The Annotated "Mountains of the Moon" "Hey, Tom Banjo, it's time to matter..." The Annotated "Mountains of the Moon" Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission. Hi Ho the Carrion Crow Bow and bend to me All the dancing kings & wives assembled in the hall All along the all along the Mountains of the Moon Here is feast of solitude A fiddler grim and tall Plays to dancing kings and wives Assembled in the hall Of lost, long, lonely times Fairy Sibil flying All along the all along the Mountains of the Moon Hey Tom Banjo The Earth will see you on through this time The Earth will see you on through this time Tom, where did you go? Mountains of the Moon, Electra Mountains of the Moon Hi Ho the Carrion Crow Folderolderiddle Hi Ho the Carrion Crow Bow and bend to me Bend to me "(note: the lyric in italics is a re-write of the preceeding lyric which was dashed off in the studio under pressure & which I never thought did proper service to the song.

Jerry approved of the change & I put in on the teleprompter hoping he'd sing it one day, but the band never got around to playing it again.)"--Robert Hunter AOXOMOXOA . DeadBase gives only ten performance dates for this song in the band's live repertoire, between February and July of 1969. Set lists for this period are far from complete, however, so it is likely there were more performances. Tom Constanten covers the song on his album Morning Dew ; and the Dead Ringers cover it on their album Dead Ringers The Evergreen Review , no. 6, 1958, published his translations of a seventh-century Chinese poet, Han-Shan. According to Snyder, "Kanzan, or Han-shan, "Cold Mountain" takes his name from where he lived. He is a mountain madman in an old Chinese line of ragged hermits. When he talks about Cold Mountain he means himself, his home, his state of mind. He lived in the T'ang dynasty-- traditionally A.D. 627-650."( Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems , p.

35) Snyder's translations reveal a mind speaking to us from the dim past with words that ring remarkably fresh today. Here's one that seems particularly pertinent: "Spring-water in the green creek is clear Moonlight on Cold Mountain is white Silent knowledge--the spirit is enlightened of itself Contemplate the void: this world exceeds stillness." --Number 11, page 49. (Illustration, entitled "Ruwenzori, from Karimi", from Henry Stanley's In Darkest Africa , 1890.) The popular name, deriving from Ptolemy (second century A.D.), who thought them the source of the Nile River, for an actual region of Central Africa, the Ruwenzori Mountains, bordering Uganda and Zaire. Several accounts of journeys to the "Mountains of the Moon" were published as books: Moore, John Edward S. To the Mountains of the Moon, being an account of the modern aspect of Central Africa, and of some little known regions traversed by the Tanganyika Expedition, in 1899 and 1900. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1901. Synge, Patrick Millington.

Mountains of the Moon: an expedition to the equatorial mountains of Africa. London: L. Dumoond, 1938. A Voyage to the Mountains of the Moon Under the Equator, or, Parnassus Reform'd: Being the Apotheosis of Sir Smauel Garth. London: Bettesworth and Pemberton, 1720. (This is an imaginary account.) Additionally, it is interesting to note that one of the expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon was undertaken by none other than Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), in 1858, in search of the source of the Nile. (Cold Mountain water?) Burton also translated the , which are indirectly mentioned in What's Become of the Baby .

Edgar Allan Poe also mentions the "mountains of the moon," in his poem, "Eldorado" (1849): "Gaily bedight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found He met a pilgrim shadow-- "Shadow," said he, "If you seek for Eldorado." Also compare Hunter's "Lay of the Ring" from the Eagle Mall Suite: "From the gates of Numinor to the walls of Valentine It's seven cold dimensions Electra It's unclear whether Hunter is naming the jade merchant's daughter, or simply invoking the spirit of Electra. The name could refer to either (1) the daughter, in Greek mythology, of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who kills her mother with the aid of her brother, Orestes, to avenge the murder of her father; or "(2) One of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas, mother of Dardanus. She is known as `the lost Pleiad,' for it is said that she disappeared a little before the Trojan war, that she might be saved the mortification of seeing the ruin of her beloved city.

She showed herself occasionally to mortals, but always in the guise of a comet."-- Heigh-ho the carrion crow folderolderiddle This line is directly from an old nursery rhyme /ballad: "As early as 1796 it ["The Carrion Crow"] was published as a ballad with the refrain: `With a heigh ho! the carrion crow!/Sing tol de rol, de riddle row!" ( The Annotated Mother Goose , p. 127) Sharp lists the ballad as #222, "The Carrion Crow." It's a nonsense tune, with lines like: Carrion crow sitting on an oak, with a ling dong dilly dol kiro me..." The crow appears in one other Hunter lyric, "Uncle John's Band," although the "bird of paradise" mentioned in "Blues for Allah" is also known as a "paradise crow." The carrion crow (corvus corone corone) is found in western Europe and eastern Asia.

This note from a reader: Subject: Mountains of the Moon Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 17:37:09 -0800 From: Mike Tisdale Dear David, Michael Hearn's "Annotated Wizard of Oz" points out in one of its numerous footnotes that the Scarecrow's exclamation "Tol-de-ri-de-oh" after he is rescued from being stuck in the middle of the river echoes the carrion crow's tol de rol, de riddle row. Whether this could be included in your site without copyright concerns, I will leave to somebody with brains instead of straw! Mike Tisdale Bow and bend to me This line, in a number of variations, is used as a refrain in the ballad "The Two Sisters" ( Child #10, Sharp #5). Bronson writes: "This ballad is still in active traditional life, especially in those regions of the USA where the `play-party' dancing custom has persisted. In many variants the words of the refrain affirm the association..."(p.

34) Some of the variants found in Bronson and Sharp: Bow it's been to me The bough has bent to me Bow and balance to me The bough has been to me The boughs they bent to me The boughs were given to me The boys are bound for me The vows she made to me And thou hast bent to me Of these variants, one is of particular note: "Bow and balance to me," because it is a dance step, and the Hunter lyric seems to be speaking of "kings and wives" assembling for a dance. The balance is described as follows in the Country Dance Book : "Balance Partners: Partners face each other, then each step to the side with right foot, point toe of left foot in front, step back to place with left and point toe of right foot in front of left foot."(p. 34) You may see this step executed at the start of almost every dance at any contra dance in the U.S. today, and it is a very courtly step, lending the dance an air of chivalry.

Tom Banjo Lenny Bailes, in the WELL's Deadlit conference (Topic #42, response #11, August 18, 1990), points out the possible reference to J.R.R. Tolkien's character Tom Bombadil. A wonderful and imaginative website, pointed out by Alex Allan, chronicles the life of a character named Tom Banjo . Alex also sends this comment: Subject: Re: Friend Of The Devil Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 09:18:33 +1100 From: "Alex Allan" David One point I sent you soon after you got back is a possibility for "Tom Banjo." If Uncle John is John Cohen, mightn't Tom Banjo be a reference to Tom Paley, who played banjo with the New Lost City Ramblers? Like Uncle John's Band, Mountains Of The Moon contains references to folk songs that the NLCR played or would have known about.

