Lake Bunyonyi

Geography

Lake Bunyonyi is a body of water 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Kabale town. It covers 61 square kilometres (24 sq mi). The lake is surrounded by hills that are 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) to 2,478 metres (8,130 ft) high and intensely cultivated.

Its 29 islands are concentrated in the central part. These islands have few settlements. They are mostly used for tourist facilities and for a secondary and a primary school.

The lake surface temperature is 25 °C (77 °F). In the beginning of the 20th century, fish were introduced to the lake and in the 1930s fishing became profitable. Unfortunately in the 1960s, the fish died massively as a result of a violent shallow mixing, likely caused by wind. Subsistence fishing prevailed in the lake, people mostly caught clarias species - the lake's depth and stratification makes it difficult for the breeding of the common Ugandan species Nile Perch and Tilapia. Nevertheless, 300,000 Nile Tilapias and Clarias fish were released in the lake at the end of 2002. Also present in the lake are Mud fish, Cray fish and Mirrowcarp - and plenty of their predators, otters.

The lake's main centre is Bufuka Village. The area's inhabitants are from the Bakiga and the Batwa tribes.

Akampene = Punishment Island

The Bakiga used to leave unmarried pregnant girls on this small island with a lone tree - to die of hunger or while trying to swim to the mainland (swimming skills were rare). This was to educate the rest, to show them not to do the same. A man without cows to pay the bridewealth could go to the island and pick up a girl. The practice got abandoned in the first half of the 20th century.

Bushara Island

This island is the home of Lake Bunyonyi Development Company, an organisation with strong links to Church of Uganda, the main church of the lake area. They use tourism to generate funds for several development projects around Bunyonyi.

The striking feature of the island is its forest, a demonstration of the most appealing attribute of the eucalyptus tree: an exceptionally fast growth rate. The hills around Bunyonyi used to feature many forests but overpopulation led to them being cut down to create land for agriculture needs. Eucalypti have been imported to improve the situation. But eucalyptus plants may also have a negative effect: they can soak everything useful in the soil, leaving it more or less barren.

Kyahugye Island

Kyahugye Island is approximately 30ha (74 acres) in size and also the nearest to the mainland. It is surrounded by a strip of reeds interspersed with papyrus. The Island has many tree species including Eucalyptus sp., Pinus sp., Alnus sp., and Cuprssus sp., these forming a wide perimeter around it. The vegetation on the Island falls into four categories namely bush, open fallows, tree plantations and natural vegetation.

Bwama and Njuyeera (Sharp's Island)

In 1921, English missionary Leonard Sharp came to this part of Uganda and in 1931 established a leprosy treatment centre on the then uninhabited Bwama island. A church, patient quarters (model villages), and a medical facility were built, while Sharp settled on Njuyeera Island (probably meaning "white cottage" after the similarity of the doctor's small white house to Sharp's father's house in Shanklin, now The White House Hotel). The rationale of the leprosy colony was that of "voluntary segregation'", where the provision of a happy community to live in would attract leprosy sufferers, so removing them from the communities where they might infect others.

The buildings of the hospital are now used by a boarding secondary school which attracts students from the entire region. There is also a primary school but no village on the island.

Bucuranuka = Upside Down

The legend says that this island killed many people. About twenty were once brewing local sorghum beer there. An old woman was passing by and she said: "Can you give me some local beer?" They wrongly thought that she was a beggar they knew. They refused her: "Get lost, beggar! Get lost!!!" The old woman asked: "So you will not even give me a sip? Can I at least get somebody to take me to the mainland?" They answered: "Yes, because we are fed up with you!" They chose a young guy to take her over. When they reached the shore and the guy was just beginning to return, the island turned upside down. All died, only a chicken flew away and survived.