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Travel to Uganda — Unbiased reviews and great
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Republic of Uganda
President: Yoweri Museveni (1986)
Prime Minister: Apolo Nsibambi
(1999)
Current government officials
Land area: 77,108 sq mi (199,710 sq km);
total area: 91,135 sq mi (236,040 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 30,262,610
(growth rate: 3.6%); birth rate: 48.1/1000; infant mortality rate:
67.2/1000; life expectancy: 51.8; density per sq mi: 392
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Kampala, 1,461,600 (metro. area), 1,244,000
(city proper)
Monetary unit: Ugandan new shilling
Languages:
English (official), Ganda or Luganda, other
Niger-Congo languages, Nilo-Saharan languages, Swahili, Arabic
Ethnicity/race:
Baganda 17%, Ankole 8%, Basoga 8%, Iteso 8%,
Bakiga 7%, Langi 6%, Rwanda 6%, Bagisu 5%, Acholi 4%, Lugbara 4%,
Batoro 3%, Bunyoro 3%, Alur 2%, Bagwere 2%, Bakonjo 2%, Jopodhola
2%, Karamojong 2%, Rundi 2%, non-African (European, Asian, Arab) 1%,
other 8%
Religions:
Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Islam 16%,
indigenous beliefs 18%
Literacy rate: 70% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $29.04 billion; per capita $900. Real growth rate:
6.5%. Inflation: 6.8%. Unemployment: n.a.
Arable land: 22%. Agriculture: coffee, tea, cotton,
tobacco, cassava (tapioca), potatoes, corn, millet, pulses, cut
flowers; beef, goat meat, milk, poultry. Labor force: 14.02
(2007 est.) million; agriculture 82%, industry 5%, services 13%
(1999 est.). Industries: sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton
textiles; cement, steel production. Natural resources:
copper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, salt, arable land.
Exports: $768 million f.o.b. (2005 est.): coffee, fish and
fish products, tea, cotton, flowers, horticultural products; gold.
Imports: $1.608 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): capital
equipment, vehicles, petroleum, medical supplies; cereals. Major
trading partners: Kenya, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany,
Rwanda, U.S., UAE, South Africa, India, China, UK, Japan (2004).
Member of the Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 50,074; however, 80,868 main lines were installed (1998);
mobile cellular: 9,000 (1998). Radio broadcast stations: AM
7, FM 33, shortwave 2 (2001). Radios: 5 million (2001).
Television broadcast stations: 8 (plus one low-power repeater)
(2001). Televisions: 500,000 (2001). Internet Service
Providers (ISPs): 2 (2000). Internet users: 60,000
(2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 1,241
km (2002). Highways: total: 27,000 km; paved: 1,809 km;
unpaved: 25,191 km (1999 est.). Waterways: Lake Victoria,
Lake Albert, Lake Kyoga, Lake George, Lake Edward, Victoria Nile,
Albert Nile. Ports and harbors: Entebbe, Jinja, Port Bell.
Airports: 27 (2002).
International disputes: Tutsi, Hutu, and
other ethnic groups, associated political rebels, armed gangs, and
various government forces continue fighting in the Great Lakes
region, transcending the boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda to gain control over populated
areas and natural resources; government heads pledge to end
conflict, but localized violence continues despite UN peacekeeping
efforts; conflict in Sudan has extended rebel forces and refugees
into Uganda.
Major sources and definitions
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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 three other LRA leaders have been
indicted on charges of crimes against humanity by the International
Criminal Court. The LRA and the government signed a permanent cease-fire
in February 2008. Hopes for formalized peace were dashed in April when
Kony failed to show up to sign a landmark agreement.
See also Encyclopedia: Uganda.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Uganda
Bureau of Statistics http://www.ubos.org/
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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