The Land

Uganda: The Land and Its People

Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile

Paperback: 202 pages

Publisher: New Africa Press (28 October 2009)

ISBN-10: 9987930891

ISBN-13: 9789987930890

The Land

UGANDA is divided into four administrative regions: Northern, Eastern, Central and Western. It's also divided into districts, counties and sub-counties.

Regions are divided into districts. There are 80 districts. Districts are subdivided into counties or sub-districts, and counties into sub-counties. Sub-counties are divided into parishes, and parishes into villages.

Most districts are named after their main commercial and administrative towns.

The largest region in terms of area is the Northern region. It has an area of 85,392 square kilometres. But it has the smallest population. In 2008, it had a population of 6,652,300.

The second-largest is the Central Region with an area of 61,403 square kilometres. It also has the largest population and had 7,750,600 people in 2008.

The Western Region is the third-largest with an area of 55,277 square kilometres. Its population also is the third-largest in the country. The region had a population of 7,497,300 in 2008.

The Eastern Region is the smallest. It has an area of 39,479 square kilometres. But its population is the second-largest. In 2008, the region had a population of 7,692,500, a close second to that of the Central Region.

The Central Region also has the largest number of the principal towns and cities in the country: Kampala, Kira, Nansana, Masaka, and Entebbe.

There are also many other towns in Uganda in all the provinces with populations of more than 10,000.

There are also five traditional Bantu kingdoms which have existed since pre-colonial times. Although they were stripped much of their power after independence, they now enjoy limited autonomy mainly in the cultural sphere. The kingdoms are Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Busoga.

The kingdoms played an important role in the history of the region before the advent of colonial rule and constituted the nucleus of colonial Uganda. They were also among the most prominent traditional institutions – on the entire continent – which predated colonialism.

Buganda was the most well-known in Uganda. It was not the oldest but it became the most powerful kingdom in the region. And when the British established the Uganda Protectorate, the Buganda kingdom constituted the nucleus of the colonial territory. Today Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in the country. It's bordered by Lake Victoria on the south.

It was originally a vassal state of Bunyoro but rapidly grew in power in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, eclipsing its former ruler, Bunyoro, the neighbouring kingdom to the west. It also seized territory held by Bunyoro and dominated other areas.

After the British established a protectorate, they used the Buganda kingdom for administrative purposes. The kingdom was allowed to exercise some control over the other kingdoms – Toro, Ankole and Busoga – and many Gandas became administrators in other parts of the protectorate.

The Baganda also took advantage of the education provided by the colonial rulers and by the missionaries and they became the most educated people in Uganda. And the highest institution of learning in Uganda and in the entire East Africa, Makerere University College, was built by the British in the Buganda kingdom. It also became the most prestigious academic institution throughout black Africa and had students from as far away as Ghana, Nigeria and southern Africa.

The Buganda kingdom became so influential that the colonial history of Uganda was in many ways written from the perspective of the Baganda., A disproportionately large number of them not only worked as civil servants in many parts of Uganda but were also the primary contact with the colonial rulers in the native population. And when the country won independence in 1962, the Buganda kingdom had the highest standard of living in Uganda. It also had the highest literacy rate in the entire East Africa.

But independence also led to fundamental changes in the distribution of power, weakening the kingdom. And even before independence, there were warning signs that such changes would come with the end of colonial rule. A number of political parties were formed as independence approached and were ready to contest for power, encouraged by the prospect of elections allowed by the colonial rulers.

The rulers of the Buganda kingdom were apprehensive of the situation because they realised that elections would lead to fundamental changes in power. The centre of power would be at the national level and power of the traditional rulers would be weakened considerably.

There was even wider opposition to such changes when the secretary of state for colonies said in a speech in London in 1953 that there was a possibility of a federation of the three East African territories – Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, all ruled Britain – similar to that of central Africa which was known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Also known as the Central African Federation, it was composed of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which was the centre of power, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia today) and Nyasaland (renamed Malawi).

Many Ugandans, not just the Baganda in the Buganda kingdom, were aware of that federation. They also knew that it was dominated by whites. Therefore supporting formation of an East African federation in which the interests of the white settlers would be paramount was totally out of the question.

Ugandans – and the people of Tanganyika as well as Kenya – feared that the federation would be dominated by the racist settlers of Kenya which was then in the midst of the Mau Mau uprising. In fact, Ugandans and other East Africans in Kenya and Tanganyika had resisted a similar suggestion in the 1930s.

