Overview
The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the “Pearl of Africa”. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the south by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria. Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom.
Trips to Uganda:
Uganda Gorilla Tracking Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
The Ugandans were hunter-gatherers until 1700 to 2300 years ago. Bantu-speaking populations, who were probably from central and western Africa migrated to the southern parts of the country. These groups brought and developed ironworking skills and new ideas of social and political organization. Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s. They were followed in the 1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile. The United Kingdom placed the area under thecharter of the British East Africa Company in 1888, and ruled it as a protectorate from 1894. As several other territories and chiefdoms were integrated, the final protectorate called Uganda took shape in 1914. From 1900 to 1920, a sleeping sickness epidemic killed more than 250,000 people, about two thirds of the population in the affected lake-shore areas. Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962. The first post-independence election was won by Milton Obote as executive Prime Minister, the Buganda Kabaka (King) Edward Muteesa II holding the ceremonial position, and William Wilberforce Nadiope the Kyabazinga (paramount chief) of Busoga as Vice President. Obote was deposed from office in 1971 when Idi Amin seized power. Amin ruled the country with the military for thenext 8 years. Amin’s rule cost an estimated 300,000 Ugandan’s lives. He forcibly removed the entrepreneurial South Asian minority from Uganda. The Ugandan economy was devastated. Amin’s reign was ended after the Ugandan-Tanzanian War in 1979 in which Tanzanian forces aided by Ugandan exiles invaded. Yoweri Museveni has since been in power and there has been several conflicts in which there are numerous crimes against humanity including child slavery and mass murder. Conflict in northern Uganda has killed thousands and displaced millions.