A couple thousand years ago, as with most of Africa, Uganda was ruled by tribes of hunter-gatherers and Empires. Eventually, Luo peoples came down from central Africa and settled pretty permanently; these tribes also settled Sudan and Kenya. In the 1800s, Arabs from the eastern coast of Africa came into Uganda for trading and slaving and then in the 1860s, the British came to explore the source of the infamous Nile River, which they found in Lake Victoria. Soon to follow the explorers came missionaries, bent on civilizing the tribe and converting them to Protestantism and Catholicism (I am not going to give my personal beliefs on long-term effects of the mission here, maybe later). In 1894, this area officially became part of Britain and became known as Uganda in 1914. A lot happened during this time, including indentured servitude and exploitation of traditional values and culture. However, a lot of health reforms, infrastructure, and education were also brought to the region. Living here now, you can still feel the inspiration of British values of the 1800s still in place. For example, women must wear long skirts and they still take morning and afternoon tea.
In 1962, Uganda gained independence while remaining in the British Commonwealth and maintaining an amicable relationship. The majority Buganda tribe became the ones with most of the power, but it was mostly democratic power with a president and a parliament. A few years later however, power became an issue to be struggled over (a common trend to become somewhat of a legacy here) and in 1967 Uganda became a republic, breaking apart the traditional tribal culture. In 1971, disaster ensued when General Idi Amin started a coup and took power into his own military hands. Under him, thousands were killed, mostly of particular tribes, and he forced a degree of westernization onto his land. Nearly 300,000 people lost their lives during his 8 years. In the next few decades, Uganda entered a war with Tanzania and eventually, combined with rebels inside the country, overthrew Amin. The current president of Uganda, Museveni, was one of the leaders of this resistance and overthrowing of Amin.
Museveni has been in power for about 28 years now. In the beginning he can be praised for bringing peace and stability to Uganda. This is of special note considering the unrest in virtually all the nations surrounding Uganda: Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, and Rwanda. Additionally, during the 1990s, the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Koni, invaded the North of Uganda where it recruited thousands of men and children to become soldiers to fight in Sudan and Somalia. This tore apart life in the North and left it crippled. Museveni stepped up and led a war against Koni, following him until the LRA broke up and he fled to Congo. However, many in and out of Uganda feel like today Museveni has been in control too long and is now taking advantage of the country’s many poor. The amount of corruption in this country is unparalleled and many opponents of Museveni have somehow or another lost their lives. Currently, although still a stable and peaceful nation, Uganda’s GDp leaves it one of the poorest in the world and the level of growth and development is almost entirely dependent on the millions of dollars in foreign aid and services that is given every year. Not only is the corruption unfair, but it leaves Uganda’s country with terrible infrastructure and suppresses any kind of growth on an individual level. Those that live in the village need to work harder than anyone I have seen to hope to send one of their many children to school and then pray they can get a sponsorship for university to increase their standard of living even a little bit. There is a lot of hope here, because the people are strong, but long-term sustainable growth is very far in the future.
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