Africa Wildlife Foundation CEO Kaddu Sebunya, one of Africa’s most influential conservation voices, has reflected on the meaning of Rwanda’s annual gorilla naming ceremony, Kwita Izina.

For him, Kwita Izina goes beyond naming baby gorillas; it embodies identity, pride, and collective ownership of conservation.

Sebunya first participated in the ceremony in 2023, when he named a baby gorilla Indatezuka, meaning resilience. The moment, he recalled, overwhelmed him. Naming a primate so close to humans, he said, carried the same emotions as naming one of his own children.

He drew parallels between gorillas and African culture, noting that his own clan name, Sebunya, comes from the black-and-white colobus monkey. Clan identities, he explained, determine not just heritage but responsibility: "It defines who I am, who I marry, and my duty to protect that species.” That duty, he believes, extends to future generations.

For Sebunya, the practice of naming should not stop at gorillas. He hopes one day rivers and trees will also be recognized in the same way, with names that carry rights and protections.

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Conservation as Rwanda’s DNA

Sebunya argued that Rwanda stands out because it does not treat conservation as a side project. Instead, it has woven conservation into its DNA of economic development.

In Musanze, the link between gorillas and livelihoods is clear: households co-owning lodges collectively earn nearly half a million dollars, while businesses from craft shops to restaurants thrive on gorilla tourism.

"In Rwanda, a gorilla is a school, a clinic, a road, a micro-financing instrument,” he said. "It’s not just economic anymore, it’s cultural. Parisians are defined by the Eiffel Tower. In Cape Town it’s the Table Mountain. For Musanze, it’s the mountain gorillas.”

He praised Rwanda’s revenue-sharing scheme, where park revenues are invested into surrounding communities to build clinics, schools, and roads. This approach has eliminated gorilla poaching for several years. Rangers, he added, no longer carry guns to fight poachers, but to protect tourists.

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Sebunya acknowledged that critics of conservation often see it as a barrier to development, recalling cases where conservationists blocked roads or hydroelectric projects. But Rwanda has redefined conservation as an economic asset, placing parks under the Rwanda Development Board alongside other sectors of growth. This shift, he said, has helped silence accusations that conservationists "love animals more than people.”

He believes one of the mistakes in the past was allowing conservation to become dominated by science. As a political scientist and sociologist, Sebunya insists Africans are natural conservationists who have lived alongside wildlife for centuries.

The real challenge, he argued, is to balance development with that coexistence in a way that avoids repeating Western models.

"Europe lost most of its biodiversity. North America lost theirs. Asia followed the same path,” he said. "Africa is the last frontier. We hold 30% of the world’s biodiversity and a third of its freshwater. Our wealth is above the ground, not beneath it.”

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Sebunya pointed to Rwanda’s gorilla tourism as one of the world’s most valuable conservation products. A permit to see a gorilla costs $1,500 for one hour. Visitors cannot touch, feed, or get too close, yet it remains one of the most expensive and sought-after wildlife experiences on the planet.

Elsewhere in Africa, he said, tourists spend thousands on business-class flights and luxury lodges, only to pay a fraction — sometimes as little as $20 — to see giraffes, lions, or elephants, the very reason they came.

"Rwanda has shown the rest of the continent how to properly package its biodiversity,” he said. "Africa is not mineral-rich. Only a handful of countries are. But Africa is biodiversity-rich.”

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For Sebunya, Kwita Izina has become more than a ceremony. It is a moment of collective pride. From waiters to taxi drivers, he said, everyone in Rwanda talks about it. "That’s what I want to bottle: a nation that sees gorillas not just as conservation, but as an economic engine.”

He credited Rwanda’s leadership for taking a bold bet on gorillas and ecotourism, a decision that has transformed Musanze with new infrastructure, raised land values, and provided livelihoods. "There is a vision here,” he said. "That’s what creates an environment where conservation and economic development reinforce each other.”

An accidental conservationist

Sebunya’s own path into conservation was unexpected. Trained in sociology and political science, he once dreamed of a career in economic development. But at 22, while living in France, he heard then–UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on television complaining about European environmental laws.

That moment sparked curiosity: Why had he completed university in Uganda without ever hearing the word "environment”? Why, on TV, were only white men talking about it? Those questions pulled him into conservation, not as a scientist but as a policy thinker.

"Wildlife doesn’t need us,” he said. "During COVID, when people stayed home, wildlife thrived. What animals would ask of us is simple: help my neighbors appreciate me.”

This belief underpins his work on Rwanda’s $460 billion park expansion project, developed with government and the African Wildlife Foundation. Valued as an economic development initiative, the plan requires $300 million in investment and is designed to support both people and wildlife.

Sebunya said his personal motivation is even closer to home: "I always visit my baby gorilla. If Musanze doesn’t develop sustainably, my baby won’t survive. That’s why I’m invested in this work.”

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A message to Africa’s youth

As he reflected on Kwita Izina’s significance, Sebunya turned his message to Africa’s young people. Conservation, he said, is their future — and they cannot afford to wait for permission to lead.

"Young people, stop listening to people like me,” he urged. "Ask us to get out of the way. Conservation will determine how you live on this continent.”

He contrasted his childhood of free mangoes and clean rivers with today’s reality, warning that resources are vanishing. "In your future, water will be more expensive than Coca-Cola or whisky,” he said. "This war hasn’t just begun; it has chosen you.”

Drawing on Africa’s liberation history, Sebunya reminded young people that leaders like Mandela, Lumumba, and Nyerere were under 25 when they fought colonialism. "If Nyerere had WhatsApp, Africa would have been liberated in days,” he said.

Today, he argued, Africa’s youth — 70% of the population and the most educated generation in history — carry the responsibility of fighting climate change and biodiversity loss. "You are not tomorrow’s leaders, you are today’s,” he said. "Stand up.”