Alex And now, there is a most intriguing possibility: Subject: Email from web page (Tom Banjo Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 14:48:14 -0400 From: Scott Odell Dear David Dodd, During a recent visit from my old friend and musician/poet, Burt Porter, we were reminiscencing about another old friend, Tom "Tom Banjo" Azarian, who is now living and sometimes performing around Burlington Vermont. We have for a long time assumed that the Tom Banjo of "Mountains of the Moon" was a now-obscure reference to Tom Azarian, who grew up in West Springfield Mass. and was one of the best known (and properly so) banjo players in that part of New England during the late 50's, the 60's and 70's. He, Burt, and another friend, Denny Clifford hung out and played a lot of traditional music around the campuses and coffeehouses of that part of western Massachussets and nearby Connecticut. He's used the performing moniker "Tom Banjo" for as long as I can remember.

I don't recall the specifics, but I remember Tom talking about David Grisman and Robert Hunter circulating in the same crowd during some of those years -- along with Judy Collins and Taj Mahal, among others. Tom's a great guy and fine banjo player and singer, but totally unengaged in mainstream music-biz culture. He has always affected a somewhat casual oldtimey working class sort of fashion style which jibes well with the image called up by that line in MOTM, ..."Clothed in tatters / Always will be / Tom, where did you go?" Answer -- Burlington Vermont! Anyway, I thought of your excellent and most-interesting labor of love, the annotated GD lyrics website, and thought you might be interested in these musings . . . Regards, Scott Odell Wow!

And now, what seems to be a pretty definitive answer on this one (but who knows?): From: Andrew Estroff [mailto:estroff@mail.com] Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 1:13 PM To: ddodd@marin.org Subject: Mountains of the Moon and Tom Banjo In case you hadn't already heard of the CD, or read any reviews, here is a link to the Time Argus (local central Vermont newspaper) review of Tom Azarian's recent CD. "Hanging out on college campuses, he became "Tom Banjo" and traded licks with other young pickers including budding mandolinist David Grisman (who would later record a song with Jerry Garcia featuring a character with Azarian's nickname). Soon, he found himself and his growing family living in an old Cabot, Vt., farmhouse, where his all-night music parties became legendary" Peace, Andrew Estroff And on November 1, 2005, I received a letter from Tom Azarian, confirming himself as Tom Banjo. An excerpt: There are two slight corrections I should say...one is that I never lived in West Springfield but lived in Westfield.

And I didn't name myself "Tom Banjo"--the students a tthe University of Conn. did. Banjo players were scarce back then and they knew I appeared from time to time, with "tattered closthes," was always unemployed and played on the college radio and parties along with Dave Grisman and Judy Collins. They named me Tom Banjo only because no one knew my last name. In the song Mtn. of the Moon it says "clothed in tattered always will be Tom, where did you go?" Well...I did sleep in my clothes but not always...and "where did I go?" I went to Vermont in 1963--married and started a farm with horses and cattle. Now I am divorced and livin in low income housing with assorted alcoholics and misfits. I am still playing the same Vega banjo I bought in 1956. ...

Cheers and good luck for all your endeavors, Sincerely East Africa: Mountains of the Moon - allAfrica.com East Africa: Mountains of the Moon more opinion Nairobi — THE MOUNT RWENZORI REgion is today more famous for its armed rebels and smugglers than the scientific and anthropological treasure trove that it has always been. Famously known as the Mountains of the Moon, the Rwenzori have over the years attracted mountain enthusiasts who are enamoured by their snow peaks and magnificent glaciers. Early in the last century, Italy's Duke of Abruzzi led an expedition to the Rwenzori, and for more than their 100 years, the geography and the people of the Rwenzori region have been the subject of a range of academic and popular writing. On the occasion of the Abruzzi centenary celebrations in 2006, Fountain Publishers of Kampala have published, Rwenzori: Histories and Cultures of an African Mountain, edited by Cecilia Pennacini and Hermann Wittenberg.

The book, a compilation of academic papers covering the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, political science, history, literary studies, music, religion and lexicography, attempts to cover and document the unique cultural and historical heritage of the Rwenzori region straddling western Uganda and eastern Congo. The editors notet, "The essays collected in this book bear testimony to the extraordinary interest of the Rwenzori massif..." In this interdisciplinary volume, contributions from leading Western and African scholars of Rwenzori history and culture, provide fascinating insights into one of Africa's most complex and dynamic socio-political environments. The authors of the papers discuss issues of vital concern in African studies, throwing new light on ethnicity and nation, modernity and tradition, violence and state ethnicity, modernity and tradition, violence and state formation, as well as the fluid interplay between language, culture and identity on the one hand, and the geography of the montane environment on the other.

ACCORDING TO PENNACINI and Wittenberg, major issues is "the increasingly difficult existence of pygmy communities -- Basua/Bambuti/Batwa -- throughout the region, subject to marginalisation processes caused by old cultural attitudes, as well as the recent establishment of natural parks that forbid them to continue their traditional hunter and gathers economy." The Department of Anthropological, Archeological and Historical Territorial Sciences of the University of Turin has been carrying out ethnological researches in the Great Lakes Region of Africa since the 1970s, mainly in Uganda and Congo. The researches are co-ordinated through the Italian Ethnological Mission in Equatorial Africa, supported by that country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have been directed by Pennacini, an anthropologist at the University of Turin since 2005. In a paper titled, The Rwenzururu and the Kingdom, Tom Stacey writes: "Consider these mountains.

Consider the phenomenon of creation, this massif on the equatorial girdle of the world, some 45km in length overall, and 23km wide, with its clusters of might peaks of which, until recently, five were glaciered and the entire upper canopy under permanent snow." In his description of the magnificent mountains Stacey says "...Do you know there is no such place in the world that compares with Rwenzori? Its glaciered plateaux lie at 16,000 feet; its peaks rise to nearly 17,000 feet, over 5,000 feet higher than the greatest mountains of Europe. The vegetation and wildlife of Rwenzori reach almost to the snouts of its glaciers, and of course overlap the outer fall of its snows.

