Uganda

The fertile, well-watered country between the great lakes of East Africa — the interlacustrine region — drew successive waves of settlers over more than two millennia. Iron-using Bantu-speaking farmers spread into the area in the last centuries BCE and the early centuries CE, clearing forest for banana gardens and cultivating the densely populated lands north and west of Lake Victoria. They were followed by Nilotic-speaking peoples, including Luo groups moving down from the upper Nile region, who brought cattle-keeping and new ruling dynasties. The mingling of these farming and pastoral traditions shaped the societies and kingdoms of what would become Uganda.

The earliest of the great states was Bunyoro-Kitara, ruled by the omukama, which by tradition succeeded the semi-legendary empire associated with the Bachwezi. From the collapse of Bunyoro's wider authority emerged a cluster of rival kingdoms. To the east lay Buganda, ruled by its kabaka and reckoned in tradition to have been founded by the figure Kintu (or, in Bunyoro tradition, by Kato Kimera of the Babito line). To the southwest, the kingdom of Ankole grew around a cattle-owning aristocracy of Bahima pastoralists ruling Bairu cultivators, headed by the omugabe. Around the 1830s, the kingdom of Toro broke away from Bunyoro under Prince Kaboyo.

These kingdoms competed for land, cattle and tribute across the centuries. Compact, well-organised Buganda, governed through a hierarchy of chiefs answerable to the kabaka rather than to hereditary clan heads, proved especially expansionist, seizing territory from Bunyoro under a succession of able kings and growing into the largest power in the region by the nineteenth century. The dead kings of Buganda were honoured at royal tombs, a tradition that would culminate in the great burial site at Kasubi.

Turning points

1. c. 1st millennium BCEPeoples & Migration

   Bantu farmers settle the lakes region

   Iron-using Bantu-speaking agriculturalists spread into the interlacustrine region north and west of Lake Victoria, establishing the banana-farming societies that underlie the later kingdoms.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [3]

2. c. 11th–14th centuryFormation

   Rise of Bunyoro-Kitara

   The kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara, ruled by the omukama and linked in tradition to the Bachwezi, emerges as the dominant power of the interlacustrine region.

   [4] [3]

3. c. 14th–15th centuryFormation

   Foundation of Buganda

   Buganda takes shape east of Bunyoro under its first kabakas; tradition credits its founding to Kintu or, in Bunyoro accounts, to Kato Kimera of the Babito dynasty.

   [4] [5]

4. c. 17th–18th centuryWar & Rupture

   Buganda expands at Bunyoro's expense

   Under a line of aggressive kabakas, the compact kingdom of Buganda annexes territory from Bunyoro-Kitara, growing into the largest state in the interlacustrine region.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [4]

From the 1840s, Swahili-Arab caravans financed from Zanzibar pushed into the interlacustrine kingdoms in search of ivory and enslaved people, exchanging cloth, guns and gunpowder. Around 1844, a trader remembered as Ahmed bin Ibrahim reached the court of Kabaka Suna II of Buganda, the first such visitor recorded in the kingdom's traditions. His successor, Kabaka Mutesa I, welcomed the traders, took an interest in Islam and for a time observed Muslim practice, and used the firearms they brought to strengthen Buganda against its rivals.

Christian missionaries arrived in the wake of the explorers. After Henry Morton Stanley publicised Mutesa's apparent openness to Christianity, the Church Missionary Society (Anglican) sent agents to Buganda in 1877, followed by Roman Catholic missionaries of the White Fathers in 1879. The kabaka's court thus became host to three competing faiths — Muslim, Anglican (Protestant) and Catholic — alongside the older religion of the kingdom, and converts gathered among the royal pages and chiefs. Mutesa I balanced the rivals warily until his death in 1884.

His young successor, Kabaka Mwanga II, came to see the growing body of Christian converts at court as a threat to his authority. Between 1885 and 1887 he ordered a series of executions of Christian pages and officials who defied his commands. The most notorious mass killing came on 3 June 1886, when a group including Charles Lwanga, master of the royal pages, was burned to death at Namugongo. Twenty-two of the Catholic victims were later canonised, and the Uganda Martyrs — Catholic and Anglican alike — became central figures in the country's Christian memory.

