Year: 1966
Type: book
Abstract: SETTINGUganda is isolated geographically from non-African influences, a fact which helps to explain the relatively late contact with European civilisation and the retention of traditional institutions.Although Uganda forms the main basin and headwaters of the Nile, the country looks to the east rather than to the north.There is little contact with the Sudan or Congo (Leopoldville), and Uganda's main communication link is the 800 miles of railway line through Kenya to the Indian Ocean at Mombasa.Uganda is essentially an East African territory, linked to Kenya and Tanganyika by the common focus of Lake Victoria and a diminishing range of coordinated government services made possible by a common history of British administration.The country itself is comparable in size to Ghana or Great Britain, although its 91,000 square miles support a population of less than 7 million people.The bulk of the country forms a plateau just under 4,000 feet above sea-level, sloping away towards the north so that the River Nile drops 1,700 feet between Lake Victoria and the point where it crosses the Sudan border.The formation of the African rift valleys produced a string of shallow lakes and the towering Ruwenzori Mountains in the west of Uganda, while the volcanic Mount Elgon (14,000 feet) dominates the eastern boundary with Kenya.The altitude provides Uganda with an equable climate despite its location astride the equator.Although some mixing of cultures has occurred, especially in urban areas, a clear division can still be drawn between the Bantu around the Lake and in the west, and the Nilotic and Nilo-Hamitic in the north and east.In addition, over ten per cent of the population are recent immigrants from neighbouring countries.Most come from the over-populated and politically disturbed areas of Rwanda and the Southern Sudan to work as labourers in the more prosperous agricultural areas.
Author: Roger Scott
Language: English
Topic: Labor Movements and Unions
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W31303170