Uganda History in Africa, Ugandan People and Their HistoryUganda History in AfricaUganda history in Africa is a bit sketchy like any other country in Africa but that shouldn't make you worry because on this site, the history of Uganda in East Africa be it Political history OF Uganda, economic or social. This site is the Answer. The earliest human inhabitants in a contemporary Uganda were hunter-gathers. Remnants of these people are today to be found among the pygmies in western Uganda. Early Uganda History indicate that between approximately 2000 to 1500 years ago, Bantu speaking populations from central and western Africa migrated and occupied most of the southern parts of the country. The migrants brought with them agriculture, iron working skills and new ideas of social and political organization, that by the fifteenth or sixteenth resulted in the development of centralized kingdoms, including the kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro-Kitara and Ankole. The contrast between the various peoples of Uganda reflects the multiplicity of the Ugandan culture, tradition, and lifestyle. Uganda was created by the union of many people with their own tradition. There were four major migration groups, namely Bantu, Hamites, Negro-Hamites, and the Sudanic Nilotics. Uganda History also indicates that Uganda's long string of tragedies since independence has been a staple of the Western media, hence most people still regard the country as a volatile place to be avoided. However, most parts of the country have been stable for several years, and the country's transformation has been little short of astounding. Kampala is now the modern, bustling capital of a new Uganda, a country with one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Uganda's beautiful mountains, trekking opportunities and mountain gorillas attract travellers. Before independence, Uganda was a prosperous and cohesive country. Its great beauty led Winston Churchill to refer to it as the 'Pearl of Africa'. Uganda History in General From The Beginning Archeology tells that prehistoric man walked the earth in what is now Uganda (Homo-Erectus), and many sites have been excavated that show habitation over the centuries. One of the more recent excavations is situated in Kiboro, near Lake Albert, where there can be found traces of village life going back thousands of years. Around 1100 A.D., Bantu-speaking people migrated into the area that is now Uganda, and by the 14th century they were organized into several independent kingdoms. Indigenous kingdoms were etablished in Uganda in the 14th century. Among them, there were the Buganda, Bunyoro, Batooro (Toro), Ankole (Nkole) and the state Busoga. Over the following centuries, the Baganda people created the dominant kingdom. The tribes had plenty of time to work out their hierarchies, as there was very little penetration of Uganda from the outside until the 19th century. Despite the fertility of the land and its capacity to grow surplus crops, there were virtually no trading links with the East African coast. Contacts were finally made with Arab traders and European explorers in the mid-19th century - the latter came in search of ivory and slaves. Uganda History also puts it that Arab traders reached the interior of Uganda for the very first time in the 1830ies, where they encountered several African kingdoms with well-developed political institutions dating back several centuries. Traders were followed in 1860ies by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile River. Protestant missionaries entered the country in 1877, followed by Catholic missionaries in 1879. After the Treaty of Berlin in 1884 had defined the various European countries' spheres of influence in Africa. Uganda, Kenya and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba became British protectorates. The colonial administrators introduced coffee and cotton as cash crops and adopted a policy of indirect rule, giving the traditional kingdoms considerable autonomy, but favouring the recruitment of Baganda tribe for the civil service. A few thousand Baganda chiefs received huge estates from the British, on the basis of which they made fortunes. Other tribes people, unable to find works in the colonial administration or make in roads in the Baganda-dominated commercial sector, were forced to seek other ways of gaining influence. The Acholi and Langi, for example, were dominant in the military, Thus were planted the seeds for the intertribal conflicts that were to tear Uganda apart following independence. In the mid-1950s a Langi schoolteacher, Dr Milton Obote, managed to put together a loose coalition that led Uganda to independence in 1962, promising that the Baganda people would have autonomy. It was not a particularly advantageous time for Uganda to come to grips with independence. Civil wars were raging in neighbouring southern Sudan, Congo and Rwanda, and refugees poured into the country. It also soon became obvious that Obote had no intention of sharing power with the kabaka (the Buganda king). Obote moved fast, arresting several of his cabinet ministers and ordering his army chief of staff, Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace. Obote became president, the Buganda monarchy was abolished and Idi Amin's star was on the rise. All political activities were quickly suspended, and the army was empowered to shoot on sight anyone suspected of opposing the regime. Over the next eight years an estimated 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives, often in horrifying ways. Amin's main targets were the Acholi and Langi tribespeople, the intellectual classes, and the country's 70,000-strong Asian community. In 1972 the Asians - many of whom had come from other British colonies to work in Uganda's plantations as far back as 1912 - were given 90 days to leave the country with nothing but the clothes they wore. Meanwhile the economy collapsed, infrastructure crumbled, the country's prolific wildlife was machine-gunned by soldiers for meat, ivory and skins, and the tourism industry evaporated. The stream of refugees across the border became a flood. Inflation hit 1000 per