Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It 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 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 equatorial climate. As of 2024, it had a population of 45.9 million, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital and largest city, Kampala.
Uganda is named after the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south, including Kampala, and whose language Luganda is widely spoken; the official language is English, while Swahili is the second official language. The region was populated by people of various ethnicities before Bantu and Nilotic groups arrived around 3,000 years ago. These new inhabitants established influential kingdoms such as the Empire of Kitara. The arrival of Arab traders in the 1830s and British explorers in the late 19th century marked the beginning of foreign influence. The British established the Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, setting the stage for future political dynamics.
Uganda gained independence in 1962, with Milton Obote as the first prime minister. The 1966 Mengo Crisis marked a significant conflict with the Buganda kingdom, as well as the country's conversion from a parliamentary system to a presidential system. Obote was overthrown in a military coup in 1971 by Idi Amin, who subsequently ruled the country under a brutal dictatorship until he was overthrown in 1979 during the Uganda–Tanzania War.
Obote returned to power following the controversial 1980 Ugandan general election, prompting a six-year guerrilla war, ending with the victory of Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement in 1986. While Museveni's rule resulted in stability and economic growth, political oppression and human rights abuses continued. The abolition of presidential term limits as well as allegations of electoral fraud and repression have raised concerns about Uganda's democratic future. Museveni was elected president in the 2011, 2016, 2021, and 2026 general elections. Human rights issues, corruption, and regional conflicts, such as involvement in the Congo Wars and the struggle against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), continue to challenge Uganda. Despite this, it has made progress in education and health, improving literacy and reducing HIV infection, though challenges in maternal health and gender inequality persist.
Geographically, Uganda is diverse, with volcanic hills, mountains, and lakes, including Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest freshwater lake. The country has significant natural resources, including fertile agricultural land and untapped oil reserves, contributing to its economic development. The service sector dominates the economy, surpassing agriculture. Uganda's rich biodiversity, with national parks and wildlife reserves, attracts tourism, a vital sector for the economy. Uganda is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, G77, the East African Community, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
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 archaeological 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. Kitara is claimed as the antecedent of the Tooro, Ankole, and Busoga kingdoms. Some Luo invaded Kitara and assimilated with the Bantu society there, establishing the Biito 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 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. These factions were 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. The British government sought to protect its interests along the Nile trade route and established 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 meant that Uganda retained a degree of self-government that would have otherwise been limited under a full colonial administration, compared to neighbouring Kenya, which had been made a colony.
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.
Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962 with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and Queen of Uganda. In 1963, Uganda de facto became a republic whilst maintaining its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. The position of governor-general of Uganda (who served as representative of the Queen) was abolished in October 1963, one year after independence, although the country would not officially proclaim itself a republic until the 1966 crisis.