The situation got even worse for the Baganda when the colonial governor of Uganda, Andrew Cohen, said the Buganda kingdom's special status would have to be sacrificed in the interests of a new and larger nation-state which would wield central authority for the entire country of Uganda.

The kabaka of the Buganda kingdom, Edward Frederick Mutesa, refused to cooperate with the governor. He did not want his kingdom to be integrated with the rest of Uganda and demanded that Buganda should be separated from the rest of the protectorate. The governor responded by sending the kabaka into a comfortable exile in London.

But the kabaka's forced departure had unintended consequences. He became a hero among his people, fuelling separatist and anti-colonial sentiments in the Buganda kingdom. The governor could not find anyone in the kingdom who was prepared or able to support his plan of centralising power at the national level. And after two frustrating years of unrelenting hostility and obstruction to his plan among the Banganda, he was forced to reinstate the kabaka.

In return, the governor secured the kabaka's agreement not to oppose independence within the larger Uganda framework. But a number of conservative Bagandans who were fiercely loyal to Buganda as a kingdom were willing to support inclusion of the kingdom in the new nation of Uganda only if Uganda was headed by the kabaka.

But there were some Baganda who were opposed to that. These were mainly Catholics who felt that they had been excluded from the establishment in Buganda which was dominated by Protestants. They went on to form their own political party, the Democratic Party (DP), under the leadership of Benedicto Kiwanuka.

The situation was not peculiar to Buganda. Religion and politics were equally inseparable in the other kingdoms and in other parts of the country.

The Democratic Party had other supporters besides Catholics and was probably the best organized of all the parties preparing for elections before independence.

Elsewhere in Uganda, the emergence of the kabaka as a political force provoked immediate hostility. Political parties and local interest groups were riddled with divisions and rivalries but they shared one concern: they were determined not to be dominated by Buganda.

In 1960 a political organiser, Milton Obote, from Lango in the northern-central part of the country, seized the initiative and formed a new party, the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) as a coalition of all those outside the Roman Catholic-dominated DP who opposed Buganda hegemony.

His party was not only national in scope but transcended ethnicity and regional loyalties in its leadership and political orientation. It was the first truly national party ever formed in Ugandan history.

But the people of the Buganda kingdom remained a major political force in Ugandan politics. In terms of population, there were too many of them to be overlooked or ignored. But they were also too few to dominate the country as whole.

In 1959, about three years before independence, Buganda's population was 2 million out of Uganda's total of 6 million. Even discounting the many non-Baganda resident in Buganda, there were at least 1 million people who owed allegiance to the kabaka. And they were resolutely opposed to centralisation of power at the national level.

The main objective of modern nationalists like Obote – and of the colonial rulers – was still the establishment of a unitary state. And it was obvious that Buganda autonomy and a strong central government were incompatible.

The British announced that elections would be held in March 1961 for “responsible government,” the next-to-last stage of preparation before the formal granting of independence.

It was assumed that those winning the election would gain valuable experience in office, preparing them for the probable responsibility of governing after Uganda emerged from colonial rule.

Kabaka Mutesa urged a total boycott of the election in Buganda kingdom because attempts by the Baganda to secure promises of future autonomy had been rebuffed. The only exception were the Baganda who supported the Democratic Party.

So, when the voters went to the polls throughout Uganda to elect 82 members of the National Assembly (parliament), it was only the Roman Catholic supporters of the Democratic Party in Buganda kingdom who braved severe public pressure and voted, capturing 20 of Buganda's 21 allotted seats.

The results led to an unusual political development, giving the Democratic Party a majority of seats, although it had a minority of 416,000 votes nationwide versus 495,000 for the Uganda People's Congress.

Benedicto Kiwanuka became the new chief minister of Uganda and served from 2 July 1961 to 1 March 1962. He also became Uganda's first prime minister but served for only two months from 1 March 1962 to 30 April 1962 when he was succeeded by Milton Obote. He was killed by Idi Amin's regime on 22 September 1972.

Buganda separatists were shocked by the election results and formed a party called Kabaka Yekka which means “king only.” It was a monarchist political party fiercely loyal to the kabaka but had second thoughts about not participating in the next election.

