The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa with a democratic government which lies between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya and forms part of the East African Region.

The capital city is Kampala. Other major towns are Jinja, Mbale, and Masaka. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also bordered by Kenya and Tanzania.

Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompassed a portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala. Fifty-one percent of the population of the country lives slightly below the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day.

General Info:

Capital: Kampala
Official language: English (official), Swahili (official), Luganda, various Bantu and Nilotic languages
Area: 236,040 km2 (81st)
Population: 32,369,558 (37th)
Currency: Ugandan shilling (UGX)
Time zone: EAT (UTC+3)
Calling code: +2561
GNI per capita: US $420 (World Bank, 2008)
Major religions: Christianity, Islam

History:

The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago. Bantu-speaking populations, who were probably from central and western Africa, migrated to the southern parts of the country.

These groups brought and developed ironworking skills and new ideas of social and political organization. The Empire of Kitara in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries represents the earliest forms of formal organization, followed by the kingdom ofBunyoro-Kitara, and in later centuries, Buganda and Ankole.

The Baganda are the largest ethnic group in Uganda and comprise approximately 18% of the population. Uganda’s population is predominately rural, and its population density highest in the southern regions.

Until 1972, Asians constituted the largest non indigenous ethnic group in Uganda. In that year, the Idi Amin regime expelled 50,000 Asians, who had been engaged in trade, industry, and various professions. In the years since Amin’s overthrow in 1979, Asians have slowly returned and now number around 30,000.

Geography:

Uganda in roughly the size of United Kingdom, covering a total area of 236,040 sq km’s, with a population of about 25 million. Uganda is bordered by Kenya in the East, Tanzania in the South, Rwanda in the South West, Congo in the west and Sudan in the north, thus making Uganda a land locked country.

The country is located on the East African plateau, averaging about 1,100 meters (3,609 ft) above sea level, and this slopes very steadily downwards to the Sudanese Plain to the north.

However, much of the south is poorly drained, while the centre is dominated by Lake Kyoga, which is also surrounded by extensive marshy areas. Uganda lies almost completely within the Nile basin.

The Victoria Nile drains from the lake into Lake Kyoga and thence into Lake Albert on the Congolese border. It then runs northwards into Sudan. One small area on the eastern edge of Uganda is drained by the Turkwel River, part of the internal drainage basin of Lake Turkana.