Uganda Culture, Map, Flag, Tourist Places

After the Treaty of Berlin in 1890 defined the various European countries' spheres of influence in Africa, Uganda, Kenya and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba became British protectorates. The colonial administrators introduced coffee and cotton as cash crops and adopted a policy of indirect rule, giving the traditional kingdoms considerable autonomy, but favouring the recruitment of Baganda tribespeople for the civil service. A few thousand Bagandan chiefs received huge estates from the British, on the basis of which they made fortunes. Other tribespeople, unable to get jobs in the colonial administration or make inroads in the Baganda-dominated commercial sector, were forced to seek other ways of gaining influence. The Acholi and Lango, for example, were dominant in the military. Thus were planted the seeds for the intertribal conflicts that were to tear Uganda apart following independence.

In the mid-1950s a Lango schoolteacher, Dr Milton Obote, managed to put together a loose coalition that led Uganda to independence in 1962, promising that the Baganda would have autonomy. It wasn't a particularly advantageous time for Uganda to come to grips with independence. Civil wars were raging in neighbouring southern Sudan, Zaïre (now Congo) and Rwanda, and refugees poured into the country.
UGANDA WAS ONE of the lesser-known African countries until the 1970s when Idi Amin Dada rose to the presidency. It also soon became obvious that Obote had no intention of sharing power with the kabaka (the Bagandan king). Obote moved fast, arresting several of his cabinet ministers and ordering his army chief of staff, Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace. Obote became president, the Bagandan monarchy was abolished and Idi Amin's star was on the rise. But events soon started to go seriously wrong. Obote rewrote the constitution to consolidate virtually all powers in the presidency. He then began to nationalise, without compensation, US$500 million worth of foreign assets. In 1969, Amin was implicated in a financial scandal and he responded to the bad press by staging a coup. Obote fled and so began Uganda's first reign of terror.

All political activities were quickly suspended and the army was empowered to shoot on sight anyone suspected of opposing the regime. Over the next eight years an estimated 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives, often in horrifying ways. Amin's main targets were the Acholi and Lango tribespeople, the professional classes and the country's 70,000-strong Asian community. In 1972 the Asians - many of whom had come from other British colonies to work Uganda's plantations as far back as 1912 - were given 90 days to leave the country with nothing but the clothes they wore.

In 1980 the government was taken over by a military commission, which set a presidential election date for Uganda later that year. Obote returned from exile in Tanzania to an enthusiastic welcome in many parts of the country and swept to victory in a blatantly rigged election. Like Amin, Obote favoured certain tribes. Large numbers of civil servants and army and police commanders belonging to southern tribes were replaced with Obote supporters belonging to northern tribes, and the prisons began filling once more. Reports of atrocities leaked out of the country and several mass graves were discovered. In mid-1985 Obote was overthrown in an army coup led by Tito Okello.

After Obote became president in 1980, a guerrilla army opposed to his tribally biased government was formed in western Uganda. It was led by Yoweri Museveni, who had lived in exile in Tanzania during Amin's reign. From a group of 27 grew a guerrilla force of about 20,000, many of them orphaned teenagers. In the early days few gave the guerrillas, known as the National Resistance Army (NRA), much of a chance, but by the time Obote was ousted and Okello had taken over, the NRA controlled a large slice of western Uganda. Fighting proceeded in earnest between the NRA and Okello government troops, and by January 1986 it was clear that Okello's days were numbered. The NRA launched an all-out offensive and took the capital.

Despite Museveni's Marxist leanings, he proved to be a pragmatic leader, appointing several arch-conservatives to his cabinet and making an effort to reassure the country's influential Catholic community. Meanwhile, almost 300,000 Ugandan refugees returned from across the Sudanese border. The economy took a turn for the better and aid and investment began returning to the country. Museveni won democratic 'no-party' elections in 1994 and again in 1996 and 2001. One of Museveni's major challenges in the late 1990s was the north, which was plagued by various anti-government rebel factions such as the bizarre Christian group known as the Lords Resistance Army, allied with Sudan's Islamic government, and the West Nile Bank Front, led by Idi Amin's former minister. Today the country's levels of AIDS and HIV infection are among the highest in the world, with a conservative estimate of 1.5 million Ugandans infected; in some villages the infection rate is as high as one person in every four.The 1996 elections were seen as Uganda's final step on the road to rehabilitation and the country was rewarded by a visit from US President Bill Clinton in 1998, despite its blemished human rights record. In August 1999, Uganda signed onto the Congo peace agreement.

The LRA’s 17-year campaign has caused huge economic dislocation and created an estimated 200,000 refugees. The army has enjoyed periodic successes against the LRA, but has failed to suppress it entirely and it continues to cause misery and hardship in Uganda’s northern provinces. For example, in February 2004, the LRA rebels slaughtered at least 200 people at a camp for displaced people in the north. Some disillusion with Museveni has set in amongst the population with the failure to deal with the LRA and the army’s commitment (which ended in 2002) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was widely viewed as reciprocal support for the Rwandan Tutsis fighting against the Kabila government in Congo: the Rwandan Tutsis had previously backed Museveni and maintained bases inside Uganda.