It is a world of its own." Its abundant rainfall contributes as much as half of the waters that feed, via the Semliki valley, the Central African reaches of the White Nile, notes Stacy, further saying, "The territory above, say, 11,000 feet, induces the famous surreality of gigantic species among its prevailing vegetation of senecios, lobelias, heathers and helichrysums, which occur nowhere else on the globe except on a far lesser scale on other East African heights: Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Elgon. "To our Rwenzori we ascribe an unprecedented array of unique species for so compact a piece of territory, a mountain island, as it were -- all the species derived from its combination of attitude and climate; its 15 species of mammals, some of them formidable and famous like the Rwenzori black leopard, the Rwenzori Colobus, and the hyrax; its 25 species of reptiles; its 18 unique birds, including the brilliant turaco, and its daringly designed sunbirds, its score upon score of strictly Rwenzori, insects, mosses and fungi," writes Stacy.

Historically, social formation in the Rwenzori region began with migration of peoples to the Semliki from the seventh century onwards, from all directions -- west, north, northwest, southwest and south, according to Arthur Syahuka-Muhindo in the paper, Migration and Social Formation in the Rwenzori Region. The earliest migration constituted the Batembuzi society, which gave rise to the Bachwezi who, in turn, formed the first political associations in Kitara. Spatial population distribution in the early state-nation redefined the context of population movements within the region, thereby redefining the context of settlements and political relations among groups, says the author. "The Semliki valley was the melting pot in which many different groups of immigrants to the region coalesced into clans before moving east into the heartland of Bunyoro-Kitara, where they mingled with immigrants from the north, northeast and south, to form the Bakitara people," notes the writer.

"The Semliki valley also experienced reverse emigration of groups such as the Bakitara, or Bachwezi, from the heartland Bunyoro-kitara, who were fleeing the violence associated with state formation." THE LANGUAGES OF THE Rwenzori region are discussed by Oswald K. Ndoleriire in the paper, Language Use and Attitudes in the Rwenzori Region. These are Lubwisi, Lukonzo, Kwamba (Rwamba), Bulebule, Runyabindi, Rusongora, Rutoro, Rutuku, Luhiju and the Venoma people who are considered as a sub-group of Kwamba speakers, among others. Kiswahili and English are also widely spoken in this region. Today, in Kasese District, there are a number of ethnic majorities and minorities. The 1991 Uganda Population and Housing Census documented 35 different groups, in Kasese district alone.Ndoleriire's paper discusses how people circumvent linguistic barriers to fit in. It also highlights the exemplary language use of the Bakonzo, who do not hesitate to put aside past and even present ethnic rivalries for better communication.

"All in all, the future of language use in the region looks bright, except in cases where some languages and dialects could become extinct; and should this happen, it would be a great loss of human heritage," he observes. In their paper, Continuity and Change in Bakonzo Music: From 1906 to 2006, Serena Facci and Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza look at continuity and change in terms of performance practices, the types of instruments used, the various contexts of performance, musical structures and meaning. In Rwenzori: A Bridge of Cultures, Baluku Stanley Bakahinga Mbalibulha notes: "Rwenzori presents to us an interesting area. It is one of the exceptional areas where a mosaic of cultures (both indigenous and immigrant groups) has converged. All the groups, irrespective of their sizes, are worthy of respect because of their respect of their cultural values, mutual or otherwise. "In spite of the pressure on the resources and occasional outbreaks of ethnic conflict, Mount Rwenzori and the adjacent Rwenzori region serve as a symbol to which all these outline cultural groups look for posterity.

The pastoralists will need the rivers, water and pasture while the cultivator needs the soil, and the hunter needs the forest and the wilderness. In this way, all Rwenzori's cultures use the environment for cultural enrichment." Luca Jordan's paper, Ambiguous Borders: The Case of Rwenzori focuses on the Rwenzori as a border that separates Uganda and Congo. This border, established in colonial times, has been the core of continuous tensions between and within the two states. ON THE UGANDAN SIDE, it was the base for the Rwenzururu Movement, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) rebels and recently the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF). While the ADF has been accused of being a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, it is said that NALU received support from former president Mobutu Sese Seko's government to destabilise President Yoweri Museveni's administration. In the Congo, Rwenzori was the operational zone for the Simba rebel movement soon after the country's independence in 1960.

In the mid 1990s, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democrati Kisangani, Mouvement de Liberation (RCDK-ML), a rebel movement led by Mbusa Nyamwisi, a Banande warlord, controlled the territory of Beni and Lubero and consequently the borderlands with Uganda, notes Jordan. In conclusion, Wittenberg writes: "The future of the Rwenzori Mountains and the communities that lie around them is today closely bound up with the geo-political machinations and wars that have engulfed the Great Lakes region," in the paper, An Epicentre of Empire: The Rwenzori Mountains in the Western Imagination. "Ironically," Wittenberg adds, "The hopes of local Rwenzori communities are not only linked to the return of peace, but also a continuation of colonial myths about the Mountains of the Moon. In order to draw tourists and attract development, the Rwenzori will in all likelihood continue to be inscribed with a Western history that obscures local cultural knowledge, traditions and histories. The mountains have thus retained, to this day, the names conferred on them by Abruzzi, with only a small change from Ruwenzori to Rwenzori.

But otherwise the imperial names remain. In what is now a national park, only one lowly feature is named after a Ugandan: the John Matte hut on the trekking circuit." The Duke of Abruzzi named the two highest summits Margherita and Alexandra, after the queens of Italy and England respectively. The porous Mount Rwenzori region is more known for the armed rebellions and smuggling that have engulfed the area - than the unique cultures and histories of the people who dwell on this massif straddling western Uganda and eastern DR Congo. A new volume of academic papers covering the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, political science, history, literary studies, musicology, religion and lexicography attempt to cover and document the unique cultural and historical heritage of the area covering both the Ugandan and Congolese sides of the massif. The book, Rwenzori: Histories and Cultures of an African Mountain edited by Cecilia Pennacini and Hermann Wittenberg and published by Fountain Publishers in Kampala was written on the occasion of the Abruzzi centenary celebrations in 2006, "the essays collected in this book bear testimony to the extraordinary interest of the Rwenzori massif...," the editors note.

In this interdisciplinary volume, the editors say contributions from leading Western and African scholars of Rwenzori history and culture provide fascinating insights into one of Africa's most complex and dynamic socio-political environments. The authors interrogate questions of vital concern in African studies, throwing new light on issues around ethnicity and nation, modernity and tradition, violence and state ethnicity and nation, modernity and tradition, violence and state formation, as well as the fluid interplay between language, culture and identity on the one hand, and the geography of the montane environment on the other. For more than a 100 years, the geography and the people of the Rwenzori region have been the subject of an extraordinary range of academic and popular writing, a heritage to which the authors of these papers both contribute and reflect on, the editors note.

