Uganda summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Uganda.

Uganda , officially Republic of Uganda, Country, eastern Africa. Area: 93,265 sq mi (241,555 sq km). Population: (2024 est.) 47,066,000. Capital: Kampala. Uganda is home to dozens of African ethnic groups, as well as a small Asian community. Languages: English (official), Swahili. Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant); also Islam, traditional beliefs. Currency: Uganda shilling. A landlocked country on the Equator, Uganda is largely situated on a plateau, with volcanic mountains edging its eastern and western borders; Margherita Peak, at 16,795 ft (5,119 m), is the highest mountain. Part of Lake Victoria occupies virtually all of southeastern Uganda; other major lakes are Lakes Albert, Kyoga, Edward, George, and Bisina. The Nile River traverses the country. Huge tracts of land are devoted to national parks and game reserves. The economy is based largely on agriculture and food processing. Livestock raising and fishing are also important, and there is some manufacturing and mining. Uganda is a multiparty republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime minister. By the 19th century the region was divided into several separate local kingdoms inhabited by various Bantu- and Nilotic-speaking peoples. Arab traders reached the area in the 1840s. The kingdom of Buganda was visited by the first European explorers in 1862. Protestant and Catholic missionaries arrived in the 1870s, and the development of religious factions led to persecution and civil strife. In 1894 Buganda was formally proclaimed a British protectorate. As Uganda, it gained independence in 1962, and in 1967 it adopted a republican constitution. The civilian government was overthrown in 1971 and replaced by a military regime under Idi Amin. His invasion of Tanzania in 1978 resulted in the collapse of his regime. The civilian government was again deposed by the military in 1985, but the military government was in turn overthrown in 1986. A constituent assembly enacted a new constitution in 1995.

Commonwealth Summary

Commonwealth, a free association of sovereign states comprising the United Kingdom and a number of its former dependencies who have chosen to maintain ties of friendship and practical cooperation and who acknowledge the British monarch as symbolic head of their association. The Commonwealth was an

Africa Summary

Africa, the second largest continent (after Asia), covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters

Idi Amin Summary

Idi Amin was a military officer and president (1971–79) of Uganda whose regime was noted for the sheer scale of its brutality. A member of the small Kakwa ethnic group of northwestern Uganda, Amin had little formal education and joined the King’s African Rifles of the British colonial army in 1946

Yoweri Museveni Summary

Yoweri Museveni politician who became president of Uganda in 1986. Museveni was born to cattle farmers and attended missionary schools. While studying political science and economics at the University of Dar es Salaam (B.A., 1970) in Tanzania, he became chairman of a leftist student group allied