Turning points

1. c. 1844Religion

   Swahili-Arab traders reach Buganda

   A caravan led by Ahmed bin Ibrahim reaches the court of Kabaka Suna II, opening Buganda to the Zanzibar-based ivory and slave trade and to Islam.

   [6] [7]

2. 1877Religion

   Anglican missionaries arrive

   Agents of the Church Missionary Society reach Buganda after Stanley publicises Mutesa I's apparent interest in Christianity, beginning Protestant evangelism at the kabaka's court.

   [1] [7]

3. 1879Religion

   Catholic White Fathers arrive

   Roman Catholic missionaries of the White Fathers reach Buganda, adding a third faith to the rivalry of Muslim, Protestant and Catholic factions at court.

   [1] [7]

4. 1885–1887Religion

   Killing of the Uganda Martyrs

   Mwanga II executes some forty-five Catholic and Anglican converts who refuse to renounce their faith; twenty-two Catholic victims were later canonised as saints.

   [8] [9]

5. 3 June 1886Religion

   Martyrdom of Charles Lwanga

   Kabaka Mwanga II has Charles Lwanga and a group of Christian pages burned to death at Namugongo, the most notorious episode in the killing of the Uganda Martyrs of 1885–87.

   [8] [9]

Figures of the era

After the Imperial British East Africa Company handed over its rights, Britain declared the Uganda Protectorate in 1894, initially over Buganda and then extending across the wider territory of present-day Uganda. Rather than govern directly, the British adopted indirect rule, working through the existing kingdoms and chiefs. The cornerstone of this system was the Buganda Agreement, signed at Mengo on 10 March 1900 between the imperial commissioner Sir Harry Johnston and the regents of the infant Kabaka Daudi Chwa II. It recognised the kabaka and the Lukiiko (the Buganda council), divided land between the Crown and some thousand chiefs and notables under the freehold 'mailo' system, and imposed hut and gun taxes, giving Buganda a privileged, semi-autonomous status within the protectorate.

To open the interior, the colonial authorities built the Uganda Railway from the coast at Mombasa, begun in 1896 and reaching Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1901. Though it ran mainly through Kenya, the line was built to serve Uganda and was constructed by a workforce of some 32,000 indentured labourers brought from British India, thousands of whom died of disease, accidents and, near Tsavo, lion attacks. Many Indian workers, traders and clerks settled in East Africa, and South Asians came to play a central role in Uganda's commerce, an economic position that would later make them a target.

Under indirect rule, Buganda's Protestant chiefs, led by the powerful katikkiro (chief minister) Apolo Kagwa, prospered and helped extend British authority over the rest of the protectorate, including a fiercely resistant Bunyoro. Uganda was developed as a producer of cotton and later coffee, grown largely by African smallholders rather than on settler estates. By the mid-twentieth century, however, the special status of Buganda and the uneven development between regions had sown tensions that would complicate the path to independence.

Turning points

1. 1894Colonisation

   Uganda Protectorate declared

   Britain proclaims a protectorate over Buganda, soon extended across the wider territory, beginning sixty-eight years of colonial rule administered through the kingdoms.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [2]

2. 1896–1901Economy & Trade

   The Uganda Railway is built

   The railway is driven from Mombasa to Kisumu on Lake Victoria by some 32,000 indentured Indian labourers, binding Uganda to the coast and bringing a lasting South Asian presence.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [13]

3. 10 March 1900Colonisation

   The Buganda Agreement

   Sir Harry Johnston and Buganda's regents sign the agreement recognising the kabaka and Lukiiko, creating the 'mailo' land system and entrenching Buganda's privileged status under indirect rule.

   ↗See the data

   [11] [2]

4. 1962Politics & Power

   Path to independence negotiated

   Constitutional conferences in London settle a federal arrangement preserving Buganda's special status, clearing the way for Ugandan self-government and independence.

