Est. Kampala, Uganda · 2017

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Our story

We didn't find Africa.
Africa found us.

A company born from one conviction — that travel, done properly, doesn’t just show you the world. It changes the way you see yourself in it.

The beginning

“I grew up beside the forests and rivers I now share with the world. That proximity never felt like a privilege — until the day I watched a stranger encounter them for the first time.”

Ancient Africa Safaris was born in Kampala in 2017 from a simple conviction: that the continent we grew up beside deserved to be shared — not packaged, not rushed, but experienced in its full and extraordinary depth. Henry Kaweesa began with Uganda and a handful of gorilla trekking permits secured through relationships built over years on the ground. Eight years later, that conviction operates across ten countries.

Every journey we have ever built began with a conversation. Not a brochure. Not a website form. A real exchange about who you are, what draws you to Africa, and how you want to feel when you arrive. That has never changed. It never will.

We are not a booking platform. We are not a tour operator in the conventional sense. We are specialists who have spent years building relationships with guides, communities, and lodges that share our values — and who trust us to send travellers worthy of the places we love.

Henry Kaweesa Founder & Director · Ancient Africa Safaris

2017 Founded, Kampala

How we think

Three convictions that
guide every journey

These are not policies. They are the beliefs that have shaped every decision we have made since the first day we opened our doors in Kampala.

01 · Our Founding Principle

Depth over breadth

We build journeys around fewer places, experienced more fully. Two weeks in Uganda will change you more than two weeks across six countries. The best safari guides are not those who know the most parks — they are those who know one landscape so intimately they can read it like a living book. We give you that guide. Always.

02 · Our Conservation Principle

The land gives.
We give back.

Our philosophy is simple: touch the earth lightly, and leave every place better than you found it. Every lodge we recommend reinvests in the communities and habitats around them. Every permit we secure funds gorilla conservation. Every journey you take with us is a direct vote for the continued existence of the wild places we love.

03 · Our Community Principle

You arrive as guests.
You leave as family.

The relationship between traveller and guide is one of the most intimate formed in modern life. Over five days in the bush, barriers dissolve. Stories are exchanged. Something shifts. Our guides carry your journey with them long after you are home — and so will you. You arrive as guests. You leave as something closer to family.

8⁺Years on the ground

10Countries covered

500⁺Journeys crafted

98^%Guest satisfaction

Amboseli · Kenya · An Ancient Africa Safaris journey

The journey so far

From one gorilla
permit to ten countries

In 2017, Henry Kaweesa secured his first gorilla trekking permits through relationships built over years of living beside Bwindi’s ancient forest. The first guests arrived not as customers but as friends of a friend — word of mouth before a website existed.

“The first time I watched a guest stand in silence before a mountain gorilla family, I understood something I could never explain in a brochure. That silence was the product. Everything else — the permits, the transfers, the lodge — was just the setting.”

Eight years later, Ancient Africa Safaris operates across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, and Egypt. The team has grown. The technology has changed. The silence has not.

Every journey we have ever built began the same way: with a conversation. Not a questionnaire. A real exchange about who you are and what Africa means to you. That is the only way a reputation worth having has ever been built — and it is how we have built ours.

Explore our experiences →

The specialists behind
your journey

The finest safari companies are defined not by their brochures but by their people. These are not job titles — they are individuals who have given years of their lives to Africa’s wild places.

Henry Kaweesa Founder & Director

Grew up in the shadow of Bwindi’s forest. Has been leading guests into Uganda’s wild spaces since long before Ancient Africa Safaris existed as a company. The gorilla trekking experience you will have is largely due to relationships he has spent a decade building.

UgandaRwandaKenya

Joseph Mugisha Lead Safari Guide · Uganda

Has spent fifteen years tracking gorilla families across Bwindi’s impenetrable terrain. Knows the forest by sound as much as sight. Guests consistently describe encounters with him as the defining moment of their Africa journey.

BwindiMurchisonQueen Elizabeth

Amina Nakato Senior Travel Designer

Has designed journeys across seven African countries and speaks four languages. No two itineraries she has built are the same — a point of professional pride. She is the person you will speak with first, and whose instinct you will trust most.

TanzaniaNamibiaEgypt

Our commitment

Travel that gives
more than it takes

Our guiding principle is simple: touch the earth lightly, and give back more than you take. A percentage of every booking is channelled directly into conservation — real money, real camps, real rangers. We believe that if luxury travel cannot pay for the protection of the places it profits from, it has no right to exist.

Every lodge we work with meets our conservation criteria. Every guide we employ is from the communities adjacent to the parks they know. Every permit you purchase directly funds gorilla and chimpanzee protection programmes.

1,063 Mountain gorillas protected

10 Community lodges partnered

100% Local guide employment

8 Years of conservation impact

Community-owned lodge partnerships We work exclusively with lodges that employ locally and reinvest in the communities around them.

Anti-poaching ranger support A portion of every booking funds the rangers who protect the wildlife you have come to see.

Habitat restoration funding Our lodge partners are active in waterhole construction, reforestation and wildlife corridor preservation.

Local guide employment first Every guide on every journey is from the region they lead. This is non-negotiable.

Carbon-conscious routing We design itineraries that minimise unnecessary transfers. Fewer flights. More depth.

Our trusted lodge
partners

Each property is handpicked. Not for price or commission — for the quality of guiding, the depth of conservation commitment, and the feeling guests describe when they arrive.

Bwindi Lodge Uganda · Bwindi Forest

Paraa Safari Lodge Uganda · Murchison Falls

Kyambura Gorge Lodge Uganda · Queen Elizabeth

One&Only Nyungwe House Rwanda · Nyungwe Forest

Sanctuary Olonana Kenya · Maasai Mara

andBeyond Nxabega Botswana · Okavango Delta

Wolwedans Dunes Lodge Namibia · NamibRand

Kwitonda Lodge Rwanda · Volcanoes NP

“

From the moment we landed in Entebbe to the last morning in Bwindi, every single detail was handled with warmth and genuine expertise. The gorilla trek was the most profound experience of my adult life. Not the most beautiful. Not the most dramatic. The most human. Henry’s team gave us that. We cannot imagine trusting our Africa to anyone else.

Sarah & James Elliot · London · Uganda Safari, 2024

Have a conversation
with us

No commitment. No pressure. No questionnaire designed by a booking algorithm. Just an honest conversation with people who have spent years on the ground and genuinely care about getting it right for you — because the places you are about to visit have earned that care.

Make an enquiry →

Or reach us directly +256 787 055 645 info@ancientafricasafaris.com Kampala, Uganda · UTC +3

Why travellers choose us

Eight years. Ten countries.
Not one journey the same.

The brands that have defined luxury safari travel all share one characteristic: they refused to scale at the expense of the experience. Ancient Africa Safaris was built on that same refusal. Every itinerary is designed by a person who has stood in that landscape. Every guide is known by name, not contract. Every journey begins with a conversation, not a booking form. That is not a policy. It is simply the only way we know how to do this.

Browse our experiences →

Membership & Affiliation