Aisha Nabwanika is the proprietor of Ewaffe Cultural Village. She says a good leader should be able to be exemplary, a team player, a good listener, and listen to the industry players before making certain key decisions.

Soon after Aisha Nabwanika, the proprietor of Ewaffe Cultural Village, completed her Bachelor of Commerce (accounting) degree studies at Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in 2016, her career in tourism started.
She got her first opportunity working as a project officer on a trademark project under Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), the apex for all private sector players in Uganda. She also worked
closely with Mr. Richard Kawele, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) then and is currently the principal at the Uganda Hotel and Tourism Training Institute (UHTTI) in Jinja City.
“With him I grew from being a project officer to a full-time staff as an administrator in charge of finance. This gave me an opportunity to understand the industry, to know the value chain, the statistics
and the travel trends in Uganda and the world,” she says.

This gave her an opportunity to appreciate tourism and distinctively note the gold Uganda is blessed with including animals, climate, food and the happy people.
“The tribes and cultures and where they live, the way they cook, dress, dance, relate with people, and their languages, are all different. Uganda is so fascinating in that when you move out of the country, most of the tourist attractions you will see are monuments or history but in Uganda you fi nd that culture tourism
is truly up there,” she says.
All this gave Nabwanika ideas of creating a place where people would visit just to eat local food, interact with local people, understand the environment and understand the day-to-day life of the indigenous Ugandans. The making of Ewaffe Cultural Village Before her mother died in 2020, Nabwanika asked her to make luwombo regularly for a project Nabwanika was thinking about. Nabwanika wanted her mother to do it because she was one of the best cooks she knew. She agreed.

“I actually wanted to create the sanctuary at my home but as time went on, the space was limited so I thought about putting up a visitor centre in early 2019, which did not happen,” she says.
Finally, in 2020, Ewaffe Cultural Village was started. The process, however, slowed down because of Covid-19. In 2022, they started planting medicinal crops and clearing the compound and on July 1, 2023, the first team was hosted. “I got the inspiration from my previous organization, and my urge to show
off our beautiful culture, and for children who have never come close to their roots to get the basic knowledge on how things were done,” she says.
Fetching water is one of the activities done at the culture centre, as well as talking to the elders, especially for children to understand that they might not learn from their parents alone. “I came up with Ewaffe (our place) as a name because I really thought of having something where someone feels home
(ewakka),” she says.

Challenges
To get the team to appreciate the vision and concept of the business was hard. This was a new thing in her community. People were hesitant to interface with tourists and new people all the time. Through training on professional service delivery, Nabwanika brought them up to speed. Marketing, which had not been budgeted for proved to be important, and she had to fi nd a way to do something about it personally since she had insufficient staff at the time. “Being with a lot of media personalities and travel journalists before helped me reach out on a personal level and get news about the business out there,” she says.

Building something from scratch in the village you grew up in, the community that literally raised you, can be tricky. This became a stumbling block for Nabwanika in the beginning.
“These are the people who have seen me growing up so sometimes they still see me as a child. Getting them to see my vision the way I saw it did not come easy,” she says.

Role models
When it comes to role models, Nabwanika is inspired by various people doing different things. “If we go international, Elon Musk is one man who is doing many things and putting eff ort in solving some of the big problems,” she says. Nabwanika is also inspired by Dr. Ian Clarke who came to Uganda, settled and started a university, farm lodge, and is doing things in different industries. Maggie Kigozi, who she thinks is vocal and keen on women empowerment, also inspires her.

A good leader
Being exemplary, a team player, a good listener, and being able to listen to the industry players before making certain key decisions are things that Nabwanika thinks of when you ask her what traits a good leader should have. “For example, if UWA [Uganda Wildlife Authority] is changing gorilla permit fees, they should take into consideration the impact it has on others, constantly interact with the key stakeholders, and be empathetic (put themselves in the shoes of the common players),” she says.

What shaped the leader in her
The first people who modelled leadership for Nabwanika were her parents. “I had an opportunity to live with both my parents, and they looked for the best schools they could afford – especially my mother. Having attended different good schools (low end and high end) gave me an opportunity to see how different people behave on different levels. Also, being in a girls’ school (Nabisunsa Girls School) taught me to be up there and think independently,” she says. She recalls how they were always reminded to raise their shoulders and heads high and be confident, and that stuck with her. She has incorporated that in everything she does. “The values I hold dearly like integrity and the kind of relationships I hold,
helped shape the leader in me. At some point, we all need each other. Being a problem solver whether you are at work, in the environment, or anywhere else, will give people reason to follow you and to listen to what you have to say,” Nabwanika says. Mistakes made in leadership The first mistake a leader can make, according to Nabwanika is not undertaking studies on the field of expertise hence limiting their capacity to do more. “Copying and pasting what other leaders did before them. What worked for
me may not necessarily work for you. Take feasibility studies for the nature of work you are doing and it is likely to turn out better for you,” she says.

Nabwanika, however, does not spend much time on mistakes because, she says, they are a part of the learning process. She, therefore, reveals that she does not really regret most of the mistakes she has made and that certain things happen for a reason. The only regret she has is not starting her business earlier. In many countries, she says, children start honing their craft at the age of 15. “Their parents and the schools they go to try to harness their passion and when they grow up, they already know what they want to do. This is different in Uganda,” she says. One has to study up to university level, or even after, to be able to figure out what they want to do. She believes children need more coaching and mentoring early in life so they can hone their abilities at an earlier stage.
Nabwanika’s advice to women out there is to, “Lay out your vision because it is the vision that will drive you toward accomplishing your dream.”

She also advises them to look out for people who have made it in one’s field and emulate what they have achieved. She also recommends that women add value to themselves, in the field they
are in. Researching too, helps, she says, as one becomes well-grounded thus commanding respect and there is less need to prove oneself all the time.

ABOUT EWAFFE CULTURAL VILLAGE

Ewaff e Cultural village presents to you a feel of Uganda’s unique cultural norms and traditions. A visitor experiences utmost fun through food Tourism, Farm
tours, Cooking courses, pottery, storytelling through the unique norms relating more to the Buganda Culture as one of the most vibrant tribes of Uganda.
The cultural village presents to you this unique experience in just 1 day’s activities at Naggalama Mukono District along Kayunga road, an hour drive from Kampala, the heart of
Uganda.

Source: Ewaffe Cultural Village website