In 1962 the Kabaka Yekka merged with the Uganda People's Congress and participated in the National Assembly elections, thus gaining influence at the national level.

Before the elections, a British commission had proposed a federal form of government for Uganda and the Kabaka Yekka (KY) quickly accepted the proposal because it suited its interests. According to the recommendations by the commission, Buganda would enjoy a measure of internal autonomy but only if it participated fully in the national government.

For its part, the Uganda People's Congress was equally anxious to eject its Democratic Party rivals from interim administration before they became entrenched.

Obote reached an understanding with Kabaka Mutesa and the Kabaka Yekka, accepting Buganda's special federal relationship and even a provision by which the kabaka could appoint Buganda's representatives to the National Assembly in return for a strategic alliance to defeat the Democratic Partyy.

The kabaka was also promised the largely ceremonial position of head of state of Uganda, which was of great symbolic importance to the Baganda.

This marriage of convenience between the Uganda People's Congress and the Kabaka Yekka made inevitable the defeat of the Democratic Party interim government.

In the aftermath of the April 1962 final election a few months before independence, the national parliament consisted of 43 UPC members, 24 from Kabaka Yekka, and 24 from the Democratic Party.

The new UPC-KY coalition led Uganda to independence on 9 October 1962, with Obote as prime minister and the kabaka as head of state.

However, the monarchy of Buganda and much of its autonomy was revoked, along with that of the other four Ugandan kingdoms, after independence.

The most important question in post-independence Uganda was the role of the Buganda king in national politics because of Buganda's special status and the role the kingdom had played in the history of the country since the advent of colonial rule. He remained a highly influential figure especially among his people, the Baganda, and could not be ignored.

Although there were four kingdoms, the real question was how much control over Buganda the central government should have. The power of the king as a uniting symbol for the Baganda became clear following his forced exile to Britain in 1953. His people rallied behind him. And when negotiations for independence threatened the autonomous status of Buganda, leading figures in the kingdom organised a political party to protect the king.

The issue was successfully presented as a question of survival of the Baganda as a separate nation because the position of the king had been central to Buganda's precolonial culture. On that basis, defence of the kingship attracted overwhelming support in local Buganda government elections which were held just before independence. To oppose the king in Buganda at that time would have meant political suicide.

Kabaka Mutesa was again forced into exile and fled to Britain in May 1966, three years and eight months after the country won independence. He died in London in November 1969. He was 45.

Uganda became a republic in 1967 and kingdoms were abolished.

Obote himself was overthrown by Amin in January 1971.

When Obote regained power in 1980, more than half of all the Baganda had never lived under their king.

The Conservative Party, a marginal group led by the last man who served as Buganda's prime minister under Kabaka Mutesa, contested the 1980 elections but received little support in the former kingdom.

Yet, most of the people in the Buganda kingdom were against Obote. And when Yoweri Museveni launched guerrilla warfare to oust him, he got a lot of support from the Baganda.

Many of them joined his guerrilla army and the insurgency against Obote was conducted entirely in Buganda until its final year, largely fuelled by the hostility most Baganda had towards Obote and the Uganda People's Congress.

Ironically, Obote's wife Miriam was a Ganda from the Buganda kingdom and she became the leader of the Uganda People's Congress after her husband died.

The Buganda kingdom regained some of its former glory under President Museveni, including restoration of kingship. Ronald Mutebi, the son of Kabaka Edward Frederick Mutesa, became king but never had the same power and influence his predecessors had.

He was crowned as the 36^th kabaka in 1993 after Museveni reinstated the position of kabaka under a new constitution. But the kabaka's position today is largely symbolic.

The kabaka serves as ssabataka – head of the clans and of the cultural kingdom of Buganda, and not as a political and military leader as was the case before.

Buganda is now a constitutional monarchy with a parliament called Lukiiko. But the kabaka attends only two sessions in a year; first when he is opening the first session of the year and, second, when he is closing the last session of the year.

Although Buganda has been the most prominent kingdom in Uganda since colonial times, the other kingdoms have also stood out in their own ways throughout the nation's history and even before then when Uganda did not exist as a single political entity.

Next to Buganda is Bunyoro. It's the oldest kingdom in Uganda and was once the most powerful, militarily and economically, in the Great Lakes region before the advent of colonial rule.

