Pre-colonial
Uganda
The earliest human inhabitants in contemporary Uganda
were hunter gatherers. Between about 2000 and 1500 years
ago Bantu speaking populations, who were probably from
central and western Africa, migrated into the southern
parts of the country.
These groups brought and developed ironworking skills
and new ideas of social and political organization. The
Kingdom of Buganda and that of Bunyoro-Kitara represent
some of the earliest forms of formal organization. By
the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries there were centralised
kingdoms in Buganda, Bunyoro-Kitara and Ankole.
Nilotic people including Luo and Ateker entered the
area from the north, probably beginning about A.D. 120.
They were cattle herders and subsistence farmers who
settled mainly the northern and eastern parts of the
country. Some Luo invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated
with the Bantu there, establishing the Babiito dynasty
of the current Omukama (ruler) of Bunyoro-Kitara.
Luo migration proceeded until the 16th century, with
some Luo settling amid Bantu people in Eastern Uganda,
with others proceeding to the western shores of Lake
Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. The Ateker (Karimojong
and Teso) settled in the north-eastern and eastern parts
of the country, and some fused with the Luo in the area
north of Lake Kyoga.
Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast
of East Africa in the 1830s. They were followed in the
1860s by British explorers searching for the source
of the Nile. Protestant missionaries entered the country
in 1877, followed by Catholic missionaries in 1879.
The United Kingdom placed the area under the charter
of the British East Africa Company in 1888, and ruled
it as a protectorate from 1894. As several other territories
and chiefdoms were integrated, the final protectorate
called Uganda took shape in 1914.
Post-colonial Uganda
Uganda became an independent nation in 1962, with Edward
Muteesa II, the Kabaka (King) of Buganda as the President
and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, and Milton
Obote as Prime Minister. In 1966, Obote overthrew the
constitution and declared himself president, ushering
in an era of coups and counter-coups which would last
until the mid-1980s. Obote was deposed twice from office,
both times by military coup d'etat.
Idi Amin took power in 1971, ruling the country with
the military for the coming decade. Amin forcibly removed
the entrepreneurial Indian minority from Uganda in 1972,
decimating the economy, before embarking on a murderous
reign that was ended after the Uganda-Tanzania War in
1979 in which Tanzanian forces aided by Ugandan exiles
invaded Uganda. This led to the return of Obote, who
was deposed once more in 1985 by General Tito Okello.
Okello ruled for six months until he was deposed after
the so called "bush war" by the National Resistance
Army (NRM) operating under the leadership of the current
president, Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has been in power
since 1986.
Adapted from the Internet
|