   [2] [14]

Figures of the era

Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9 October 1962. Milton Obote, leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), became prime minister at the head of an alliance with the Buganda royalist party Kabaka Yekka. The independence constitution gave Buganda and the other kingdoms a federal status, and in October 1963 the kabaka of Buganda, Sir Edward Mutesa II, was elected the country's first president, a largely ceremonial office. The new state thus rested on an uneasy bargain between the centralising ambitions of Obote's government and the autonomy of the kingdoms, above all Buganda.

That bargain broke down in 1966. Weakened by the 'lost counties' referendum of 1964, which had returned two counties from Buganda to Bunyoro, and by a gold-smuggling scandal in early 1966, Obote moved against his rivals. In February 1966 he arrested several ministers, suspended the 1962 constitution and assumed full powers. When the Buganda Lukiiko demanded that the central government leave Buganda's soil, Obote ordered the army, led by his commander Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace at Mengo on 24 May 1966. Hundreds were killed, the palace was destroyed, and Mutesa II fled into exile in Britain, where he died in 1969.

Obote then dismantled the old order entirely. A new republican constitution in 1967 abolished the kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, Ankole and Toro, ended their federal privileges and made Obote executive president of a unitary state. He shifted toward a more radical, state-centred politics under his 'Common Man's Charter' of 1969, but his rule grew increasingly dependent on the army. In January 1971, while Obote was abroad, Idi Amin — the general who had stormed the palace five years earlier — seized power in a coup.

Turning points

1. 9 October 1962Independence

   Uganda gains independence

   Uganda becomes independent from the United Kingdom with Milton Obote as prime minister; the constitution preserves a federal status for Buganda and the other kingdoms.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [14] [15]

2. October 1963Politics & Power

   Mutesa II becomes first president

   Uganda becomes a republic and the kabaka of Buganda, Sir Edward Mutesa II, is elected its first president, a largely ceremonial post under the 1962 constitution.

   [17] [18]

3. 24 May 1966Politics & Power

   Battle of Mengo and the fall of Buganda

   Obote suspends the constitution and orders the army under Idi Amin to storm the kabaka's palace; hundreds die and Mutesa II flees into exile, dying in London in 1969.

   [19] [2]

4. 1967Politics & Power

   Kingdoms abolished

   A new republican constitution abolishes the kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, Ankole and Toro and makes Obote executive president of a centralised, unitary Uganda.

   [19] [2]

5. 25 January 1971Politics & Power

   Amin's coup

   While Obote is abroad, army commander Idi Amin overthrows the government in a military coup, beginning eight years of dictatorship.

   [20] [21]

Figures of the era

Idi Amin's eight-year rule was among the most violent in modern African history. Initially welcomed by some Baganda for allowing Mutesa II's body to be returned for burial, Amin quickly turned to terror. He purged the army of soldiers from Obote's Acholi and Lango communities, killing thousands, and his regime murdered intellectuals, clergy, judges and ordinary citizens through agencies such as the State Research Bureau. Estimates of those killed during his rule commonly range up to about 300,000. The Anglican archbishop Janani Luwum was among the victims, killed in 1977 after speaking out against the regime.

In August 1972, Amin ordered the expulsion of Uganda's Asian community — some 80,000 people, many of them families settled for generations — giving them about ninety days to leave with almost none of their property. He claimed, citing a dream, that Asians were sabotaging the economy. The expulsion, and Amin's seizure of Asian-owned businesses for redistribution to his cronies, gutted Uganda's commercial sector and accelerated economic collapse, while tens of thousands of those expelled resettled in Britain, India and elsewhere.

Amin's downfall came through military overreach. In late 1978 his forces invaded northern Tanzania and annexed the Kagera salient. Tanzania's president Julius Nyerere ordered a counter-offensive, and the Tanzanian army, joined by Ugandan exiles, drove into Uganda and captured Kampala in April 1979, ending Amin's rule; he fled into exile. There followed a period of instability under short-lived presidents Yusuf Lule and Godfrey Binaisa, and a Military Commission, before disputed elections in December 1980 returned Milton Obote to power for a second time.

