Uganda: overview, geography, history, economy and biodiversity

The choronym "Uganda" refers to the kingdom of Buganda, which comprises the southeastern part of the country. Buganda is inhabited mainly by Bantu, whose Bantu languages prefix a base word (here Ganda) with a nominal class prefix denoting the type of word meant. Thus Buganda is the land of the Baganda, who speak the Luganda language. Since Europeans first encountered the peoples of Uganda on the coast of Tanzania, the name Uganda was coined, which comes from the Swahili language, which uses the prefix U- instead of the prefix Bu- for a country.

Demographics

Uganda's population is very young and growing rapidly. The median age in 2020 was an estimated 16.7 years. The proportion of people under 15 years of age was 46.5% in 2019. This can be attributed to the high fertility rate, which was 4.8 children per woman in 2019, but has been declining since the late 1990s. This is also due to the fact that the proportion of married women with access to modern contraceptives has now increased to 54%. However, population growth is still 3.4%. By 2050, the population is expected to double to 90 million.

Ethnic groups

According to the 2014 census, more than 60 peoples live together in Uganda, each with their own languages, cultures and customs, and in some cases their own religions. More than half of the population, a total of 60%, are Bantu, who live mainly in the areas south and west of Lake Kioga. The largest Bantu people are the eponymous Baganda, who as the titular nation account for 16.3% of the population, followed by the Banyankore (also called Ankole) with 9.4% and the Basoga with 8.7%. Other important Bantu peoples with more than 1 million members are the Bakiga (Bahiga) with 7.0 % and the Bagisu with 4.8 %.

In the central north live Nilotes, especially Langi with 6.2 % and Acholi with 4.3 % of the population, in addition also Alur and Jopodhola; altogether the Nilotic peoples represent 15 % of the population. The proportion of Hamitonilotes is equally large, especially the Iteso with 6.9% and the Karamojong. Together, Nilotes and Hamitonilotes make up 24% of the population.

In the north, 7% of the population is made up of Sudanese-speaking groups, the largest of which - with a share of 3.2% of the total population - are the Lugbara.

A very small minority are the Ik with 0.02% of the total population. The proportion of non-Africans is small with a total of 0.98% - Asians with 0.820%, Europeans with 0.095% and Arabs with 0.066%.

According to the 2014 census results, 504,200 non-Ugandans live in the country. 135,505 are citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also 118,836 Sudanese (probably mostly South Sudanese), 91,231 Rwandans, 45,541 Tanzanians, 34,120 Kenyans, 21,798 Burundians and 13,804 Somalis. Foreigners also included 13,794 Asians, mostly of Indian origin, 2,473 Europeans (including 989 British), and 1,634 US citizens. A total of 18,128 foreigners were of unknown nationality.

Languages

English and Swahili (since the constitutional amendment of September 2005) are the two official languages. Swahili is in fact the command language of the police and the military and is hardly used in the civil administration.

In addition, Luganda - the language of the Baganda ethnic group and a language of the Niger-Congo language area - is the official language of the autonomous kingdom of Buganda in central Uganda, which has existed since pre-colonial times. In contrast, local languages are used in everyday life, such as other languages of the Niger-Congo linguistic area, as well as Nilo-Saharan languages and, to a lesser extent, Arabic. Some of them are official languages of the African Great Lakes kingdoms.

Religions

About 85% of the total population of Uganda are Christians. Of these, the vast majority profess either Roman Catholicism (39%) or Anglicanism (32%). Almost 14% of Ugandans are mostly Sunni Muslims. Officially, only 0.1% of the population are still followers of traditional African religions. In addition, there is a small community of black African Jews, the Abayudaya near Mbale, which has about 750 members. For some time now, evangelical Christians of the Pentecostal movement, as well as other free churches, have been greatly expanding their influence, especially with US funding. As a result, the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches are experiencing significant membership losses, which are difficult to quantify as of yet. The New Apostolic Church ministered to 266,722 believers (0.9%) in this country in 2005.

According to the 2002 and 2014 census, the affiliation of the Ugandan population to the different religions is as follows:

Healthcare

The average life expectancy at birth in 2019 was 63.4 years. The infant mortality rate is 4.4% and the child mortality rate is 5.9%. The maternal mortality rate is 0.43%. There are 0.08 doctors per 1000 population. 56 % of the population has access to clean drinking water, 41 % to sanitation.

The HIV infection rate is 5-15%, the number of people infected with HIV is 600,000, and in 2001 there were 84,000 HIV deaths. Uganda was one of the first countries in Africa to address AIDS in public discourse. Awareness campaigns started early and HIV/AIDS is discussed very openly compared to other African countries. Since Uganda, as a model country in the fight against HIV, receives donations from abroad and is under great international pressure to succeed, all data on the population should be critically examined from this point of view. For the above-mentioned reasons, HIV-infected people are sometimes given preference in medical care.

At the end of July 2012, the country became the focus of world attention due to the spread of an Ebola epidemic in the Kibaale district.

The global COVID-19 pandemic reached Uganda with the first case on March 20, 2020.

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda

Education

Uganda has been able to greatly develop its education system in recent decades. Since the abolition of school fees in 1996, 98 % of children are enrolled in school. In the country, the average length of school attendance increased from 2.8 years in 1990 to 6.2 years in 2015. Accordingly, the literacy rate also increased to 76.5% by 2018. The state continues to pursue the development of school and university infrastructure, with the private sector (especially churches) playing a particularly important role. However, the high population growth rate of over three percent (one million more children are expected to enter schools each year) poses a particular challenge. The expected school attendance time of the upcoming generation is 11.4 years.

Since 1997, there has been free primary education (Universal Primary Education, UPE), which has since been extended to secondary education (Universal Secondary Education, USE). So far, however, only 15 % of the pupils attend secondary school.