Robert Tukamushaba has worked as a porter on gorilla trekking expeditions in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park since 2011. He is 44 years old, the father of three daughters, and lives in a village three kilometres from the Rushaga sector briefing point. In 2026, his eldest daughter, Patience, enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce programme at Makerere University in Kampala — the first person from her village to attend university in five years. Her university fees were paid from money Robert saved from porter income over 15 years of carrying tourist packs through one of Africa’s most demanding forests. This is his story.
The Porter Economy of Bwindi
Every gorilla trekker in Bwindi can hire a porter. Porters are local community members, vetted and registered by UWA, who carry tourist equipment — daypacks, camera bags, walking sticks — and provide physical support on steep sections of trail. They are not optional extras: for many trekkers, particularly older ones or those with limited mobility, a strong porter is the difference between completing a trek and turning back.
Porter fees are standardised by UWA: a base fee of approximately USD 15 per trek, plus a tip which, by custom, is typically USD 10 to 20 per porter per trek. A porter who works five days per week during peak season can earn USD 125 to 175 per week — a significant income by local standards, though portering is seasonal and physically demanding, and experienced porters rarely work every day of the week.
Robert began portering in 2011 after losing his casual agricultural labouring work when a neighbouring farm was converted to a commercial operation with fewer labour needs. He had no formal education beyond primary level, spoke basic English, and had no prior experience with tourists. What he had was physical strength, reliability, and a growing understanding of what trekkers needed from a porter beyond pack-carrying.
Learning the Trade
In his first two years, Robert was an adequate porter — competent but unremarkable. He carried packs reliably, supported trekkers on difficult terrain, and arrived on time. He did not earn above-average tips. By 2013, he had started paying attention to what distinguished the best-tipped porters from the rest. He noticed they spoke more English, communicated proactively with trekkers about terrain challenges ahead, remembered names, and made eye contact and smiled. These seemed simple things, but they transformed the trekking experience from a functional service into a human connection.
He began studying English grammar from a secondhand textbook and practising conversational English with guides during rest breaks. He asked questions about the tourists’ lives and answered their questions about his own. By 2015, he was consistently among the highest-earning porters in the Rushaga sector, receiving tips of USD 25 to 35 per trek from travellers who described him in reviews as “the highlight of the whole experience.”
Saving for University: The Long Game
Robert and his wife made the decision to save for their daughters’ education early. They opened a savings account with a mobile money service in 2014 and committed to depositing a fixed percentage of every porter payment. They did not have a specific university target in mind — they were saving toward education generally, at whatever level Patience could reach.
By 2019, Patience had completed secondary school with results strong enough to qualify for university. The savings account held approximately UGX 12 million — not enough for a full four-year degree at Makerere, but enough for the first year’s fees with careful management. Robert continued portering through the four years of Patience’s degree, making deposits that covered each subsequent year’s fees. COVID-19 interrupted gorilla tourism completely in 2020 and reduced it significantly in 2021, creating two difficult years where the savings plan stalled. But by 2023, tourism had recovered and savings resumed.
What Patience Studies and Why It Matters
Patience is studying Business Commerce with a focus on tourism management. Her choice of specialisation was deliberate: she has watched gorilla tourism transform her community’s economic possibilities over her entire childhood and wants to understand the business structures that make it work. She intends to return to the Bwindi region after graduating and work in tourism operations — potentially for an operator like us.
“My father carried tourists’ bags so I could study how tourism works,” she wrote in an application essay for a university bursary in 2026. “I want to be on the other side of that equation — not just carrying the bags, but building the business that gives people like my father more work, better pay, and more dignity.” Her application was successful. She is in her second year at Makerere.
Tourism as Development: One Family’s Evidence
Robert’s story is not unique. There are dozens of families in Bwindi’s adjacent communities whose trajectories have been shaped by the income that gorilla tourism provides. But his story is specific and traceable in a way that statistics cannot be. One man’s 15 years of carrying packs through difficult terrain became one young woman’s university degree. That is what gorilla tourism looks like at the scale of a single family — and it is replicated, in different forms, across hundreds of families in communities that the conservation economy of Bwindi has reached.