At the peak of its power, Bunyoro controlled almost the entire region between Lake Victoria (where Buganda is located), Lake Edward and Lake Albert. Around 1520, the rulers of Bunyoro even raided the Rwanda area ruled by the Tutsi. The power of Bunyoro then faded until the mid-17^th century when a long period of expansion began, with the empire dominating the region by the early 18^th century.

Bunyoro rose to power by controlling a number of the holiest shrines in the region, the lucrative Kibiro saltworks of Lake Albert, and having the highest quality of metallurgy in the region. This is what made it the strongest military and economic power in the Great Lakes area.

Bunyoro began to fade in the late 18^th century due to internal divisions, paving the way for the rise of Buganda as the most powerful kingdom in the region.

The rulers of Buganda seized Kooki and Budu regions from Bunyoro at the end of the 18^th century. And around 1830, the large province of Toro separated from Bunyoro, taking with it many of the lucrative salt works.

And in the south, Rwanda and Nkore (Ankole) were both growing rapidly, taking over some of the smaller kingdoms that had been Bunyoro's vassals.

Thus by the mid-19^th century Bunyoro was a far smaller state. But it was still wealthy and controlled lucrative trade routes over Lake Victoria and linking to the coast of the Indian Ocean.

Bunyoro profited especially from the trade in ivory. It was, however, continually imperiled by the now potent Buganda kingdom which wanted to take control of the trade routes for itself.

A long struggle between the two ensued, and both armed themselves with European weapons. Buganda finally emerged as the most powerful kingdom in the region.

When Great Britain declared the area of what is now Uganda a protectorate in 1894, the king of Bunyoro, Omukama Kaberega – Omukama means king – was strongly opposed to the imposition of imperial rule on his territory. Buganda, Bunyoro's rival, supported Great Britain in her effort to seize Bunyoro.

In 1899, King Kabarega was captured and exiled to the Seychelles and Bunyoro became part of the Uganda Protectorate. Seychelles is also the same place where the Asantehene (king) of the Ashanti in the Gold Coast was sent in exile when he resisted British attempts to seize his kingdom.

After Bunyoro was annexed by the British, significant parts of its territory were given to Buganda and Toro kingdoms as punishment for its resistance to imperial rule. Buganda administrators were sent into Bunyoro to help run the kingdom on behalf of the British colonial rulers as they did in much of Uganda.

The Banyoro revolted in 1907 but were suppressed. Relations improved somewhat and the kingdom remained loyal to Great Britain. Bunyoro's loyalty to the imperial power brought some dividends and the kingdom was given more autonomy in 1934. And today it remains a prominent kingdom in Uganda and one of the most well-known traditional political entities in East Africa.

Toro is another major traditional kingdom and which was once part of Bunyoro.

It was established when the eldest son of the king of Bunyoro rebelled against his father's rule and founded his own independent political entity in the kingdom's southern province. Toro was incorporated back into Bunyoro in 1876 but it reasserted its independence in 1891.

The people of the Toro kingdom are known as Batoro, an interlacustrine Bantu-speaking people. Their language is Lutoro and that of the Banyoro – Lunyoro.

They inhabit a high plateau on Uganda's southwestern border between Lake Albert and Lake Edward. The region is bounded by the Ruwenzori Mountains on the west in southwestern Uganda.

In pre-colonial times, the Batoro lived in a highly centralized kingdom like Buganda, which was stratified like the society of Bunyoro.

And throughout its history, the kingdom of Toro had a cattle-owing class, the Hima who are related to another cattle-owing ethnic group the Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi. And the overwhelming majority of the Toro people, known as Iru, were small-scale farmers.

Traditionally, the Toro society is highly stratified and social classes are very important in the lives of the people. The Bito, formerly a people pastoralist people who are Nilotic and who came from the north, claim greater wealth and privileges than the Iru who are also known as Bairu. So do the Hima.

Therefore, in general, the Iru are lower than the other two in terms of wealth and social status.

The Iru are Bantu and their domination by the Nilotic and other non-Bantu people is a common feature in the history of the Great Lakes region including Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Congo where non-Bantus – who migrated from the north and probably from Ethiopia in the case of the Tutsi – have dominated Bantu-speaking people for centuries.

Crops grown for local consumption include millet, bananas, cassava, and sweet potatoes. And the main cash crops are coffee, cotton and wheat. Fish are another important product.