In March 2004, Uganda hosted a major inter-governmental conference to discuss a problem of a quite different nature: distribution and use of the waters of the Nile river system. To a greater or lesser extent, 10 countries, including Uganda, rely on the Nile for their water. This is a delicate and very important issue in this relatively arid region.

Uganda's population is made up of a complex and diverse range of tribes. Lake Kyoga forms the northern boundary for the Bantu-speaking peoples, who dominate much of east, central and southern Africa. In Uganda they include the Baganda and several other tribes. In the north live the Lango and the Acholi, who speak Nilotic languages. To the east are the Teso and Karamojong, who are related to the Maasai and who also speak Nilotic languages. Pygmies live in the forests of the west.

Uganda musical history is also intresting.songs are passed down from generation to generation. Ndigindi (lyre), entongoli (harp), amadinda (xylophone) and lukeme (thumb piano) are commonly played instruments. An Acholi, Okot p'Bitek, is one of Uganda's most famous writers of folklore, satirical poems and songs. His book Song of Lawino (1966) describes the stories told in Acholi songs.While about two-thirds of the population is Christian, the remaining third still practises animism or follows Islam. There were sizeable numbers of Sikhs and Hindus in the country until Asians were expelled in 1972, although many are now returning following an invitation from the president.

Ugandan cuisine consists of a stodge filler with beans or a meat sauce. Main dishes are usually centred on beef, goat or mutton and the starch comes from ugali, or maize meal. Ugali is cooked up into a thick porridge until it sets hard. It's then served up in flat bricks. If that doesn't sound appealing, the country's tropical climate contributes to a healthy choice of fruits. Something you don't come across very often but which makes an excellent snack meal is mkate mayai (bread eggs). Originally an Arab dish, it's wheat dough spread into a thin pancake, filled with minced meat and raw egg, and then folded into a neat parcel and fried on a hotplate. Beer is probably the most widely available commodity across Uganda. Pombe is a locally made fermented banana beer and waragi the local millet-based alcohol. Both can knock you around and give you a mean hangover.

Agriculture dominates the Ugandan economy, accounting for half of total output and employing over 80 per cent of the workforce. Livestock rearing and a wide range of subsistence crops meet local needs; coffee is the main export commodity. Tobacco, tea, sugar cane and cocoa are also grown for export, and some processing of these is now carried out locally. The industrial sector produces textiles, cement, fertilizers, metal goods and a variety of household items. There are large deposits of copper and cobalt, the mining of which has been disrupted by civil wars and insurgency. In addition, there are known deposits of tin, tungsten, beryllium and tantalum ores. The relatively small tourism industry has suffered from the worldwide downturn since 2002. That year, Uganda received 350,000 visitors; the sector was worth US$250 million to the economy.

Uganda occupies a chunk of eastern Africa about the size of the United Kingdom. It's bordered by Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Lake Victoria, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, and Congo (formerly Zaire) to the west.Lying astride the equator, most of Uganda consists of a fertile plateau, in the center of which is Lake Kyoga. The plateau is bounded (W) by the western branch of the Great Rift Valley, including lakes Albert and Edward (in each case about half of the lake is in Uganda) and the Albert Nile River; by the Ruwenzori Range (SW), including Margherita Peak, Uganda's loftiest point, and the Virunga Mts.; by Lake Victoria (S), about half of which is in Uganda; and by several mountain ranges (E and N). The eastern mountains include Mt. Elgon, part of which is in Kenya, and Mt. Moroto. Altogether, about 18% of Uganda is made up of water surface and about 7% comprises highland situated at more than 5,000 ft (1,520 m). The country is divided into 39 districts. In addition to Kampala, other cities include Entebbe, Gulu, Jinja, Masaka, and Mbale.

About 90% of Uganda's inhabitants live in rural areas. Approximately 70% of the people speak one of the Bantu languages; the main Bantu ethnic groups, all of whom live in the southern half of the country, are the Baganda or Ganda (who make up about 18% of the country's total population), Soga, Ankole, Nyoro, and Toro. Other language groups in Uganda are the Western Nilotic (principally the Acholi, Lango, and Alur), whose speakers live in the north and make up about 15% of the population; the Eastern Nilotic (mainly the Karamojong, Pokot, Teso, and Turkana), whose members live in the northeast and make up about 10% of the population; and the Sudanic (the Lugbara), whose speakers live in the northwest and make up about 5% of the population. Between 1980 and 1985, thousands of refugees (mostly Tutsis) from Rwanda and Zaïre (now the Congo) settled in Uganda. English and Swahili are the country's official languages. About two thirds of the people are Christian; the rest either follow traditional religious beliefs or are Muslim.

Country name: Republic of Uganda
Capital: Kampala
Area: 236,040 sq km
Population: 27,269,482
Currency: Ugandan Shilling (UGX)
Languages: official English,Ganda or Luganda, other Niger-Congo languages, Nilo-Saharan languages, Swahili, Arabic
Religions: Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Islam 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%