According to Pennacini and Wittenberg among major subjects, "Is the increasingly difficult existence of pygmy communities -- Basua/Bambuti/Batwa -- throughout the region, subject to marginalisation processes caused by old cultural attitudes, as well as the recent establishment of natural parks that forbid them to continue their traditional hunter and gathers economy." The University of Turin, department of anthropological, archeological and historical territorial sciences has been carrying out ethnological researches in the Great Lakes Region of Africa since the 1970s, mainly in Uganda and DR Congo. The researches are co-ordinated through the Italian Ethnological Mission in Equatorial Africa, supported by the Italian ministry of Foreign Affairs and have been directed by Pennacini, an anthropologist at the University of Turin, since 2005. "Consider these mountains.

Consider the phenomenon of creation, this massif on the equatorial girdle of the world, some 70 miles (km?) in length overall, and 40 (km?) wide, with its clusters of might peaks of which, until recently, five were glaciered and the entire upper canopy under permanent snow", Tom Stacey writes his paper titled, The Rwenzururu and the Kingdom. "...Do you know there is no such place in the world that compares with Rwenzori? Its glaciered plateaux lie at 16,000 feet; its peaks rise to nearly 17,000 feet, over 5,000 metres, higher than the greatest mountains of Europe. The vegetation and wildlife of Rwenzori reach almost to the snouts of its glaciers, and of course overlap the outer fall of its snows. It is a world of its own," Stacey continues in his attempt to describe the magnificent mountains. Its abundant rainfall usually contributes as much as half of the waters that feed, via the Semiliki, the Central African reaches of the White Nile, Stacy notes.

"That territory above, say, 11,000 feet, induce the famous surreality of gigantic species among its prevailing vegetation of senecios, lobelias, heathers and helichrysums, which occur no where else on the globe except on a far lesser scale on other East African heights: Kilimanjaro, Kenya, and Elgon." "To our Rwenzori we ascribe an unprecedented array of unique species for so compact a piece of territory, a mountain islands, as it were - all the species derived from its combination of attitude and climate: its 15 species of mammals, some of them formidable and famous like the Rwenzori black leopard, the Rwenzori Colobus, and the hyrax, its 25 species of reptiles, its 18 unique birds, including the brilliant turaco, and its daringly designed sunbirds, its score upon score of strictly Rwenzori, insects, mosses, fungi," Stacy goes on. "Do you know this place? Its hidden gulches?

Its high, steep sided, silent lakes, its literally impenetrable forest - swathes of helichrysums (impenetrable to man), the ferocious descent of its temperatures nightly within the space of a single hour from the heat of a European summer's afternoon to below zero; its comparable caprice of meteorological changeability in a matter of minutes, from clear heaven ward infinity to an assault of hail, snow and fog?" Although Stacey acknowledges importance the Duke of Abruzzi's expedition, he is quick to criticise the Duke of not mentioning the prominence of the Bakanzo guides and porters in his findings and account of the expedition. "...These works give a few lines to the Bakonzo he recruited, without whom (1 venture) he could not possibly have achieved what he did...

The prince and his ghost-writer speak of 80 Bakonzo, all presumably hunters from the Mubuku valley, whom he recruited for the first three legs of the ascent, to the rock shelter of Bujongolo, above the bamboos, the expeditions base camp of these, fifteen were selected for higher port..., and there is not a moments speculation as to why a Mukonzo might be unwilling to breach the snows of their Olympus. They were commended for cleverness with their sticks on the climb, but remain uncredited for knowing all the tracks and intricacies of covert routes and tunnels which and ascent entails." In August 1962, Isaya Mukirane declared the mountain wide Rwenzururu independent, with himself as president. "Independent, I would say, that August of 1962 of the kingdom of Toro, and thus of Uganda and indeed of Britain itself, whose writ as the colonial power still had a couple of months to run.

Isaya made his declaration from his new Kahindangamo - his drum headquarters - in that self same Buswagha territory of highland southern Busongora where he had first mooted the Bakonzo Life History Research Society (BLHRS)," Stacey recalls. "Fearful preventions and assaults were visited in those early years of the kingdom of Rwenzururu. Yet miraculously it survived. There are those among us here who grew up in the midst of it, those of that self-same kingly family. It survived a ruthless assault in late 1964 by Uganda's military, recently shed of its British officers, sweeping the highland ridges, burning, looting and shooting anyone in flight. It survived the death of Rwenzururu's first king, Isaya Mukirane, on 28 August 1966. It survived a devastating assault in September 1967 by Ugandan troops, which ravaged the seat of government, its palace and parliament building, and put the community to flight," Stacey goes further.

"Yet, first under the regency, and an effective premiership, and at the end of the decade after the formal installation of Isaya Kibanzanga's 18-year-old eldest son Charles Wesley as Omusinga, king of Rwenzururu, the highland state had reasserted its presence and taken shape..." According to Stacey: "The ending of the kingdom's administrative and political separation from Uganda (and likewise from Congo, in that there was anything coherent from which to have seceded from) was a planned, rational and orderly affair, carefully negotiated with government in Kampala. It took place on 15 August 1972, precisely 20 years to the day after Rwenzururu's declaration of its independence, at a massed rally and formal ceremony at Kasese..." Social formation in the Rwenzori region began with migration to the Semliki from the seventh century onwards, from all directions - west, north, north-west, south-west and south, Arthur Syahuka-Muhindo notes in his paper, Migration and Social Formation in the Rwenzori Region.

The earliest migration constituted the Batembuzi society, which, as it differentiated, gave rise to the Bachwezi who, in turn, formed the first political associations in Kitara. Spatial population distribution in early state redefined the context of population movements within the region, thereby redefining the context of settlement s and political relations among groups, Syahuka- Muhindo goes on. "The Semliki valley was the melting pot in which many different groups of immigrants to the region coalesced into clans before moving east into the heartland of Bunyoro-Kitara where they mingled with immigrants from the north, north-east and south to form the Bakitara people," Syahuka-Muhindo notes. "The Semliki valley received in reverse emigration groups of Bakitara, or Bachwezi, from the heart land Bunyoro-kitara, fleeing the violence associated with state formation." Beginning with the rise of the Bachwezi dynasty, the population began to drift westward. Cattle keepers and agriculturalists fleeing the economic coercion imposed by, first, the emerging Bachwezi ruling group and then the Babito group, moved westward until they reached the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains.

Pastoralist groups occupying the Savannah grassland plains of Busongora increasingly extended their grazing activities to the Semliki valley where the Abasonga people already practised cattle keeping. According to Syahuka-Muhindo, westward population movement; resulting from state formation processes in the Bunyororo-Kitara heartland, notably the rising power of the Babito, increased from the 17th to the 19th century. "Warfare and political centralisation in the Bunyoro, Nkore, Mpororo and Toro kingdoms tended to push groups of people to the peripheral areas of these emerging polities. From the Bunyoro-Kitara heartland, populations moved westward and southward.

