Source: Britannica
Uganda, country in east-central Africa. About the size of Great Britain, Uganda is populated by dozens of ethnic groups. The English language and Christianity help unite these diverse peoples, who come together in the cosmopolitan capital of Kampala, a verdant city whose plan includes dozens of small parks and public gardens and a scenic promenade along the shore of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The Swahili language unites the country with its East African neighbours Kenya and Tanzania.
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Head Of State And Government: President, assisted by the Prime MinisterCapital
Population: (2021 est.) 42,886,000
Form Of Government: multiparty republic with one legislative house (Parliament [4651])
Official Languages: English; Swahili
“Uganda is a fairy-tale. You climb up a railway instead of a beanstalk, and at the end there is a wonderful new world,” wrote Sir Winston Churchill, who visited the country during its years under British rule and who called it “the pearl of Africa.” Indeed, Uganda embraces many ecosystems, from the tall volcanic mountains of the eastern and western frontiers to the densely forested swamps of the Albert Nile River and the rainforests of the country’s central plateau. The land is richly fertile, and Ugandan coffee has become both a mainstay of the agricultural economy and a favourite of connoisseurs around the world.
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Botanical gardens in Entebbe, Uganda.
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Uganda obtained formal independence on October 9, 1962. Its borders, drawn in an artificial and arbitrary manner in the late 19th century, encompassed two essentially different types of societies: the relatively centralized Bantu kingdoms of the south and the more decentralized Nilotic and Sudanic peoples to the north. The country’s sad record of political conflict, coupled with environmental problems and the ravages of a countrywide AIDS epidemic, hindered progress and growth for many years. Yet, even so, at the beginning of the 21st century a popularly elected civilian government ruled Uganda, which had attained political stability, had set an example for tackling the AIDS crisis that threatened to overwhelm the continent, and enjoyed one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.
Land of Uganda
Uganda is bordered by South Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. The capital city, Kampala, is built around seven hills not far from the shores of Lake Victoria, which forms part of the frontier with Kenya and Tanzania.
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Relief
Most of Uganda is situated on a plateau, a large expanse that drops gently from about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) in the south to approximately 3,000 feet (900 metres) in the north. The limits of Uganda’s plateau region are marked by mountains and valleys.
Mounts Mgahinga (left) and Muhavura, on the Rwanda-Uganda border.
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To the west a natural boundary is composed of the Virunga (Mufumbiro) Mountains, the Ruwenzori Range, and the Western Rift Valley (see East African Rift System). The volcanic Virunga Mountains rise to 13,540 feet (4,125 metres) at Mount Muhavura and include Mount Sabinio (11,959 feet [3,645 metres]), where the borders of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda meet. Farther north the Ruwenzori Range—popularly believed to be Ptolemy’s Mountains of the Moon—rises to 16,762 feet (5,109 metres) at Margherita Peak, Uganda’s highest point; its heights are often hidden by clouds, and its peaks are capped by snow and glaciers. Between the Virunga and Ruwenzori mountains lie Lakes Edward and George. The rest of the boundary is composed of the Western Rift Valley, which contains Lake Albert and the Albert Nile River.
Margherita Peak in the Ruwenzori Mountains, Uganda
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The northeastern border of the plateau is defined by a string of volcanic mountains that include Mounts Morungole, Moroto, and Kadam, all of which exceed 9,000 feet (2,750 metres) in elevation. The southernmost mountain—Mount Elgon—is also the highest of the chain, reaching 14,178 feet (4,321 metres). South and west of these mountains is an eastern extension of the Rift Valley, as well as Lake Victoria. To the north the plateau is marked on the South Sudanese border by the Imatong Mountains, with an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres).
Drainage
Watch the efforts of Ugandan volunteers to explain the importance of life jackets to the fishermen in Lake Victoria
Ugandan volunteers passing out life jackets in an effort to decrease the number of drownings in Lake Victoria.
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Uganda’s Lake Victoria (26,828 square miles [69,484 square km]), in the southeastern part of the country, is the world’s second largest inland freshwater lake by size after Lake Superior in North America, although Lake Baikal in Siberia is larger by volume and depth. Victoria is also one of the sources of the Nile River. Five other major lakes exist in the country: Edward and George to the southwest; Albert to the west; Kyoga in central Uganda; and Bisina in the east. Together with the lakes, there are eight major rivers. These are the Victoria Nile in central Uganda; the Achwa, Okok, and Pager in the north; the Albert Nile in the northwest; and the Kafu, Katonga, and Mpongo in the west.
The shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda.