Turning points

1. 1971–1979Catastrophe

   Mass killings under Amin

   Amin's regime murders soldiers, professionals, clergy and dissidents through bodies such as the State Research Bureau; estimates of the dead run up to about 300,000.

   ↗See the data

   [20] [24]

2. August 1972Peoples & Migration

   Expulsion of the Asian community

   Amin orders the roughly 80,000 South Asians in Uganda to leave within about ninety days, seizing their property and businesses and devastating the economy.

   ↗See the data

   [22] [23]

3. 1977Religion

   Murder of Archbishop Luwum

   The Anglican archbishop Janani Luwum, who had protested against state violence, is killed; his death becomes a symbol of the regime's brutality.

   [20] [24]

4. 1978–1979War & Rupture

   Uganda–Tanzania War

   After Amin invades northern Tanzania, Julius Nyerere's forces and Ugandan exiles counter-attack and capture Kampala in April 1979, driving Amin into exile.

   ↗See the data

   [25] [20]

5. December 1980Politics & Power

   Obote returns to power

   After interim governments under Lule and Binaisa, disputed elections return Milton Obote and the UPC to power; opponents allege the vote was rigged.

   [26] [16]

Figures of the era

After the disputed 1980 election, Yoweri Museveni, who had served in the governments that followed Amin, alleged fraud and launched an armed rebellion. From 1981 his National Resistance Army (NRA) waged a guerrilla 'Bush War' against Obote's government, based largely in the Luwero Triangle north of Kampala, where the counter-insurgency by government forces killed and displaced many thousands of civilians. Obote was overthrown by his own army in July 1985, but the NRA fought on against the short-lived military government of Tito Okello and captured Kampala on 26 January 1986. Museveni was sworn in as president, ending years of upheaval and promising a 'fundamental change'.

Museveni's victory did not bring peace to the whole country. In the north, among the Acholi who had dominated the former national army, resentment and fear of the new government fed a series of rebellions. Out of these emerged the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led from 1987 by the self-styled spirit medium Joseph Kony. Over nearly two decades the LRA waged a horrific insurgency marked by massacres, mutilation and the abduction of tens of thousands of children as fighters and sexual slaves; at its height the conflict displaced nearly two million people into camps before the LRA was pushed out of Uganda after 2006.

In the rest of the country, Museveni won credit for restoring order and reviving the economy, and his government restored the cultural (non-political) kingdoms in 1993, allowing a new kabaka of Buganda to be enthroned. Yet his hold on power lengthened into one of Africa's longest tenures. Term limits were removed from the constitution in 2005 and the presidential age limit in 2017, and Museveni — re-elected repeatedly amid opposition complaints of repression — remained president into the 2020s, more than three decades after first taking Kampala.

Turning points

1. 1981–1986War & Rupture

   The Ugandan Bush War

   Museveni's National Resistance Army wages guerrilla war against Obote's government from the Luwero Triangle; the army's counter-insurgency kills and displaces many thousands of civilians.

   ↗See the data

   [27] [28]

2. 26 January 1986Politics & Power

   Museveni captures Kampala

   The National Resistance Army takes Kampala and Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as president, ending the post-Amin upheaval and beginning his long rule.

   [29] [30]

3. 1987War & Rupture

   Rise of the Lord's Resistance Army

   Joseph Kony forms the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, launching an insurgency notorious for atrocities and the abduction of children.

   ↗See the data

   [31] [32]

4. 1993Culture & Ideas

   Cultural kingdoms restored

   Museveni's government restores the kingdoms in a cultural, non-political form; a new kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Mutebi II, is enthroned.

   [2] [5]

5. 2005Politics & Power

   Term limits removed

   Parliament removes presidential term limits from the constitution, and Uganda returns to multiparty politics; Museveni's tenure lengthens into one of Africa's longest.

   [30] [33]

6. c. 2006War & Rupture

   LRA driven from Uganda

   After nearly two decades that displaced almost two million people and saw tens of thousands of children abducted, the Lord's Resistance Army is pushed out of northern Uganda.

   ↗See the data

   [31] [32]

Figures of the era