Where the Toro kingdom formed, population moved further west into Busongoro, the Semliki valley and subsequently into the Rwenzori mountains." "In Busongora, the Semliki valley, and the Rwenzori Mountains, the different groups of immigrants coalesced into the Bakonzo and Bamba who, in the 1960s, violently challenged the authority of the rulers of the Toro kingdom in the form of the Rwenzururu movement..." "The Bamba and Bakonzo tribes were formed on the periphery of the Kitara Empire.

They thus included remnants of the earliest immigrants as well as a variety of different groups of people - agriculturalists and pastoralists alike - who came to Busongora and the Semliki valley fleeing political and military pressures, or the warfare violence associated with state formation in the kingdom areas to the east of the Rwenzori Mountains, along with those later fleeing the turmoil caused in the 19th century by the Kilongalonga slave raiders and traders." "The turmoil of the 19th century pushed these groups into physical and cultural isolation - the Bakonzo in the Rwenzori Mountains and the Bamba in the inaccessible Bwamba plains - thus sealing their fate as marginal tribes in Toro kingdom. These people not only preserved historical traditions elsewhere obscured by the creation of the colonial Toro kingdom and the British colonial state, but retained linguistic forms - Lukonzo and Kwamba - that sharply distinguished them." "Thus, although originally part of the Kitara people, the Bamba and Bakonzo became different in relation to other people in the region and so became discriminated against on the basis of tribe of culture.

In reaction, they aspired to be recognised as nationalities, leading to their violent struggle to establish the Rwenzururu state," Syahuka-Muhindo writes. "...Kitara as a whole adopted the cattle and mixed agricultural-pastoral economy that originated from the Semliki valley. Constantly, modified, the 'Semliki economy' formed the basis of social reproduction in the Batembuzi, Bachwezi and Babito eras. Thus, the migrants of the western stream had an extensive impact on the region," Syahuka-Muhindo observes. "Apart from the violence associated with state formation, slave raiding, and Belgian and British colonialism, coupled with the ensuing outbreak of epidemic disease, also had their toll on the region," Syahuka-Muhindo adds. "In the Semliki valley epidemic diseases affecting both cattle and humans aggravated the social situation.

Epidemic disease produced traumatic effects similar to those of warfare, acting as a social brake with consequence for community and culture..." Linguistic evidence clearly indicates the common origin of Banande (who live on the Congolese side) and Bakonzo (living on the Ugandan side), which moreover share many of their most important cultural traits, Cecilia Pennacini notes in her paper, The Rwenzori Ethnic Puzzle. "Despite a small number of differences in the lexical repertory of the two variants (Lukonzo and Kinande), produced after the establishment of the colonial frontier, Bakonzo and Banande speak basically the same language and can understand each other very well..." The Banande coexist with other people such as the Mvuba, Bavira, Gegere, Hema, Balegga, Batalinge, Lendu, among others. The Batalinge and Bamba are kinsmen, just as the Batwa and Baswa. In his paper, Language Use and Attitudes in the Rwenzori Region, Oswald K.

Ndoleriire summarises the language spoken in the area as follows: Lubwisi, Lukonzo, Kwamba (Rwamba), (Bulebule), Runyabindi, Rusongora, Rutoro, Rutuku, Luhiju and the Venoma people who are considered as a sub-group of Kwamba speakers, among others. Kiswahili and English are also widely used in some areas of this region. Today, in Kasese District there are a number of ethnic majorities and minorities. The 1991 Uganda Population and Housing Census documented 35 different groups, among others in Kasese district. Ndolerire's paper shows how people circumvent linguistic barriers and find ways of communicating with their neighbours. It also highlights the exemplarily language use of the Bakonzo, who do not hesitate to put aside past and even some present ethnic rivalries for better communication. "All in all, the future of language use in the region looks bright, except in cases where some languages and dialects could become extinct; and should this happen; it would be a great loss of human heritage," he observes.

In their paper, Continuity and Change in Bakonzo Music: From 1906 to 2006, Serena Facci and Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza look at continuity and change in terms of performance practices, the types of instruments used, the various contexts of performance, musical structures and meaning. "...Christianity and western education, with their ideologies about "traditional" culture, have had an impact on the Bakonzo, like on many other African cultures. Moreover, although a number of the Bakonzo have been converted to Christianity, their belief in ancestral spirits still holds...," Facci and Nannyonga-Tamusuza acknowledge in their paper that covers both the Bakonzo and Banande. Both play the drum (engoma), the makondere orchestra (consisting of side blown gourd trumpets), the eluma orchestra ( a set of 12 to 15 stopped flutes, each producing a different sound), the notched four-hole flute (enyamulere), the musical bow (ekibulenge), the harp (enanga), the lamello-phone (elikembe), the percussion beam (enzibe) and the xylophone (endara) among others.

"The endara has always been associated with Kitasamba, the head of the Rwenzori spirits, the god of the Bakonzo...," Facci and Nannyonga - Tamusuza write. "The endara played together with the drums, has been an important magico-religious instrument among the Bakonzo. It is not an instrument during the Kubandwa thanksgiving ceremony..." "In conclusion, we can say that while there has been substantial continuity, there have also been a number of changes in the music and dance of the Bakonzo, due to changes in the political, social and cultural environment..." Facci and Nannyonga-Tamusuza write. In his paper, "Rwenzori a Bridge of Cultures," Baluku Stanley Bakahinga Mbalibulha notes: "Rwenzori presents to us an interesting area. It is one of the exceptional areas where a mosaic of cultures (for both indigenous and immigrant groups) has converged.

All the groups, irrespective of their sizes, are worthy of respect because of their respect of their cultural values, mutual or otherwise." "In spite of the pressure on the resources and occasional outbreaks of ethnic conflict," Mbalibulha adds: "Mount Rwenzori and the adjacent Rwenzori region serve as a symbol to which all these outline cultural groups look for posterity. The pastoralists will need the rivers, water and pasture while the cultivator needs the soil, and the hunter needs the forest and the wilderness. In this way all Rwenzori's cultures use the environment for cultural enrichment." "The future of the Rwenzori Mountains and the communities that lie around them is today closely bound up with the geo-political machinations and wars that have engulfed the great lakes region," Hermann Wittenberg concludes in his paper, An Epicentre of Empire: The Rwenzori Mountains in the Western Imagination. "Ironically," Wittenberg adds, "The hopes of local Rwenzori communities are not only linked to the return of peace, but also a continuation of colonial myths, about the Mountains of the Moon.

