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Uganda Safaris
Lodge Safaris
Gorilla Safaris
Gorilla Trekks
About Uganda
Geography
Uganda, twice the size of Pennsylvania, is in
East Africa. It is bordered on the west by Congo, on the north by the Sudan,
on the east by Kenya, and on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda. The country,
which lies across the equator, is divided into three main areas—swampy
lowlands, a fertile plateau with wooded hills, and a desert region. Lake
Victoria forms part of the southern border.
Government
Multiparty democractic republic.
History
About 500 B.C. Bantu-speaking peoples migrated to the area now called
Uganda. By the 14th century, three kingdoms dominated, Buganda (meaning
“state of the Gandas”), Bunyoro, and Ankole. Uganda was first explored by
Europeans as well as Arab traders in 1844. An Anglo-German agreement of 1890
declared it to be in the British sphere of influence in Africa, and the
Imperial British East Africa Company was chartered to develop the area. The
company did not prosper financially, and in 1894 a British protectorate was
proclaimed. Few Europeans permanently settled in Uganda, but it attracted
many Indians, who became important players in Ugandan commerce.
Uganda became independent on Oct. 9, 1962. Sir Edward Mutesa, the king of
Buganda (Mutesa II), was elected the first president, and Milton Obote the
first prime minister, of the newly independent country. With the help of a
young army officer, Col. Idi Amin, Prime Minister Obote seized control of
the government from President Mutesa four years later.
On Jan. 25, 1971, Colonel Amin deposed President Obote. Obote went into
exile in Tanzania. Amin expelled Asian residents and launched a reign of
terror against Ugandan opponents, torturing and killing tens of thousands.
In 1976, he had himself proclaimed “President for Life.” In 1977, Amnesty
International estimated that 300,000 may have died under his rule, including
church leaders and recalcitrant cabinet ministers.
After Amin held military exercises on the Tanzanian border in 1978, angering
Tanzania's president, Julius Nyerere, a combined force of Tanzanian troops
and Ugandan exiles loyal to former president Obote invaded Uganda and chased
Amin into exile in Saudi Arabia in 1979. After a series of interim
administrations, President Obote led his People's Congress Party to victory
in 1980 elections that opponents charged were rigged. On July 27, 1985, army
troops staged a coup and took over the government. Obote fled into exile.
The military regime installed Gen. Tito Okello as chief of state.
The National Resistance Army (NRA), an anti-Obote group led by Yoweri
Museveni, kept fighting after it had been excluded from the new regime. It
seized Kampala on Jan. 29, 1986, and Museveni was declared president.
Museveni has transformed the ruins of Idi Amin and Milton Obote's Uganda
into an economic miracle, preaching a philosophy of self-sufficiency and
anticorruption. Western countries have flocked to assist him in the
country's transformation. Nevertheless, it remains one of Africa's poorest
countries. A ban on political parties was lifted in 1996, and the incumbent
Museveni won 72% of the vote, reflecting his popularity due to the country's
economic recovery.
Uganda has waged an enormously successful campaign against AIDS,
dramatically reducing the rate of new infections through an intensive public
health and education campaign. Museveni won reelection in March 2001 with
70% of the vote, following a nasty and spirited campaign.
Close ties with Rwanda (many Rwandan Tutsi exiles helped Museveni come to
power) led to the cooperation of Uganda and Rwanda in the ousting of Zaire's
Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, and a year later, in efforts to unseat his
successor, Laurent Kabila, whom both countries originally supported but from
whom they grew estranged. But in 1999, Uganda and Rwanda quarreled over
strategy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and began fighting each
other. The two countries mended their differences in 2002. Uganda also
signed a peace accord with the Congo in Sept. 2002 and finally withdrew its
remaining troops from the country in May 2003.
In July 2005, parliament amended the constitution to eliminate term limits,
thus allowing President Museveni another term in office. In August, a
multiparty political system was reinstituted after a 19-year absence. In
Feb. 2006, Museveni was reelected with 59% of the vote.
Uganda's 18-year-long battle against the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
an extremist rebel group based in Sudan, showed signs of abating in Aug.
2006, when the rebels agreed to declare a truce. Between 8,000 and 10,000
children have been abducted by the LRA to form the army of “prophet” Joseph
Kony, whose aim was to take over Uganda and run it according to his vision
of Christianity. The boys are turned into soldiers and the girls into sex
slaves. Up to 1.5 million people in northern Uganda have been displaced
because of the fighting and the fear that their children will be abducted.
Kony and four other LRA leaders are wanted for war crimes by the
International Criminal Court.