UGANDA

officially Republic of Uganda, Swahili Jamhuri ya Uganda landlocked country of East Africa. Covering a total area of 93,072 square miles (241,038 square km), the country is slightly smaller in size than its former colonial ruler, Great Britain. It is bordered by The Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo [Kinshasa]; formerly Zaire) 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. 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 society: the relatively centralized Bantu kingdoms of the south and the more decentralized Nilotic and Sudanic peoples to the north. Additional reading Geography Rita M. Byrnes (ed.), Uganda: A Country Study (1992), contains geographic as well as historical information. Peter Ladefoged, Ruth Glick, and Clive Criper, Language in Uganda (1972), is an engaging examination. C.C. Wrigley, Crops and Wealth in Uganda: A Short Agrarian History (1959, reissued 1970), shows how Ganda farmers prospered from the high postwar coffee prices. Dudley Seers et al., The Rehabilitation of the Economy of Uganda, 2 vol. (1979); and Mark Baird, Uganda: Country Economic Memorandum (1982), a World Bank study, detail economic development in independent Uganda. Nelson Kasfir, The Shrinking Political Arena: Participation and Ethnicity in African Politics, with a Case Study of Uganda (1976), examines ideas on ethnicity and ethnic categorizations in Uganda, drawing on case studies of ethnic collision in the first Obote and Amin regimes. Ali A. Mazrui, Soldiers and Kinsmen in Uganda: The Making of a Military Ethnocracy (1975), provides a survey of the country, investigating the interplay between cultural, economic, and military forces. Michael Twaddle (ed.), Expulsion of a Minority: Essays on Ugandan Asians (1975), examines several aspects of Amin's summary expulsions of Asians. Mahmood Mamdani, Imperialism and Fascism in Uganda (1984), is a serious and unsensational study of the Amin regime. Kenneth Ingham, Obote: A Political Biography (1994), is a detailed study of one of Uganda's most contentious leaders. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Sowing the Mustard Seed: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda (1997), is the autobiography of Museveni, who led the guerrilla war against Obote. History Thomas P. Ofcansky, Uganda: Tarnished Pearl of Africa (1996), provides a useful generalist overview of the country. Samwiri Rubaraza Karugire, A Political History of Uganda (1980), offers a brief, perceptive political history, mainly of the period 1860 to 1971. David Lee Schoenbrun, A Green Place, A Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th Century (1998); and Christopher Wrigley, Kingship and State: The Buganda Dynasty (1996), focus on oral tradition and its use in writing histories of peoples who left few if any written records. Jan Jelmert Jrgensen, Uganda: A Modern History (1981), is a scholarly account of the influence of the economy on Uganda's history from 1881 to 1979. T.V. Sathyamurthy, The Political Development of Uganda, 19001986 (1986), details the history of colonial government and independence. M.S.M. Semakula Kiwanuka, A History of Buganda: From the Foundation of the Kingdom to 1900 (1971); D.A. Low, Buganda in Modern History (1971); and Benjamin Ray, Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in Buganda (1991), provide differing interpretations of Bugandan history. Michael Twaddle, Kakungulu and the Creation of Uganda (1993), is a significant contribution that reveals the role of an influential African in the evolution of the protectorate. Edward Steinhart, Conflict and Collaboration in the Kingdoms of Western Uganda (1977, reprinted 1999), traces the reactions of the political elites from three Ugandan kingdoms to the imposition of colonial rule. Holger Bernt Hansen, Mission, Church, and State in a Colonial Setting: Uganda, 18901925 (1984), carefully documents the important role played by Christian missionaries in the early years of British administration. Mahmood Mamdani, Politics and Class Formation in Uganda (1976), gives a Marxist view of Uganda's history since the late 19th century. Paulo Kavuma, Crisis in Buganda, 195355 (1979), recounts the exile and return of the kabaka of Buganda. G.S.K. Ibingira, The Forging of an African Nation: The Political and Constitutional Evolution of Uganda from Colonial Rule to Independence, 18941962 (1973), written by a leading participant, examines the achievement of independence and its aftermath. Holger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle (eds.), Uganda Now: Between Decay and Development (1988), collects essays on all aspects of Uganda's development since independence. Holger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle (eds.), Changing Uganda: The Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment and Revolutionary Change (1991), and Developing Uganda (1998), are invaluable as sources of more recent scholarship on Uganda. Maryinez Lyons Administration and social conditions Government Uganda is a republic and a member of the Commonwealth. The president is the head of state, government, and the armed forces. Nonparty elections were held in May 1996, the first popular election since 1962. Lieutenant General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the leader of the only political party (National Resistance Movement; NRM), who first came to power in 1986, was elected president. While Uganda does not have multiparty competition, it does have a local council system, which consists of a five-tiered structure of elected councils from the level of village through parish, subcounty, county, and districts. By 1987 there were some 40,000 such councils at the village level. Each council consists of nine elected members with the political and judicial power to manage local affairs. Uganda is divided into 10 provinces: Busoga, Eastern, Kampala, Karamoja, Nile, North Buganda, Northern, South Buganda, Southern, and Western. The president appoints the provincial governors, who in turn appoint commissioners to run the districts. Until 1967 Uganda was a quasi-federal polity that included five subregional monarchies, nonmonarchical districts, and a central government. The republican constitution adopted in 1967 abolished the monarchies and assigned ultimate political power to an elected president. The