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The southern rivers empty into Lake Victoria, the waters of which escape through Owen Falls near Jinja and form the Victoria Nile. This river flows northward through the eastern extension of Lake Kyoga. It then turns west and north to drop over Karuma Falls and Murchison Falls before emptying into Lake Albert.
Murchison Falls, on the lower Victoria Nile in Uganda.
Image: Gerald Cubitt
Lake Albert is drained to the north by the Albert Nile, which is known as the Al-Jabal River, or Mountain Nile, after it enters South Sudan at Nimule. Rivers that rise to the north of Lake Victoria flow into Lake Kyoga, while those in the southwest flow into Lakes George and Edward.
Except for the Victoria and Albert Niles, the rivers are sluggish and often swampy. Clear streams are found only in the mountains and on the slopes of the Rift Valley. Most of the rivers are seasonal and flow only during the wet season, and even the few permanent rivers are subject to seasonal changes in their rates of flow.
Nile River in Uganda.
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Soils
The soils, in general, are fertile (and primarily lateritic), and those in the region of Lake Victoria are among the most productive in the world. Interspersed with these are the waterlogged clays characteristic of the northwest and of the western shores of Lake Victoria.
Climate
The tropical climate of Uganda is modified by elevation and, locally, by the presence of the lakes. The major air currents are northeasterly and southwesterly. Because of Uganda’s equatorial location, there is little variation in the sun’s declination at midday, and the length of daylight is nearly always 12 hours. All of these factors, combined with a fairly constant cloud cover, ensure an equable climate throughout the year.
Most parts of Uganda receive adequate precipitation; annual amounts range from less than 20 inches (500 mm) in the northeast to a high of 80 inches (2,000 mm) in the Sese Islands of Lake Victoria. In the south, two wet seasons (April to May and October to November) are separated by dry periods, although the occasional tropical thunderstorm still occurs. In the north, a wet season occurs between April and October, followed by a dry season that lasts from November to March.
Plant and animal life
Flora
Vegetation is heaviest in the south and typically becomes wooded savanna (grassy parkland) in central and northern Uganda. Where conditions are less favourable, dry acacia woodland, dotted with the occasional candelabra (tropical African shrubs or trees with huge spreading heads of foliage) and euphorbia (plants often resembling cacti and containing a milky juice) and interspersed with grassland, occurs in the south. Similar components are found in the vegetation of the Rift Valley floors. The steppes (treeless plains) and thickets of the northeast represent the driest regions of Uganda. In the Lake Victoria region and the western highlands, forest covering has been replaced by elephant grass and forest remnants because of human incursions. The medium-elevation forests contain a rich variety of species. The high-elevation forests of Mount Elgon and the Ruwenzori Range occur above 6,000 feet (1,800 metres); on their upper margins they give way, through transitional zones of mixed bamboo and tree heath, to high mountain moorland. Uganda’s 5,600 square miles (14,500 square km) of swamplands include both papyrus and seasonal grassy swamp.
Sausage trees (Kigelia africana) in Murchison Falls National Park, northwestern Uganda.
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Fauna of Uganda
Lions and leopards are now present mainly in animal preserves and national parks, but they are occasionally seen outside these places. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles inhabit most lakes and rivers, although the latter are not found in Lakes Edward and George. Mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, and small forest elephants appear only in the extreme west. Elephants, buffalo, and the Uganda kob (an antelope) are limited to the west and north, while the black rhinoceros and giraffes are confined to the north. Zebras, topis, elands, and roan antelopes live in both the northeastern and southern grasslands, while other kinds of antelopes (oryx, greater and lesser kudu, and Grant’s gazelle) are found only in the northeastern area. Uganda is home to a diverse variety of bird life, including threatened species. Most of the country’s national parks provide excellent bird-watching opportunities. The country’s varied fish life includes ngege (a freshwater nest-building species of Tilapia), tiger fish, barbels, and Nile perch.
A pair of Uganda kobs (a type of antelope).
Image: Leonard Lee Rue III
White-winged terns in flight, Uganda.
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Insects are a significant element in the biological environment. Elevations below 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) are the domain of the female Anopheles mosquito, which carries malaria, while the presence of tsetse flies has closed extensive areas of good grazing land to cattle. Butterflies are also very prevalent in Uganda. Many different species, including those which are endemic, can be found in the country.
Conservation
Know about the efforts of the Ugandan wildlife authorities to protect Rothschild giraffe
Learn about giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) conservation, specifically the plight of what was known as Rothschild's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi; now classified as the Nubian giraffe [Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis]), in Uganda in this 2016 CCTV newscast.
