We chose every part of our logo and our website for a reason. Together, they say who we are: a small Ugandan company that serves its guests and the places they visit. Here is the story behind the pictures and patterns on our pages.
Two hands, one circle
First, the name. It comes from our two founders, and from the idea of service. In the logo, a brown arm and a green arm curve around to form a circle and meet in a handshake at the bottom. The two hands stand for the two servants. They also stand for the partnership between a guest and the people who look after them. In other words, the circle holds everything we show you on a trip.
The gorilla and the mountains
Inside the circle, a mountain gorilla walks in front of high, green-sided peaks. Uganda is home to about half of the world’s mountain gorillas, in Bwindi and Mgahinga. Meanwhile, the peaks bring to mind the volcanoes and the Rwenzori mountains of the west. Together, they stand for our promise: adventure in the wilderness.
Brown and green
Our two main colours come from the land. Earth brown is the colour of the red-brown soil, the dirt roads and the bark cloth of Buganda. Forest green, on the other hand, is the colour of Uganda’s rainforests, tea hills and banana gardens. Finally, a warm gold, like the sun on the savannah, marks the buttons you press to plan a trip.
The barkcloth pattern
Many sections of our website carry a soft texture of fine fibres. It comes from olubugo, the bark cloth of the Baganda people. Craftsmen strip the inner bark of the mutuba tree, then soak and beat it with wooden mallets until it becomes a wide, soft cloth. Ugandans have made bark cloth for centuries, and people still wear it at royal and cultural ceremonies. UNESCO lists barkcloth making in Uganda as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The woven basket pattern
Other sections carry rings of woven lines. We drew them from the lids of Ugandan woven baskets. Across the country, women coil and weave grasses, palm leaves and papyrus into baskets and lids in bright rings of colour. Families use them to carry food, store grain and decorate the home. For example, when you visit a craft group on one of our trips, you can watch the weaving and buy directly from the makers.
Why we take turns
On our pages, the barkcloth and the basket take turns, section by section. As a result, no pattern appears too often, and each one has room to breathe. Both stay soft in the background, so that the photos and the words come first.
Want to see bark cloth being made, or weave with a craft group? Ask us to add it to your trip, or read more about Two Servants.