Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,23 May 2025,26 mins

Heart and Soul: Musambwa - Lake Victoria's sacred island

The Documentary Podcast

Available for over a year

Musambwa Island in Lake Victoria, Uganda, is a five-acre rocky outcrop of land five miles from the mainland and is the biggest breeding ground in the world for grey gulls and home to hundreds of other bird species and cobra. Amid the birds, snakes and lizards lives a male only community of fisherman who live by a code of cultural and spiritual practices. Reporter Zawadi Mudibo travels to live among the men of Musambwa to explore their sacred relationship with nature. Although the men have lived this way for generations there is the creeping influence of modernity. Through personal stories and reflections, the deep-seated beliefs that shape the lives of the island's inhabitants are revealed.

Programme Website
More episodes