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Much of southern Uganda has been deforested, but a significant portion of the country’s area has been placed in its 10 national parks. Murchison Falls National Park—the largest such park in Uganda, with an area of 1,480 square miles (3,840 square km)—is bisected by the Victoria Nile. Queen Elizabeth National Park is about half the size of Murchison Falls and is in the Lake Edward–Lake George basin. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994, contains about half of the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is also home to this rare mammal. Ruwenzori Mountains National Park (designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994) contains the country’s highest mountain, Margherita Peak. The region was occupied by rebel forces in the late 1990s.
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People
Ethnic groups
Although Uganda is inhabited by a large variety of ethnic groups, a division is usually made between the “Nilotic North” and the “Bantu South.” Bantu speakers form the largest portion of Uganda’s population. Of these, the Ganda remain the largest single ethnic group, constituting roughly one-sixth of the total national population. Other Bantu speakers are the Soga, Gwere, Gisu, Nyole, Samia, Toro, Nyoro, Kiga, Nyankole, Amba, and Konjo. A sizable population of Rwanda (Banyarwanda) speakers, who had fled Rwanda in the late 1960s and early ’70s, also lived in Uganda until the mid-1990s.
Uganda: Ethnolinguistic composition
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Nilotic languages—represented by Acholi (Acoli), Lango (Langi), Alur, Padhola, Kumam, Teso, Karimojong, Kakwa, and Sebei—are spoken by more than one-tenth of the population. Central Sudanic peoples—including the Lendu, Lugbara, and Madi—are also found in the north.
Under British colonial rule, economic power and education were concentrated in the south. As a result, the Bantu came to dominate modern Uganda, occupying most of the high academic, judicial, bureaucratic, and religious positions and a whole range of other prestigious roles. However, the British recruited overwhelmingly from the north for the armed forces, police, and paramilitary forces. This meant that while economic power lay in the south, military power was concentrated in the north, and this imbalance to a large extent shaped the political events of postcolonial Uganda.
South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis) came to Uganda largely in the 19th and 20th centuries and by 1969 numbered more than 50,000. Although Ugandan citizenship was made available to them when Uganda became independent, most Asians chose not to accept this offer. The population declined drastically when Idi Amin, head of government from 1971 to 1979, ordered the expulsion in 1972 of all noncitizen Asians and later even those Asians who held Ugandan citizenship. Although the latter group’s expulsion order was eventually rescinded, the majority still left the country. By the end of the year, only a small number of Asians remained in Uganda. Amin commandeered both the businesses and personal goods of the expelled Asian community and redistributed them to the remaining African population. For a relatively short time, his actions proved immensely popular with most Ugandans, but the country has recovered slowly from the economic consequences of the expulsions. In the early 1990s, the Ugandan government formally invited the expelled Asian community to return; thousands did so, and some had their property returned to them.
Languages
There are at least 32 languages spoken in Uganda, but English and Swahili—both official languages—and Ganda are the most commonly used. English is the language of education and of government, and, although only a fraction of the populace speaks English well, access to high office, prestige, and economic and political power is almost impossible without an adequate command of that language. Swahili was chosen as another official national language because of its potential for facilitating regional integration, although Ugandans’ command of Swahili falls substantially below that of Tanzania, Kenya, and even eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition, Swahili is unpopular with a large proportion of Ugandans who consider it the language of past dictators and armies.
Uganda’s indigenous languages are coextensive with its different ethnic groups. In addition to English, French, and Swahili, Radio Uganda broadcasts in more than 20 indigenous languages including Alur, Ganda, Lugbara, Masaba, Rwanda, Nyankole, Nyole, Soga, and Teso (Iteso). Most Ugandans can understand several languages.
Religion of Uganda
Uganda’s religious heritage is tripartite: indigenous religions, Islam, and Christianity. About four-fifths of the population is Christian, primarily divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants (mostly Anglicans but also including Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists, and Presbyterians). About one-eighth of the population is Muslim. Most of the remainder practice traditional religions. As in other parts of Africa, Islam and Christianity have been combined with indigenous religions to form various syncretic religious trends.
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The Roman Catholic Rubaga Cathedral on a hill overlooking the city of Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
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Islam was the first of the exogenous religions to arrive, and it became politically significant in the 1970s. Christianity came during the colonial period through spirited missionary activity—especially in the south, where Catholics were called bafaransa (“the French”) and Protestants bangerezza (“the British”). Rivalry and even hostility between adherents of these two branches of Christianity, which have always been sharper and deeper than those between Christians and Muslims, are still alive today. In the early 1930s a breakaway group of Anglican missionaries together with several Ugandans initiated the balokole (“born again”) revival, which spread throughout eastern Africa and beyond and has remained a powerful force of Pentecostalism in Uganda.
