Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
Date September 22, 2025
All News

IBES Fellow helps launch Africa’s first parrot museum

Professor Nancy Jacobs, along with three Brown students and local partners, recently opened a new museum in Uganda to connect communities with endangered wildlife.

In the heart of Bigodi, Uganda, a new museum is giving both local schoolchildren and visiting tourists a chance to discover the story of the endangered Grey Parrot. The Bigodi Grey Parrot Museum, which opened this summer, was a collaborative effort between Professor Nancy Jacobs; her UTRA students Alyssa Gorman Brown/RISD ’28, Stephen Ogunbiyi ’26, Anna Zulueta ’25.5; and Bigodi resident and conservationist Nick Byaba.

Jacobs, who is writing a book on Grey Parrots with the support of an IBES Catalyst Research Award, laid the early foundation for the project. She first traveled to Uganda in search of Grey Parrots — a species that, having been exploited for the global pet trade, has become increasingly rare in the wild — after learning that they are drawn to the fruit of the native African oil palm tree. 

While in Bigodi, Jacobs met Byaba, who saw potential for tourism and community connection through the birds. Byaba started raising African oil palms and giving away saplings to local residents, eventually starting the Parrot Tree Caretakers Association. The idea of a physical parrot museum developed, and with funding from Brown’s Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards and the Department of History’s Peter Green Fund, Jacobs, Gorman, and Ogunbiyi traveled to Bigodi to help establish the museum.

Student contributions

The museum, located in two rooms of Byaba’s family home, was designed to highlight the ecological relationship between the parrots, the trees, and the Bigodi community. To ensure that local community members and visitors of all ages could enjoy the museum, Gorman, Ogunbiyi, and Zulueta wrote the museum posters in child-friendly language, as well as in both English and the local language, Rutooro.

“We built it from the ground up and really tried to think about what would be the best for people and their kids,” Zulueta noted. 

Ogunbiyi created the museum’s “Local Conservation” exhibit, spotlighting Ugandans whom he says have “become heroes for parrot conservation.” 

Gorman focused on the museum layout and artifacts. She spent her first week in Bigodi immersing herself in the culture, noting that “it was important to become familiar with local arts practices before making design choices for the new museum.” She eventually helped design a tapestry, wooden puzzle, arrangement of parrot feathers, and the overall flow of the museum.

“ I had the perfect team. Between Stephen’s interest in conservation and birds, all of Anna’s research and writing skills, and Alyssa’s talents in design, we got there and put together a museum! ”

Nancy Jacobs IBES Fellow & History Professor
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Left to right: Nick Byaba, Stephen Ogunbiyi, Nancy Jacob’s, and Alyssa Gorman at the opening of the Grey Parrot Museum. Photos courtesy of Nick Byaba and the Grey Parrot Museum.

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The “Local Conservation” exhibit, created by Ogunbiyi.

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Arrangement of parrot feathers, designed by Gorman.

Looking ahead

Now complete, the museum is under Byaba’s care. Jacobs hopes it inspires a larger movement. 

“This is Nick’s museum now,” she said. “But I figured out that it's relatively easy to put up a pop-up museum. I want to encourage more people to think about what kind of pop-up museums they can create.”

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