In order to draw tourists and attract development, the Rwenzori will in all likelihood continue to be inscribed with a Western history that obscures local cultural knowledge, traditions and histories. The Mountains have thus retained, to this day, the names conferred on them by Abruzzi, with only a small change from Ruwenzori to Rwenzori. But otherwise the imperial names remain. In what is now a national park, only one lowly feature is named after a Ugandan: the John Matte hut on the trekking circuit." The Duke of Abruzzi named the two highest summits "Margherita" and "Alexandra," after the queens of Italy and England respectively. Luca Jordan's paper, Ambiguous Borders: The Case of Rwenzori focuses on the Rwenzori massif that separates Uganda from the DR Congo. This border, established in colonial times, has been at the core of continuous tensions between and within the two states. On the Ugandan side, it was the base for the Rwenzururu Movement, National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) rebels and recently by the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF). The ADF has been accused of being a terrorist group and linked to AlQaeda.

It is said that NALU received support from Mobutu's government to destabilise Museveni's administration. In the Congo, the area was the operational zone for Simba rebel movement soon after the country's independence in 1960. In the mid 1990s the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratic Kisangani, Mouvement de Liberation (RCDK-ML), a rebel movement led by Mbusa Nyamwisi, a Banande warlord, controlled the territory of Beni and Lubero and consequently the borderlands with Uganda, Jordan notes. RCDK-ML got support from Museveni's government. "...The Rwenzori massif is neither peripheral nor marginal. It is actually a region at the core of many economic interests and political dynamics that overwhelm this mountain chain," Jordan concludes. "From this point of view, the centre periphery dichotomy, which implies the dependence of the latter on the former, does not have any analytical value: in fact, the central governments seem to be tied to the events which took place in this supposedly peripheral area.

The fluidity of the political context in Uganda and overall in the Congo renders any prediction difficult." "Until now, the violence in the Rwenzori has constituted an opportunity rather than a problem for many social actors who have fomented social and political disorder in order to affirm themselves. This is certainly a widespread strategy in sub- Sahara Africa...,"Jordan adds. Copyright © 2008 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media ( allAfrica.com ). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. AllAfrica publishes around 800 reports a day from more than 140 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us .

In the Mountains of the Moon, A Trek to Africa’s Last Glaciers by Tom Knudson: Yale Environment 360 In the Mountains of the Moon, A Trek to Africa’s Last Glaciers The shrinking ice cap atop Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s most famous glacier. But the continent harbors other pockets of ice, most notably in the Rwenzori Mountains of western Uganda. And as temperatures rise, the Rwenzori’s tropical glaciers — located as high as 16,500 feet — are fast disappearing. by tom knudson I am hiking through a moss-draped forest more than 10,000 feet above sea level in the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda, not far from the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The trail ahead is steep as a ladder and slippery with mud, and every few minutes my guide and I stop to rest. Most people who come to this part of Africa do so for its wildlife, especially the endangered mountain gorilla. I have made the journey for another reason. I am looking for a glacier. In the popular imagination, glaciers and Africa intersect at one location: Mt.

Kilimanjaro, the iconic dormant volcano that rises from the grasslands of Tanzania and whose shrinking snowcap has become a symbol of climate change. But there are glaciers in steamy Uganda, too, hidden in the eaves of jagged 16,000-foot peaks that are lost in the clouds most of the year. And these Photo Gallery Photo by Tom Knudson The glacier atop 16,080-foot Mount Speke in Uganda’s Rwenzori Range covered roughly 540 acres a century ago. Today, after decades of warming, only a few dozen acres of the glacier remain. glaciers have a climate change story to tell, too — one that scientific research suggests better reflects the impact of global warming than the fading snows of Kilimanjaro. But their story is also nearing its close. In just two decades, scientists expect the Rwenzori glaciers — as well as Africa’s few other remaining ice fields — to be gone. Kilimanjaro has already lost 84 percent of its ice since 1912, and what’s left is not expected to last more than a couple of decades. The Lewis glacier on Mount Kenya is also expected to wink out soon.

That prognosis comes as no surprise to my guide, a local Bakonjo tribesman named Baluku Josephat, who has guided climbers through the Rwenzori range since 1982 and has seen the consequences of global warming firsthand. “If you go to Mount Baker,” he says, referring to a massive, ship-like peak in the center of the range where glaciers have already melted, “you can now go without crampons. It was not that way in the past. Now people just walk over rocks.” And not all of the impacts are playing out in the snow zone. Two years ago, Josephat spotted something in a brushy thicket at 10,900 feet that startled him — an upwardly mobile chameleon. “Chameleons are supposed to be at lower elevations. Now they are moving up and up,” he said, echoing an observation scientists have made about animals and plants in other mountain ranges worldwide. “When I found that chameleon, I was puzzled. I thought, ‘My God, what is happening?’” With its snow-capped peaks looming over the tropics, the Rwenzori are a geographical marvel that has haunted the Western imagination for centuries. As early as 500 B.C.

the Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote about The most astonishing sight of all is the snow hovering above the tropical landscape. “Egypt nurtured by the snows.” In 150 A.D., Claudius Ptolemy, the most distinguished geographer of his time, produced a celebrated early map of Africa that fanned speculation about a snowy source of the Nile. Without ever setting foot in Africa, he sketched an icy range rising from the heart of the continent that he called Lunae Montes — the Mountains of the Moon — a name widely used for the Rwenzori today. But it wasn’t until 1888 that the American explorer Henry Stanley proved Ptolemy correct. Looking up from a camp in the Congo, he spotted what he first thought was a silver cloud in the shape of a mountain. “Following its form downward, I became struck with the deep blue-black color of its base,” Stanley wrote. “Then I became for the first time conscious that what I gazed upon was not the semblance of a vast mountain, but the solid substance of a real one with its summit covered with snow.” Even today, hiking into the Rwenzori range is like stepping into a lost world.

Fewer than 2,000 people a year visit the place. For long stretches, you see no one. And there are surprises by the hour, from worms as long as your walking stick, to iridescent greenish-purple sunbirds and the elusive, brilliant-blue Rwenzori turaco. Photo Gallery Photo by Tom Knudson A mountaineering guide stands near the former terminus of the Speke Glacier, which once snaked down the side of Mount Speke for 1,600 feet. Also astonishing is the kaleidoscope of chlorophyll, the staircase of forest zones that clings to the range from the foothills at 5,400 feet to the treeline around 13,500 feet. On our second day, we entered a forest of giant heather so ensnarled in moss it was hard to see the sky. “No forest can be grimmer and stranger than this,” wrote Filippo de Filippi in his epic account of the first expedition to thoroughly explore the range and climb its major peaks, led by the Italian mountaineer and adventurer, Prince Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi, in 1906.

