Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Country Histories
Uganda is a fertile, land-locked country in the east of Africa. Before British influence in the late nineteenth century, Uganda was divided between a number of kingdoms and territories. The powerful southern kingdom of Buganda, remained influential under British rule and was developed at the expense of other territories.
Placed under the charter of the British East Africa Company in 1888, parts of Uganda were ruled as a protectorate from 1894. Known as the 'Pearl of Africa', Uganda became a highly profitable colony through the sale of cotton, coffee, tea, sugar and tobacco. However, deeply entrenched divisions in society, particularly between north and south, meant that the country was never truly united. Hatred, violence and human rights abuses persist to this day.
Browser by chapterMr. Keith Arrowsmith, Colonial Service Uganda 1957-65, recalls Independence Day in Uganda. Copyright Images of Empire.
Newly-independent Uganda was deeply divided along religious, ethnic and most of all national lines. There was resentment of Buganda's dominance amongst all groups, with the Banyoro especially being determined to recover their 'lost counties'. There were also divisions between Africans and the Indians, who dominated economic activity, as well as between the north and the south. The UPC reflected these divisions, with its leaders each representing their own region of Uganda.
Obote's task was to create a unified central government. He restored the 'lost counties' to Bunyoro and in 1966 ordered a military attack on the kabaka's palace, led by an army officer called Idi Amin Dada (c1925-2003). The kabaka escaped to London and Obote declared himself President of Uganda. He increasingly turned to the north for support and did not try to strengthen the party in the south. In 1969 elections were cancelled and he became increasingly dictatorial.
When units of the Ugandan army mutinied in 1964, Obote accepted all their demands and the army began to take on a crucial role in Ugandan life, becoming a source of political power. On January 25, 1971, Obote was ousted in a military coup led by Idi Amin. Initially welcomed by the international community, Amin declared himself president, dissolved the parliament and amended the constitution, giving himself absolute power.
Amin's eight-year rule brought devastating economic decline, social disintegration and massive human rights violations. Ethnic and religious groups were persecuted and in 1972 Amin expelled all Ugandan Asians from the country, seizing their property. It has been estimated that more than 100,000 people were murdered during his reign of terror.
In 1979 Amin's regime was toppled, he was forced into exile and Obote returned to power, to be replaced in 1986 by the southerner Yoweri Museveni (1944- ). Although reforms were undertaken, unrest continued, erupting in the north into horrific violence. The Lord's Resistance Army has to date caused more than one million people to flee their homes and continues to abduct schoolchildren, forcing girls to be sex slaves and boys to become child soldiers.
