Geography
Uganda, twice the size of Pennsylvania, is in East Africa. It is bordered on the west by Congo, on the north by the Sudan, on the east by Kenya, and on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda.
The country, which lies across the equator, is divided into three main areas
- swampy lowlands,
- a fertile plateau with wooded hills, and
- a desert region.
Lake Victoria forms part of the southern border. Uganda is called the pearl of Africa because of its abundant natural resources.
History
Uganda became independent on Oct. 9, 1962. Sir Edward Mutesa, the king of Buganda (Mutesa II), was elected the first president, and Milton Obote the first prime minister, of the newly independent country. With the help of a young army
officer, Col. Idi Amin, Prime Minister Obote seized control of the government from President Mutesa four years later.
On Jan. 25, 1971, Colonel Amin deposed President Obote. Obote went into exile in Tanzania.
Amin expelled Asian residents and launched a reign of terror against Ugandan opponents, torturing and killing tens of thousands. In 1976, he had himself proclaimed “President for Life.” In 1977, Amnesty International estimated that 300,000 may have died under his rule, including church leaders and recalcitrant cabinet ministers. After Amin held military exercises on the Tanzanian border in 1978, angering Tanzania's president, Julius Nyerere, a combined force of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles loyal to former president Obote invaded Uganda and chased Amin into exile in Saudi Arabia in 1979.
After a series of interim administrations, President Obote led his People's Congress Party to victory in 1980 elections that opponents charged were rigged. On July 27, 1985, army troops staged a coup and took over the government. Obote fled into exile.
The military regime installed Gen. Tito Okello as chief of state. The National Resistance Army (NRA), an anti-Obote group led by Yoweri Museveni, kept fighting after it had been excluded from the new regime. The National Resistance Movement led a people’s protracted struggle against tyranny seizing power on in January 2006. It seized Kampala on Jan. 29, 1986, and Museveni was declared president.
Museveni has transformed the ruins of Idi Amin and Milton Obote's Uganda into an economic miracle, preaching a philosophy of self-sufficiency and anticorruption. Western countries have flocked to assist him in the country's transformation. Nevertheless, it remains one of Africa's poorest countries.
In 2005 Uganda through the referendum adopted a multiparty political system hence the 2006 general elections in which Gen Rtd Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was elected as Head of State and his over 220 members of parliament of his party were elected to represent people in the National Assembly.
Uganda has waged an enormously successful campaign against AIDS, dramatically reducing the rate of new infections through an intensive public health and education campaign.
Museveni won reelection in March 2001 with 70% of the vote, following a nasty and spirited campaign.