A small number of Abayudaya Jews live in communities in eastern Uganda, the descendants of converts to Judaism in the 1920s. Until 1972, when Asians were expelled from Uganda, large numbers of Sikhs and Hindus lived throughout the country; in recent years, with returning South Asian practitioners, Sikhism and Hinduism have been reestablished in the country. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the 1995 constitution.
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Settlement patterns
Uganda’s population remains basically rural, although the number of urban dwellers, constituting about one-sixth of the total population, is growing. A few northern societies, such as the Karimojong, are mainly pastoralists, but most northern societies combine cattle keeping with some cultivation. Between the mid-1970s and late ’80s the cattle population declined significantly because of disease, rustling, and malnutrition; restocking projects were subsequently initiated. In the south, sedentary agriculture is widely practiced. Most cultivators keep some livestock in the form of goats, chickens, and occasionally ducks and even rabbits and geese. The prosperous farmers keep one or two local-breed cattle, while the more wealthy own imported breeds. In central, eastern, and southern Uganda, well-spaced homesteads have farms surrounding them.
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Uganda: houses near Mount Muhavura
Houses near Mount Muhavura, western Uganda.
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Kampala, the capital, is the largest city; others include Jinja, Mbale, Masaka, Entebbe, and Gulu, all except for Gulu located in the south. Urban centres have grown because of a rural-urban movement within the south itself as well as a migration from the north to southern towns. During colonial times, the British were not encouraged to settle widely in what was then the Uganda Protectorate (as they were in the settler colony of Kenya), and British and Asian immigrants generally lived in towns. Only gradually did a minority of black urbanites begin to emerge.
Since 1986, urban centres in Uganda have been rehabilitated and expanded, especially in the eastern, central, and western portions of the country. In addition, numerous small trading centres have emerged along major routes, serving as important points for trade and access to information.
Urban areas often contain large numbers of mainly younger people—usually many more men than women—who have come to town seeking whatever work they can find. Many are engaged in manual labour or service-related jobs such as food preparation, while a good many are jobless or are only occasionally employed. There are also, however, a growing middle class of Ugandans and visible signs of urban progress, such as good housing around the outskirts of towns. Yet, these improvements notwithstanding, since about the mid-1990s there has been a noticeable increase in the number of street children and other impoverished individuals in Kampala. Several agencies have established programs to resettle and educate the children who have no homes or whose families refuse to care for them.
Demographic trends
The Ugandan population has grown rapidly since independence, when it was approximately seven million, to now total more than three times that number. Like many other African countries, the population is predominantly young, with roughly half under 15 years of age and more than one-fourth between the ages of 15 and 29. Uganda’s birth rate is about twice that of the world average, and the death rate is also higher than the world average. Life expectancy in Uganda, while higher than or similar to that of most neighbouring countries, is below the world average.
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The number of Ugandans residing in cities or towns has grown slowly since the 1980s. Kampala, the political and commercial capital, contains more than one-fourth of the country’s urban population. Uganda’s other major cities have considerably smaller populations, among them Jinja, which contains a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. The most densely populated areas are in the south, especially around Lake Victoria and Mount Elgon.
Economy of Uganda
The economy is basically agricultural, and it occupies some four-fifths of the working population. Uganda’s moderate climate is especially congenial to the production of both livestock and crops.
As has been the case with most African countries, economic development and modernization have been enormous tasks that have been impeded by the country’s political instability. In order to repair the damage done to the economy by the governments of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, foreign investment in agriculture and core industries, mainly from Western countries and former Asian residents, was encouraged. The 1991 Investment Code offered tax and other incentives to local and foreign investors and created the Uganda Investment Authority, which made it easier for potential investors to procure licenses and investment approval.
The economy improved rapidly during the 1990s and early 2000s, and Uganda has been acclaimed for its economic stability and high rates of growth. It is one of the few African countries praised by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the international financial community for its economic policies of government divestiture and privatization and currency reform. Uganda has been particularly successful in soliciting international support and loans. In 1997 it was selected as one of the few countries to receive debt relief for its successful implementation of stringent economic reform projects and has continued to qualify for significant debt relief since then. Because of this, Uganda has been able to focus on eradicating poverty and expanding resource exploitation, industries, and tourism.
Source: Britannica