cent, and towards the end the Treasury was so bereft of funds that it was unable to pay the soldiers. Faced with a restless army wrecked by inter tribal fighting, Amin was forced to seek a decision. He foolishly chose a war with Tanzania. The Tanzanians rolled over the Ugandan army and pushed on into the heart of Uganda. Amin fled to Libya. The about 12,000 Tanzanian soldiers who remained in Uganda, supposedly to help with the country's reconstruction and to maintain law and order, turned on the Ugandans. In 1980 the government was taken over by a military commission, which set a presidential election date for Uganda later that year. Obote returned from exile in Tanzania to an enthusiastic welcome in many parts of the country and swept to victory in a blatantly rigged election. Like Amin, Obote favoured certain tribes. Large numbers of civil servants and army and police commanders belonging to southern tribes were replaced with Obote supporters belonging to northern tribes, and the prisons began filling once more. Reports of atrocities leaked out of the country, and several mass graves were discovered. In mid-1985 Obote was overthrown in an army coup led by Tito Okello. Shortly after Obote had become president in 1980, a guerrilla army opposed to his tribally based government was formed. It was led by Yoweri Museveni, who had lived in exile in Tanzania during Amin's reign. From a group of 27 grew a guerrilla force of about 20,000, many of them orphaned teenagers. In the early days few gave the guerrillas, known as the National Resistance Army (NRA), much of a chance, but by the time Obote was ousted and Okello had taken over, the NRA controlled a large slice of western Uganda. Fighting proceeded in earnest between the NRA and Okello's government troops, and by January 1986 it was clear that Okello's days were numbered. The NRA launched an all-out offensive and took the capital. Despite Museveni's Marxist leanings, he proved to be a pragmatic leader, appointing several archconservatives to his cabinet and making an effort to reassure the country's influential Catholic community. The monarchy was finally restored in 1993, with the son of Mutesa II, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II as its Kabaka. Buganda is now a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament called Lukiiko that sits in parliamentary buildings called Bulange. The Lukiiko has a sergeant-at-arms, speaker and provisional seats for the royals, 18 county chiefs, cabinet ministers, 52 clan heads, invited guests and a gallery. The Kabaka only attends two sessions a year; first when he opens the first session of the year, and the second time when he closes the last session of the year. Meanwhile, almost 300,000 Ugandan refugees returned from across the Sudanese border. The economy took a turn for the better, and aid and investment began returning to the country. Museveni won elections in 1994,1996, 2001 and 2006. The 1996 elections were seen as Uganda's final step on the road to rehabilitation, and the country was rewarded by a visit from US President Bill Clinton in 1998, despite its blemished human rights record. In August 1999, Uganda signed onto the Congo peace agreement. For your convenience we have tried our best to look for details of Uganda History, so please you can select any page you want from the following menu or read from start to end. History » The Uganda Protectorate • History » The Uganda Protectorate » Growth of a peasant economy • History » The Uganda Protectorate » Political and administrative development • History » The Uganda Protectorate » World War II and its aftermath • History » The Republic of Uganda » Tyranny under Amin • History » The Republic of Uganda » Obote’s second presidency The First Obote Regime: The Growth of the Military Idi Amin and Military Rule and civil wars The Second Obote Regime: Repression Continues The Rise of the National Resistance Army Allied Democratic Forces National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU)
According to history of Ugand , Nilotic people, including Luo and Ateker entered the area from the north probably beginning about AD 100. They were cattle herders and subsistence farmers who settled mainly the northern and eastern parts of the country. Some Luo invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated with the Bantu there, establishing the Babiito dynasty of the current Omukama (ruler) of Bunyoro-Kitara. Luo migration proceeded until the 16th century, with some Luo settling amid Bantu people in Eastern Uganda, and proceeding to the western shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. The Ateker (Karimojong and Teso peoples) settled in the north-eastern and eastern parts of the country, and some fused with the Luo in the area north of lake Kyoga.
Uganda history also proves that When Arab traders and slavers moved inland from their enclaves along the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa and reached the interior of Uganda in the 1830s, they found several kingdoms with well-developed political institutions.
Baganda People and their Culture Banyankole People and their Culture Bakiga People and their Culture Batooro People and their Culture Acholi People and their Culture The Bachwezi People and their Culture Bafumbira or Banyarwanda People and their Culture Bagishu People and their Culture Bagwere People and their Culture Bakonjo and Bamba People and their Culture Banyole People and their Culture Banyoro People and their Culture Basamia-Bagwe People and their Culture Basoga People and their Culture Batwa or Bambuti People and their Culture Japadhola People and their Culture Kakwa People and their Culture Karimojongo People and their Culture Kumam People and their Culture Langi People and their Culture Lugbara People and their Culture Okebu People and their Culture Sebei People and their Culture
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These traders and slavers were followed in the 1860s by British explorers and abolitionists searching for the source of the Nile River and to end slavery. Protestant missionaries entered the country in 1877, followed by Catholic missionaries in 1879.