3 - The Many Lives of the Nyabingi Spirit

Summary

The ‘revelation in a swamp’

The village of Bugamba is located in the heart of the Rwampara Hills, in a steep-sided valley which runs roughly West-East from the River Rwizi, all the way up to the peak of Karamurani in the village of Mwizi beyond. Like all of the valleys in Rwampara, this valley's most striking feature is the papyrus swamp which runs in a thick, unbroken band all the way along its floor. Although in some places only a few hundred metres wide, due to the encroachments of farmland, at certain points the swamp extends to a width of several miles. This is not untypical for a Rwamparan valley swamp. In the next valley south of here, the papyrus bog known as Munyere spans over six miles in some places. Many of the villages along the southern wall of that valley can only be reached by boat. It is probable that swamps such as Munyere account for the majority of Rwampara's total land mass.

Given this fact, it is perhaps rather surprising that one hardly ever finds people living in the swamps. Human settlements along the valley sides and (less commonly) the hill tops do often encroach on the swamps along their edges. Still, people never really settle within them. This is an area with some of the highest rural population densities in the entire continent.