A History of Uganda

PROFILE
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Climate: Tropical, Wet and Rainy
Leader(s): Yoweri Museveni, since 1986 (at time of writing)
Population: 37,873,253
Capital: Kampala
Largest City: Kampala
Currency: Ugandan Shilling
Languages: Swahili, English, Ateso, Kakwa, Kinyarwanda, Kumam, Luganda, Lugbara, Lugwere, Lunyoli, Luo, Lusamia, Lusoga, Rukonjo, Runyankole, Runyoro, Sebei
Independence: 1962, from the United Kingdom
Territories or Colonies: None

THE FACTS
Uganda is relatively small, but densely populated nation in Sub-Saharan Africa bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, the DRC, South Sudan and Kenya. It's in the African Great Lakes region, a region of lakes formed by the Great Rift Valley, including Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert, Lake Victoria, Lake Edouard, Lac Kivu, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi among others. It is run by Yoweri Museveni, who many consider a dictator, who himself overthrew the previous dictator Idi Amin, known for being suspected of cannibalism. 

EARLY HISTORY (????-1894)
Uganda stayed relatively isolated from Europe and Asia. Uganda at this time was never really a superpower in the region, but it was always connected to those in power. The kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro made ties with the Sudanese in the north, who made money selling slaves in the Arab Slave trade. They also had ties with the Zanzibarians who occupied the islands of Zanzibar and didn't trade slaves as much which makes them better than the Sudanese in my book.

The Arab slave trade and the African Slave trade went the way of the dinosaur well before Europe arrived in the region which means that North Africa had to find a new industry and oil wasn't useful yet, so they went with spice trading and trade in general. The Buganda as well as other smaller kingdoms didn't have as much of a problem though, because they never traded in slaves, they just allied with countries that did, so this didn't effect the economy very much which was primarily farming. 

I've talked about this in the Zimbabwe and Zambia posts, but there is an idea of pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa as this vast jungle full of uncontacted tribes like are still today found in the Amazon and the Indian Ocean, but while there were some uncontacted tribes like the Pygmies, most people lived under the jurisdiction of some sort of Kingdom. These kingdoms would most likely be divided into regional councils, like town councils that would make laws for the region. 

Pre-Colonial Africa had a system of civics as complex as Europe at the time. Let's say the average European in the middle ages is named Berchtold. He lives in the German countryside. He technically lives in the Holy Roman Emprie, but he probably doesn't care as the laws that effect him are the laws of a local Vassal (basically a medieval sheriff) or if he's indentured, the laws of the landowner he works for would matter. 

Similarly many Early Ugandans were subsistence farmers who lived under the jurisdiction of a Kingdom they likely had no contact with, but their village or region had a council that was more important.

The Buganda Kingdom was a legit Kingdom too. It had a feared army and a fancy capital in Kampala (Uganda's present day Capital city, on the shores of Lake Victoria).

The African Great Lakes Region before the arrival of the British was described as "A World in Miniature". It had a vast network of roads, trade routes and warring kingdoms and warlords. The Arab influenced north was vastly different from the Buganda in the center of it all and the Zanzibarians off the coast or the Pygmies hidden in the jungle. It was like African Game of Thrones. 

First contact with the world beyond the Arab World (meaning Europe and the U.S. of A.) happened, not when the British arrived in the 1890s, but earlier when the Ivory Trade became profitable. Uganda was in the heart of Ivory Territory and hunted Ivory for profit, (almost until Elephants became extinct). Uganda at this time was ballin. They had all of this Ivory money. They were trading with Europe, they had recently converted partially to this religion they'd just learned about called Islam. Things were pretty good for the Buganda.

Bugandans were even wearing clothing from America called "mericani" (like a-mericani), drinking British Tea and coffee and buying guns from Europe. This is why when Colonists and Missionaries arrived in the land they described it as very western and modernized. 

All of this good stuff sadly had to come to an end when all of this trading with the outside world led to three different outbreaks of diseases the Bugandans weren't immune to like smallpox and sleeping sickness. Dammit!

BRITISH COLONIZATION (1894-1962)
All of this set the stage for the British to show up and take all of their shit, as the story goes once again, but this time it was slightly different. The British never fully colonized the region. They arrived relatively late and the region was already pretty westernized. They set up a "Protectorate" which is kind of like a Colony, except the government stays the same (non-British) and the British just keeps some profits, changes the flag, imposes British culture and protects the land with their army. Very few British people came and lived in the land like they did in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa or New Zealand.

The country was split between converts to Islam and Christianity. But these new Christians were already divided. Some of the missionaries converted them into Catholics, while others were Protestant, and so violence erupted Ireland style, but this time in Africa, because one group that decided they liked Jesus now felt their love for Jesus was incompatible with the other group that recently decided they liked Jesus, but in a different way. (I'm still not 100% sure of the key fundamental differences between Protestants and Catholics. I get there are differences in the way the church is set up and what you do, like sacraments and priests and what not. I know that protestants were protesting something, but those problems had more to do with 1300s Europe than they do with anything now. I dunno, probably something more important that I don't understand).

During colonization Britain sided with the most powerful group in the region the Buganda Kingdom, which alienated the Bunyoro, the second largest land-holders in the Protectorate. The Buganda became hated by other Kingdoms for basically selling out to Britain and the West. 

For a lot of normal everyday people though not much changed. They still lived in a village and farmed, but instead of having a flag that had a white stripe with a lion and shield in it surrounded by blue stripes, their flag was a blue field with a union jack on the upper left with a crested crane on it. In other words not much but the flag, language and money changed.

Even the language element is debateable. While many Ugandans today speak English, traditional languages are preferred.

The region seemed to dodge both World Wars unlike many other of its neighboring countries. This region was the frontlines for many of the battles in Africa, as Germany's crown jewel in Africa (German East Africa, now called Tanzania) was nudged right up against Britain's holdings in Uganda, Zambia and Kenya, as well as Belgium's Congo Free State. Belgium wasn't super thrilled with Germany on account of Germany invading them, so the Free State warred with German East Africa, as well as Portuguese Mozambique, which didn't do much fighting as Portugal was essentially neutral, but they sided with Britain.

INDEPENDENCE (1962-PRESENT)
In 1962 Uganda gained independence as the U.K. was trying to jettison some of its colonial holdings as they were starting to look bad. 

Milton Obote became the first president and declared the country should be a Republic, which lasted approximately nine years before insane person Idi Amin decided he wanted a stab at controlling the country.

He wasn't a good choice for Uganda for the following reasons:

• He probably had brain syphilis or bipolar disorder.
• He bestowed upon himself this ridiculously garish title "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" and no, I did not sneak that MC in the middle. Idi Amin was not secretly a rapper, that stood for Military Cross.
• He claimed to be the King of Scotland despite not being born in Scotland, none of his family being from Scotland and having very little contact with Scotland in general, also the fact that Scotland hasn't had a king for 400 years as well
• He was rumored to be a cannibal and even if he wasn't, somebody has to be pretty fucked up to be rumored to be a cannibal.

But seriously he was a horrible dictator that rose to popularity as an affable, likable man of the people who seemed to lose his mind over time. He alienated Uganda's Asian, Jewish and intellectual community, as he deemed these groups threatening to his regime. 

He burned books, killed those with glasses and destroyed chess boards and other things associated with intellectualism.

Thankfully Amin's rule was ended in 1979, but recently the country has been hit with a string of dictators, like Museveni, but not much is better.