Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region, lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally modified equatorial climate. It has a population of around 49.6 million, of which 8.5 million live in the capital and largest city of Kampala.

Uganda is named after the?Buganda?kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country, including the capital?Kampala?and whose language?Luganda?is widely spoken throughout the country. From 1894, the area was ruled as a protectorate by the?United Kingdom, which established administrative law across the territory. Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962. The period since then has been marked by violent conflicts, including an eight-year-long?military dictatorship?led by?Idi Amin.^[14]

The official language is?English, although the Constitution states that "any other language may be used as a medium of instruction in schools or other educational institutions or for legislative, administrative, or judicial purposes as may be prescribed by law."?Luganda, a central region-based language, is widely spoken across the Central and South Eastern regions of the country, and several other languages are also spoken including Ateso,?Lango,?Acholi,?Runyoro,?Runyankole,?Rukiga,?Luo,^[16]?Rutooro,?Samia,?Jopadhola, and?Lusoga. In 2005 Swahili, which is foreign and so viewed as being neutral, was proposed as Uganda's second official language, but this has yet to be ratified by parliament.?In 2022 Uganda decided to make Swahili a mandatory subject in the school curriculum.

Uganda's current president is?Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who took power in January 1986 after a protracted?six-year guerrilla war. Following constitutional amendments that removed term limits for the president, he was able to stand and was elected president in the?2011,?2016?and?2021?general elections.

History

Precolonial Uganda

Much of Uganda was inhabited by?Central sudanic- and?Kuliak-speaking farmers and herders until 3,000 years ago, when?Bantu speakers?arrived in the south and?Nilotic speakers?arrived in the northeast. By 1500 AD, they had all been assimilated into?Bantu speaking cultures?south of?Mount Elgon, the?Nile River, and?Lake Kyoga.

According to?oral tradition?and archeological studies, the?Empire of Kitara?covered an important part of the?great lakes area, from the northern lakes?Albert?and?Kyoga?to the southern lakes?Victoria?and?Tanganyika.?Bunyoro-Kitara?is claimed as the antecedent of the?Toro,?Ankole, and?Busoga?kingdoms.

Some?Luo?invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated with the Bantu society there, establishing the Babiito dynasty of the current?Omukama?(ruler) of Bunyoro-Kitara.

Arab?traders moved into the land from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s for trade and commerce.?In the late 1860s,?Bunyoro?in Mid-Western Uganda found itself threatened from the north by Egyptian-sponsored agents.?Unlike the Arab traders from the East African coast who sought trade, these agents were promoting foreign conquest. In 1869,?Khedive?Ismail Pasha?of Egypt, seeking to annex the territories north of the borders of?Lake Victoria?and east of?Lake Albert?and "south of?Gondokoro,"?sent a British explorer,?Samuel Baker, on a military expedition to the frontiers of Northern Uganda, with the objective of suppressing the slave-trade there and opening the way to commerce and "civilization." The Banyoro resisted Baker, who had to fight a desperate battle to secure his retreat. Baker regarded the resistance as an act of treachery, and he denounced the Banyoro in a book (Ismailia – A Narrative Of The Expedition To Central Africa For The Suppression Of Slave Trade, Organised By Ismail, Khadive Of Egypt?(1874))?that was widely read in Britain. Later, the British arrived in Uganda with a predisposition against the kingdom of?Bunyoro?and sided with the kingdom of?Buganda. This would eventually cost Bunyoro half of its territory, which was given to Buganda as a reward from the British. Two of the numerous "lost counties" were restored to Bunyoro after independence.

In the 1860s, while Arabs sought influence from the north, British explorers searching for the source of the?Nile?arrived in Uganda. They were followed by British Anglican missionaries who arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877 and French Catholic missionaries in 1879. This situation gave rise to the death of the?Uganda Martyrs?in 1885—after the conversion of?Muteesa I?and much of his court, and the succession of his?anti-Christian?son?Mwanga.

The British government chartered the?Imperial British East Africa Company?(IBEAC) to negotiate trade agreements in the region beginning in 1888.

From 1886, there was a series of religious wars in Buganda, initially between Muslims and Christians and then, from 1890, between "ba-Ingleza" Protestants and "ba-Fransa" Catholics, factions named after the imperial powers with which they were aligned.?Because of civil unrest and financial burdens, IBEAC claimed that it was unable to "maintain their occupation" in the region.?British commercial interests were ardent to protect the trade route of the Nile, which prompted the British government to annex Buganda and adjoining territories to create the Uganda Protectorate in 1894.

Uganda Protectorate (1894–1962)

The?Protectorate of Uganda?was a?protectorate?of the?British Empire?from 1894 to 1962. In 1893, the?Imperial British East Africa Company?transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of?Buganda?to the British government. The?IBEAC?relinquished its control over Uganda after Ugandan internal religious wars had driven it into bankruptcy.

In 1894, the Uganda Protectorate was established, and the territory was extended beyond the borders of Buganda by signing more treaties with the other kingdoms (Toro?in 1900,?Ankole?in 1901, and?Bunyoro?in 1933) to an area that roughly corresponds to that of present-day Uganda.

The status of?Protectorate?had significantly different consequences for Uganda than had the region been made a colony like neighboring?Kenya, insofar as Uganda retained a degree of self-government that would have otherwise been limited under a full colonial administration.

In the 1890s, 32,000 labourers from British India were?recruited to East Africa?under indentured labour contracts to construct the?Uganda Railway.?Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 decided to remain in East Africa after the line's completion.?Subsequently, some became traders and took control of cotton ginning and sartorial retail.

From 1900 to 1920, a?sleeping sickness?epidemic in the southern part of Uganda, along the north shores of Lake Victoria, killed more than 250,000 people.

World War II?encouraged the colonial administration of Uganda to recruit 77,143 soldiers to serve in the?King's African Rifles. They were seen in action in the?Western Desert campaign, the?Abyssinian campaign, the?Battle of Madagascar?and the?Burma campaign.

Independence (1962 to 1965)

Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962 with?Queen Elizabeth II?as head of state and?Queen of Uganda. In October 1963, Uganda became a republic but maintained its membership in the?Commonwealth of Nations.

The first post-independence election, held in 1962, was won by an alliance between the?Uganda People's Congress?(UPC) and?Kabaka Yekka?(KY). UPC and KY formed the first post-independence government with?Milton Obote?as executive prime minister, with the Buganda Kabaka (King)?Edward Muteesa II?holding the largely ceremonial position of president.