As we climbed higher, the heather disappeared, replaced at 11,200 feet with something stranger: two species that looked like cactus, but weren’t — the torch-like giant lobelia and the giant groundsel, which reaches upward with woody branches topped by enormous cabbage-like leaves. But the most astonishing sight of all is the snow you begin to glimpse hovering above the tropical landscape. When Abruzzi tramped through the range a century ago, ridges and mountains were shellacked with snow and glaciers. He discovered glaciers on six peaks and estimated their total size at 2.5 square miles. “Members were full of excitement and satisfaction,” wrote de Filippi, describing the expedition’s initial ascent into the alpine zone. “The place was rough and wild. A cold and biting wind blew off the glacier and suggested surroundings very different from those usually associated with Equatorial Africa.” Today, less than half a square mile remains. On three peaks, glaciers have disappeared altogether. In the Andes and Himalaya, the melting of high-altitude glaciers is expected to trigger water shortages downstream in coming decades. But Uganda’s ice is much too small to have such an impact.

Nonetheless, Ice is disappearing so swiftly that much critical scientific information may already have been lost. Josephat and his fellow tribe members are worried. For them, melting glaciers are an economic threat. “The snow and ice you are seeing are a tourist attraction,” said our cook, Donald Philly, over dinner one evening. “Clients come to see the snow and we get employment opportunities.” And when the snow is gone, he added, jobs will vanish. Standing nearby, Josephat said the Bakonjo would simply have to adapt — like the chameleons. “We are going to train our guides on rock climbing,” he said. Precipitation patterns are also changing. “Years ago, it would rain cats and dogs, from morning to evening, for seven days straight,” Josephat said. “Rivers were flooded. There would be a lot of fog, even down to the lower elevations. These days, that is not happening.” Such changes, he believes, are contributing to a rise in mortality he has observed among the iconic giant lobelia. “The trees are withering at a rapid speed,” Josephat said. And as they die, he said, other plant and moss species are likely to suffer, too.

Ultimately, Josephat said, he fears climate change may set off a domino effect of forest decline that could one day diminish the range’s ability to soak up and store water, putting downstream villages at risk. The Bakonjo guides take the threat so seriously they have recently formed an organization to plant more trees around the base of the range, both to battle deforestation and increase carbon sequestration. Yale Environment 360 The Rwenzori Mountains are located in western Uganda, not far from the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The changes here also pose a challenge to climate scientists. Inside the Rwenzori’s receding glaciers are specks of pollen and dust that could unlock secrets about past climatic upheavals. But there’s a problem: no one has managed to access to the glaciers amid the daunting terrain. Seven years ago, Lonnie Thompson — the well-known U.S. scientist who has sampled high-altitude tropical glaciers worldwide and uncovered evidence of dramatic pre-Incan climate swings from ice core samples high in the Andes — was scheduled to work in the Rwenzori. But he had to cancel his trip because of security concerns in East Africa at the start of the Iraq war. Time is running short.

“The whole atmosphere is warming in the tropics,” Thompson told Science News. “But the greatest risk is taking place at the highest elevations — on the order of 0.3 C (0.5 F) per decade.” Ice in the Rwenzori is disappearing so swiftly that much critical information may have already been lost. “There is a lot of concern about whether there is even a viable [ice] core,” said Richard Taylor, a hydrologist at University College in London. Without such solid evidence, he added, scientists can’t even determine the age of the range’s glacial cover. Taylor is the lead author of a 2006 study in Geophysical Research Letters that links the melting glaciers in the Rwenzori more directly to rising temperatures than the shrinking snowcap on 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro. Tom Knudson VIDEO: Watch local guide Baluku Josephat talk about the loss of the glaciers. “The ice fields on Kilimanjaro are substantially higher” than the Rwenzori and therefore less prone to melting, Taylor told me by phone from London.

“The glaciers that still exist in the Rwenzori reside somewhere between 4,800 meters and 5,050 meters” — 15,750 to 16,570 feet — making them “more vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature.” By contrast, the shrinking snowcap on Kilimanjaro is likely due to decreasing humidity, not rising temperatures, he said, adding, “The Rwenzori mountains are the icon of global warming — not Kilimanjaro.” But as I climb higher into the Rwenzori, it’s clear that getting close to even one African glacier is going to be more of an ordeal than I expected. And it’s not just the steep trails and thin air that conspire to halt my progress. It’s the mud. Never have I seen mud in such quantity or variety. Sludge-like in places, syrupy in others, it filled two enormous high-altitude bogs. In spots, a boardwalk helped. But where it ended, chest waders would have come in handy, too.

Finally, after scrambling up a nearly vertical wall of rock and moss, I stepped onto a ledge at 14,400 feet, where a century ago Abruzzi encountered a nine-story-high wall of ice known as the Speke glacier, named for the British explorer — John Hanning Speke — who discovered the source of the Nile at Lake Victoria. More from Yale e360 Foretells Global Water Woes Bolivia accounts for a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it will soon be paying a disproportionately high price for a major consequence of global warming: the rapid loss of glaciers and a subsequent decline in vital water supplies. In Abruzzi’s day, the glacier snaked down the side of 16,080-foot Mount Speke for 1,600 feet before ending abruptly near the rocky cliff face where he — and now I — stood. A century ago, the glacier covered about 540 acres, and de Filippi recounts listening to the roar of gigantic columns of ice crashing into the valley below. In the thickening mist, I searched for ice but saw none.

Instead, I looked out on the ghost of a glacier, a rubble of smooth slate-gray stone sloping up from a small green lake, formed by glacial melt. Here and there, giant groundsels were starting to grow between rocks that not long ago were entombed in ice. Then the sky opened up to reveal a narrow band of silver and white more than 1,000 feet up the mountain — the last receding remnant of the Speke glacier, which has now shrunk to just a few dozen acres. A few seconds later, the clouds zippered back up and it was gone. Rwenzori Mountains National Park | Uganda Rwenzori Mountains National Park Home Explore Our Parks Parks by Name (A-Z)Rwenzori Mountains National Park Rwenzori Mountains National Park The Rwenzoris – the fabled Mountains of the Moon – lie in western Uganda along the Uganda-Congo border. The equatorial snow peaks include the third highest point in Africa, while the lower slopes are blanketed in moorland, bamboo and rich, moist montane forest.

Huge tree-heathers and colorful mosses are draped across the mountainside with giant lobelias and “everlasting flowers”, creating an enchanting, fairytale scene. Rwenzori Mountains National Park protects the highest parts of the 120km-long and 65km-wide Rwenzori mountain range. The national park hosts 70 mammals and 217 bird species including 19 Albertine Rift endemics, as well as some of the world’s rarest vegetation. The Rwenzoris are a world-class hiking and mountaineering destination. A nine- to twelve-day trek will get skilled climbers to the summit of Margherita – the highest peak – though shorter, non-technical treks are possible to scale the surrounding peaks. For those who prefer something a little less strenuous, neighboring Bakonzo villages offer nature walks, homestead visits home cultural performances and accommodation, including home-cooked local cuisine. Geography and Climate Rwenzori Mountains National Park is located in southwestern Uganda on the east side of the western (Albertine) African rift valley.

