Location and size
Uganda is among the East African Community. It’s landlocked, having an area of 241,038km2, and it relies on two of its neighboring countries, Kenya and Uganda, for its exports and imports. Its the most prominent capital and city is Kampala. The city is famous for its numerous rolling hills, with the highest point reaching 4,000 feet altitude.
Population
According to Data commons (2020), the country has a population of 45,741,000 people. Its currency is shillings, whereas one United States dollar is about 3,725 Ugandan shillings.
Language
The most commonly spoken language in the country is Luganda and Swahili. English is the official language used by the majority of Ugandans, acting like the language of instructions. Christianity is widespread and makes up about 85.2 percent of the country’s population. Islamic constitutes about 12 percent, and the rest are the Hindus and the Sikhs. Uganda has six international airports, which include Entebbe International Airport, the largest airport of all, Jinja, Kasese, Mbara, and Pakuba airports. Entebbe, the largest airport, has thirty-three flight destinations in seventeen countries.
Climate
The months of March through May and September through December see Uganda’s two rainy seasons, making the country’s climate mostly tropical. Because the northern area, which makes up one fourth of the nation and is located outside of the tropical belt, only has one rainy season (March to October), there is only one rainy season.
History
Bantu-speaking people migrated to current Uganda about 500 B.C, and three kingdoms, the Buganda, Bunyoro, and the Ankole dominated the land. The name Buganda means the state of the Ganda. The name Uganda was derived from the natives, the Buganda kingdom by the British who found the land in the 18th century as they were searching for the source of the river Nile. The land was divided by kingdoms by then. The Buganda kingdom occupied a large part of the southern part of the country, including its city, Kampala. The language of the Buganda kingdom was widely used and is still the most used language throughout the country. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Buganda kingdom had grown to be the biggest and most powerful Kingdom in East Africa. Its long and vast history dates back to the 13th century under the founding father of Buganda’s Kintu Dynasty, King Kato Kintu. The King practiced a powerful centralized control over his domains, the Buganda, which continued to flourish until the 19th century when it was colonized by the British.
Arab traders and the Europeans were the first to explore Uganda in the 18th century. The first British explorer to reach the land was Henry Stanley. In 1890, an Anglo-German agreement was made declaring the land to be in the British Sphere of influence, and the Imperial East Africa Company (IBEA Co) was authorized to establish the land. In 1894, Uganda was made a British protectorate after IBEA Company failed to prosper financially (Karugire, 2010). Some
Europeans settled in Uganda permanently, although the majority of people attracted were the Indians, who played a significant role in the country’s commerce. In October 1962, it became an independent country, and Milton Obote was elected as the first president of the newly independent country (Karugire, 2010). Obote was the King of the Buganda kingdom. He was the Kabaka Mutesa II of the Buganda kingdom.
Uganda’s first constitution that took immediate effect on independence was a federal constitution that provided a complex system of parliamentary democracy that was underpinned by constitutional supremacy. Two more constitutions were promulgated and to be promulgated was in 1995, which gave the president more power and is a republic government. Since the 1990s, the country has been experiencing political stability resulting in its economic growth.