president was to be aided by a ministerial cabinet drawn, in the British tradition, from among members of the unicameral National Assembly. In theory, the judiciary, legislature, and executive were to be autonomous, if coordinate, institutions of governance, but in reality the powers of the different branches of government have varied widely with each president. Under Idi Amin's presidency (197179), representative institutions were abolished altogether, and, with the first of several military coups in 1985, the constitution was suspended. A new constitution, drafted through countrywide consultation that from 1988 was managed by a constitutional commission of 284 members, was promulgated in October 1995. Political parties exist, but active campaigning during elections is forbidden. The new constitution also recognizes as a right the ability of ethnic groups to pursue their own cultural practices. Women played a significant role in the formulation of the new constitution, and the NRM government has assisted them in a number of ways. The Ministry of Women in Development was established in 1988 to formulate and implement women's programs and especially to make the public aware of women's issues. Eight women held ministerial posts in the government by 1990, and the first woman vice president in sub-Saharan Africa, Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, was appointed in 1994. Education In early 1997 Uganda revolutionized education policy by introducing an initiative called Universal Primary Education. When fully implemented, the government would pay tuition fees for all orphans and for up to four children per family. The policy, aimed at rapidly expanding literacy throughout the population, has already resulted in an increase in school attendance. Many of the oldest schools in Uganda were established by Christian missionaries from Europe. Since independence their role has been superseded by that of the government, but, because of the limited number of secondary schools, private schools have remained an important component of Uganda's educational system. Makerere University in Kampala, which began as a technical school in 1922, was the first major institution of higher learning in East and Central Africa. In addition to its medical school, Makerere's faculties include those of agriculture and forestry, arts, education, technology, law, science, social sciences, and veterinary medicine. Since the late 1980s, a number of new institutions of higher learning have opened including Mbarara University of Science and Technology, the Christian University of East Africa (Protestant), Uganda Martyrs University (Roman Catholic), and Mbale Islamic University. In addition to these, there are primary-teacher training colleges, technical schools and colleges, and business colleges. Cultural life Daily life Cultural diversity has produced a wide variety of lifestyles and interests among Ugandans. While literacy is slowly increasing, especially in the urban centres, where there are numerous newspapers, oral traditions remain a popular form of entertainment. Uganda possesses a rich tradition of theatre, ranging from the very active National Theatre in Kampala to hundreds of small, local theatrical groups. Theatre has played an important role in educating and informing the public on a range of issues from gender relations to sexually transmitted diseases. Another popular and widespread form of entertainment is the many hundreds of small video booths spread throughout the towns and small rural trading centres. A video booth, which can operate on a vehicle battery, provides an opportunitymainly for young peopleto see a variety of films; but, more important, the booths also show occasional short informative films supplied by governmental agencies. Television is widely available in urban centres and in some smaller rural centres, where it is not uncommon to see a large group of people clustered in front of one set. Sports is a vastly popular cultural activity, with millions of Ugandans supporting their favourite football (soccer) teams. Kampala is home to one of the largest sports stadiums on the continent, completed in the late 1990s. Boxing and wrestling are also immensely popular. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, held in Atlanta, Georgia, Uganda's Davis Kamoga won a bronze medal for the men's 400-metre track race. In the countryside, the year is filled with a variety of festivals and ritual celebrations, including marriage introductions, weddings, births, christenings, and other familial gatherings. As in other places, the agricultural year is marked by a number of important events that require social gatherings. Each ethnic group in the country is proud of its cultural heritage, which is carefully preserved and passed from generation to generation through dance, song, and music. The staple diet in most of the south is a kind of plantain called matoke. Sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, and cassava are consumed along with a variety of vegetables. The central market in KampalaNakaserooffers an extensive array of vegetables and fruits, some of which are imported from neighbouring countries. Most northerners eat millet, sorghum, cornmeal, and cassava together with local vegetables. The pastoralist communities tend to consume animal-derived products, especially butter, meat, and animal blood. Fish is eaten by a number of groups. The arts The Westernized elites are virtually the sole consumers and practitioners of the fine arts. Nevertheless, there is a small but active group of local artistspainters, sculptors, poets, and playwrightswho exhibit their works in local galleries and theatres. There is a wide audience for both Ugandan and foreign music. Uganda's well-known Afrigo Band, which combines traditional and popular musical elements, regularly tours abroad and has produced a number of recordings. Congolese music is extremely popular and represents a return of musicians from that country, a cultural exchange that previously had been active until the 1970s. There are many discos, pubs, and bars in most towns and trading centres, where live music is performed. The largest and most important museum in the country is the Uganda Museum in Kampala. Others include those at Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth national parks.