Toro lands include rain forests, dense bamboo stands, papyrus swamps, plains of elephant grass and shores of Lake Albert and Lake Edward.

The region is also a tourist attraction. Its attractions include a national park and significant numbers of many species including elephants, hippos and antelope.

The kingdom had about 700,000 people at the beginning of the 21^st centuty.

And like the other monarchies in Uganda, the Toro kingdom was abolished in 1967 during the presidency of Milton Obote as stipulated in the 1966 constitution. But it was re-instituted in 1993 together with the other traditional kingdoms.

Ankole is another traditional kingdom in Uganda, one of the big four, which has also played an important role in the history of the country. It became a part of the Uganda Protectorate in October 1901.

Also known as Nkore, it's located in southwestern Uganda east of Lake Edward and ceased to exist as an administrative unit during Idi Amin's reign when it was divided into six districts.

Traditionally, it was ruled by a monarch known as Omugabe. The people of Ankole, who are Bantu, are called Banyankole – singular Munyankole – and their language is Lunyankole.

The history of the Ankole kingdom is inextricably linked with the history of the Hima who became the dominant ethnic group after they migrated into the area from the north.

The pastoralist Hima, also known as Bahima, imposed their rule on the Bairu (Iru) in Ankole as they had done elsewhere in the region where they conquered other Bantu farming groups.

As elsewhere, the Bantu Iru in Ankole were considered to be inferior to the Hima. And the symbol of inequality was cattle ownership. Only the Hima could own catle. The two groups interacted commercially but were separate in terms of identity and social status.

The differences were maintained and reinforced by a number of legal and social restrictions including prohibition of intermarriage between the Hima and the Iru. If such marriage took place, it would be annulled.

Although the Hima became the rulers of Ankole, they were far outnumbered by the Iru. The Iru were also compelled, by custom and tradition, to pay tribute to the Hima who also demanded gifts from them.

The Iru were able to provided that because the Hima population among them was small. So they could afford gifts and tribute demanded by the Hima. And that helped make relations between the two groups tolerable.

Still, the subordinate status of the Iru was also maintained because the Hima had superior military organisation and training which helped to perpetuate their dominant position as the rulers of Ankole.

The kingdom of Ankole under Hima leadership expanded through annexation of territories in the south and in the east. And the rulers continued to enforce social stratification even among the people they conquered.

In many cases, conquered herders were incorporated into the dominant Hima stratum of society. And agricultural populations were adopted as Iru or as slaves and were treated as legally inferior to their conquerors. Also neither group of the conquered could own cattle. Slaves could not even herd cattle owned by the Hima. And only Hima men could serve in the army.

The decision by the Hima to prohibit the Iru from serving in the army and from getting military training had profound implications. It eliminated the threat of Iru rebellion against the rulers.

Iru legal inferiority was manifested best by the legal prohibition against cattle ownership among them. Because marriages were legitimised through the exchange of cattle, this prohibition helped reinforce the ban on Hima-Iru intermarriage.

The Iru were also denied high-level political appointments, although they were often appointed to assist local administrators in Iru villages.

But in spite of all these injustices, the Iru still had a number of ways to redress their grievances against Hima overlords. It's true that they did not have the same power as the Hima because of their legal status as a conquered people who were regarded and treated as inferior. Still, Iru men could petition the king to end unfair treatment by a Hima patron. Also, Iru people could not be subjugated to Hima cattle-owners without entering into a patron-client contract.

Eventually, hegemonic control of the Ankole kingdom by the Hima came to an end for a number of reasons. There were several social developments and pressures which collectively worked to destroy Hima domination of Ankole.

One of the most effective was intermarriage between the Hima and the Iru despite prohibitions against such marriage. The children of these unions often demanded their rights as cattle owners, a demand which often led to feuding and cattle-raiding.

And during the 19^th century, groups launched repeated attacks against the Hima. These attacks came from groups which were in an area that is known as Rwanda today.

In response to these attacks, several Hima warlords recruited Iru men into their armies to protect the southern part of Ankole which borders Rwanda. And, in some outlying areas of Ankole, people abandoned distinctions between Hima and Iru after generations of maintaining legal distinctions that had begun to lose their importance.

Another important player on the Ugandan political scene before and after independence was Busoga, the last of the four kingdoms we're going to look at and which was also identified as a princedom.