It lies along Uganda's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and borders the DRC's Virunga National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for 50 km. It is situated in the Bundibugyo, Kabarole, and Kasese districts, 25 km from the small town of Kasese. The park is 996 sq km in size, 70% of which exceeds an altitude of 2,500m above seas level. The park is 120 km long and 48 km wide. The Rwenzori Mountains straddle the equator along the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, extending north–south for about 110 km and east–west for about 50 km. Rising gradually from the highland plains of Uganda, the mountains fall steeply on the west to the Semliki River, the outflow of Lake Edward and a major tributary of Lake Albert, one of the sources of the White Nile.

Geologically the mountains are young, created in the late Pliocene by an upthrust of crystalline rocks (mainly gneiss, amphibolite, granite and quartzite) that rose from within the western rift to divide palaeolake Obweruka and create present-day Lakes Albert and Edward. Hence, the range itself is not of volcanic origin although numerous craters (crater-lakes) of more recent age are found in the surrounding area. The Rwenzori are wetter than other East African mountains, with annual rainfall varying with altitude from 2,000 to 3,000 mm, and being heaviest on the eastern slope, which faces the prevailing winds. On the Uganda side heavy rain can occur any time of year, but the rainiest periods are from mid-March to May and from September to mid-December. This therefore means those on Rwenzori Mountain Hiking Safari should target the dry period of June to September. The equatorial position of the mountain range creates daily air temperature oscillations between −5°C and 20°C in the Alpine and Nival zones, an order of magnitude greater than the seasonal variation in maximum daytime temperature.

Occasional night-time freezing occurs from 3,000 m altitude (the present-day boundary between Bamboo and Ericaceous zones); to 4,000 m (the Ericaceous–Alpine zone boundary) freezing occurs on 80–90% of the nights Biodiversity The Rwenzori, like other tropical mountains, have a range of exotic vegetation organized in discrete vegetation belts distributed across the altitudinal gradient. The montane forest zone extends from about 1,800 to (2,200) 2,400 m, and varies from dense forest (mainly confined to valley bottoms and ridge tops), through bracken or shrub dominated areas with scattered trees, to grassy glades. Common trees include Albizia spp., Dombeya spp., Olea spp., Podocarpus milanjianus, Prunus africana and Symphoniaglobulifera. The bamboo zone, which is dominated by Sinarundinaria alpina, reaches its upper limit at about 2,600 (2,800) m on the west and 3,000 m on the east side. The Ericaceous zone (Fig.

2a), extending from the end of the bamboo up to (3,800) 3,900 m, is characterised by broad-leaved trees (Hypericum spp. or St. John’s Wort, Hagenia abyssinica and Rapanea rhododendroides), arborescent heathers (Erica spp.) draped with Usnea spp. (Old Man’s beard, a lichen), flowering shrubs (typically Helichrysum guilelmii), scattered tree groundsel (mostly Senecio longeligulatus), and giant lobelias (chiefly Lobelia stuhlmannii). The dominant mosses are Breutelia stuhlmannii and Sphagnum spp. Common plants in the Alpine zone include Carex runssoroensis tussocks, as well as Helichrysum stuhlmannii (everlasting flower) and Alchemilla spp. (Ladies Mantle). Most celebrated in this zone are the so-called ‘giant rosette’ plants of the genera Senecio and Lobelia (primarily S. adnivalis, S. friesiorum and L.

wollastonii), which are well-developed in ravines and other sheltered or well-watered sites. Almost all rock surfaces in the Nival zone, if not overlain by glaciers, are covered by lichens of the genera Umbilicaria and Usnea and mosses, such as Rhacocarpus humboldtii forming bright orange carpets. Rwenzori is exceptionally rich in endemics: it harbours at least 1 hawkmoth, 6 butterflies, 19 bird species and 12 small mammals that occur only here and/or in a few other highlands on either side of the Albertine Rift (including the Rwenzori hyrax Dendrohyrax arboreus ruwenzorii and Rwenzori Leopard Panthera pradus ruwenzori).

Twelve species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals including the ‘vulnerable’ Moon striped Mouse (Hybomys lunaris), the ‘vulnerable’ Rwenzori Horse-shoe Bat (Rhinolophus ruwenzori), the ‘near threatened’ Rwenzori Otter Shrew (Micropotomogale ruwenzori) and the ‘least concern’ Rwenzori Turaco (Ruwenzorornis johnstoni) The park is home to 70 species of mammal, including six Albertine Rift endemics; 12 are endemic to the park and three are rare species. Other mammals include the elephant, chimpanzee, Rwenzori otter and leopard. Though wildlife is difficult to spot in the dense forest, do look out for primates such as colobus (Angola and black-and-white varieties are both present) and blue monkeys; small antelope such as bushbucks; and unusual reptiles such as the three-horned chameleon. Tourism The park is owned by the Ugandan government through Uganda National Parks. It is protected, although extraction may be sanctioned by a board of trustees.

Kasese, 437 km west of Uganda's capital Kampala, is the gateway to the park. The town has hotels and lodges, while the park has camping, a good trail network and huts for hikers. The park has excellent trekking and climbing opportunities with spectacular views and unusual scenery. The major tourist activity here is mountain climbing although you are required to spend an overnight at the base of the mountain or in Kasese town. For those who prefer something a little less strenuous, neighboring Bakonzo villages offer nature walks, homestead visits home cultural performances and accommodation, including home-cooked local cuisine. Park at a Glance Size: 996km2 The park was gazetted in 1991 and was recognized as a World Heritage site in 1994 and Ramsar site in 2008. Highest point: 5,109m above sea level on Mt Stanley's Margherita Peak. Mt. Stanley is bisected by the border with the DR Congo. The Rwenzori is not volcanic like East Africa’s other major mountains but is a block of rock upfaulted through the floor of the Western Rift Valley.

The Rwenzoris were christened the "Mountains of the Moon" by the Alexandrine geographer Ptolemy in AD 150. The explorer Henry Stanley placed the Rwenzori on the map on 24th May 1888. He labeled it ‘Ruwenzori’, a local name which he recorded as meaning “Rain-Maker” or “Cloud-King.” The oldest recorded person to reach Margherita Peak was Ms Beryl Park aged 78 in 2010. Areas of Interest

Question: In which country are 'The Mountains of the Moon'?
Answer: Uganda