda and Mirambi, Kyema and Kamweru. My mother’s homestead stood close to Lake Mirambi and we grazed my grandmother’s goats in the Kyambura escarpments of Mirambi. We were always warned to leave the valley before the sun went down. You would never know what you might come along with under the cover of darkness. If you did, before you entered the house you would be asked a familiar question: “Are you alone?”

Twice a week, we went by the lakeside of Mirambi and Lake Katinda through the deep valley of Kinkina to access the gardens in Omumashaka and Kagando. When it rained, the ground was very slippery. Any misstep would be fatal.

We always passed through this valley of Kinkina at the speed of wind before nightfall. What with the mystical tales of the mating Octopus called Endyoka between Lake Mirambi (female lake) and Lake Katinda (male).

There were tales of ghosts roaming the valleys and areas around the Kyambura escarpments.
Once in a while, we would see a light starting off from the north-side of Lake Mirambi and vanish in the middle of the lake. And if you saw such a light and delayed to run away, a whirlwind would pass by and sweep the hair off your head, so we were told.

The lakes that swallow people

At Kyakasharu township, on Mbarara-Kasese highway, is the basin-like Lake Mafuro. Mafuro means foams. It is said that annually, this lake swallows a person from the village of Kasungu. The people say, “The lake has eaten a person.” But according Vincent Banaga, a resident of Kasungu, it is because the lake has no shoreline, it is like a basin. Any slight slip, the lake swallows you.

Then there is the Africa-shaped lake Nkugute known as Lake Rutoto. Its original name is Nkugute. It means to swallow. It is presumed to be the deepest lake in Africa. One is told that white men came to determine how deep it is and they failed to reach the bottom of it.

According to Mulongo Kato Gyavira, beneath Lake Nkugute is a pot-like mouth that opens deeper into the centre of the earth. Kato says that annually, Lake Nkugute too, swallows a person, hence, its name, Nkugute, in Runyaruguru dialect.

Northwards past Rugazi Post Office centre, curving the sharp corner of Kyambogo, behind the bus stop of Kitooma kya Rumuli, you are welcomed by another set of twin lakes on either side of the road.

That is lakes Rwizongo and Nyungu. Nyungu is true to its name, a pot, deep and dark, with a small stream pouring in from Rugazi. Adjacent to these twin lakes are the false lakes of Kisanga and Nziranga. These false lakes are covered by papyrus reeds and floating plants called amarebe (water lilies) but underneath are the snake like mud fish called Ewondo.

Queen Elizabeth National Park gets more visible as you approach Kataara and Kichwamba kya Balyanika. Behind Kichwamba trading centre, at the beckoning of Lakes Edward and George which are conjoined to Kazinga Channel, lies the invisible Lake Kibwana. Sometimes, this lake peeps out when the winds are strong. It is home to hundreds of hippos. South of Lake Kibwana lies other twin lakes of Nyamusingiri and Kyasanduka. What is common on all these lakes are hundreds of bird species endemic in the Albertine region, according to Achilles Byaruhanga, the Executive Director of Nature Uganda and a son of Bunyaruguru.

At Omu-ibaare, another mystic of Kyambura escarpments, on some nights, tall ‘firemen’ known as ebinyamazimua appeared from the hills of Kigabiro and descended to Kyabafu; the valley of the dead.

Sometimes, these firemen would burn the bushes on their journey down the valley and their fire would be seen by people from the adjacent villages of Kichwamba kya Nyakashozi, Kichwamba kya Bwijuka and Kichwamba kya Balyanika across the escarpment, but in the morning, there would not be any burnt bush.
The other twin lakes that carry a lot of myths are Lake Kyema and Kamweru.