The kingdom traces its origin to the ascendancy of a clan that originated from Bunyoro in the 16^th century. Members of the clan moved into the area of Busoga as part of Bunyoro's expansionist schemes and were led by Prince Mukama who is considered to be the founder of the princedom of Busoga.

Although called a kingdom, it was debatable whether or not Busoga was really a kingdom. It did not have central authority vested in a king or a queen as in neighbouring Buganda to the west, or as in Bunyoro where its rulers came from. It was, instead, ruled by several princes. The first rulers were the sons of Prince Mukama. And they really presided over a princedom, not a kingdom since none of them was a king.

The demographic profile of Busoga today reflects an impressive diversity. The kingdom is home to many people of different backgrounds.

The kingdom's history is also inextricably linked with that of Bunyoro and Buganda. People from both kingdoms had profound influence on the evolution of Busoga as rulers and administrators.

During the pre-colonial era, catastrophes such famines and epidemics forced many people to migrate to other parts of the Great Lakes region. It was these mass migrations which contributed to the establishment and growth of Busoga as a political entity. The people who migrated into the area of Busoga also brought with them their traditions and cultures from other lands.

When European explorers arrived in the area, they found that Busoga was well-populated and had plenty of food.

But a catastrophe in the form of sleeping sickness hit the area in the first decade of the 20^th century, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the most densely populated parts of Busoga. More than 200,000 were forced to move in a period of 10 years and relocated to other parts of Busoga.

The southern part of Busoga constituted about one third of the kingdom's – or princedom's – land area and was the most populated. By 1910, it was empty.

The epidemic returned in 1940. It was not until 1956 that resettlement promoted by the government began ‎again. But things were not going to be the same again and few Basoga returned to their traditional lands.

Other parts of Busoga affected by sleeping sickness, including the eastern areas and the northeast, were also depopulated.

The epidemic was accompanied by famine. And mass migrations made it very difficult and sometimes even impossible for people to work on the farms, making famine worse.

It was not until 1906 that Busoga had one ruler, a figurehead, who owed his power to the British colonial authorities. Before then, Busoga had semi-autonomous chiefdoms, at first under the influence of Bunyoro kingdom, and later of Buganda.

In fact, some of the chiefs in Busoga had been appointed by the kabaka of the Buganda kingdom. And it was believed that in some cases a number of them were descendants of Baganda chiefs who were given authority to rule over land in Busoga. They were not Basoga.

‎Others simply belonged to powerful landowning families in Busoga who had become ‎self-appointed rulers over vast areas.

The British brought all these chiefs into an ‎administrative structure called Lukiiko patterned after the Buganda traditional structures. They appointed a Muganda from Buganda, Semei Kakungulu, as the ‎president of the Lukiiko and he became Busoga’s first leader. But they ‎refused to give him the title of “King” since they did not regard him as a real king.‎

The Basoga were not satisfied with this arrangement. And even among themselves, there were disputes between different chiefs and clans. And most of the people remained loyal to their chiefs and clans. Compounding the problem was the fact that the main traditional ruler, Semei Kakungulu – who wanted to be called a king – came from Buganda and not from Busoga and was not a Musoga.

As a result of all this, the Lukiiko collapsed, but not before the Basoga learnt a very important lesson. The Lukiiko structure had given them a taste of what influence they ‎could have under the colonial administration if they had a king. It would elevate them to the ‎level of Buganda and Bunyoro, kingdoms which had kings and which had more influence than any other traditional political entities in the Uganda Protectorate.

Still, Busoga has played a unique role in the history of Uganda as home to what once was the nation's second-largest city Jinja. Jinja is also the capital of Busoga and its commercial and economic hub.

Between 1920 and the 1970s, Jinja became a major industrial town, its growth fuelled by high cotton production and the completion of the Uganda Railway and the Owen Falls dam. It quickly became an agricultural and industrial centre with many factories and cottage industries including a well-developed infrastructure.

The town became a magnet attracting people from all parts of Busoga and beyond. Some of the most prominent new comers were Asian businessmen. And they played a major role in the development of Jinja, helping it to become one of the most vibrant commercial centres in the whole of East Africa. It also had the largest Asian population in Uganda.

And by independence in 1962, Jinja was home to 70 per cent of Uganda's industries. It was the nation's commercial centre.