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Uganda

Uganda

The Republic of Uganda, or Uganda, is a country in East Africa, bordered in the east by Kenya, in the north by Sudan, by the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west, Rwanda in the southwest and Tanzania in the south. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, within which it shares borders with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a portion of the south of the country, including the capital Kampala.

History

Little is known about the history of the region now covered by Uganda until the arrival of the Arabs and Europeans in the mid 1800s. Humans are known to have lived in the area since at least the first millennium BC. When Arabs and Europeans arrived in the 19th century, they encountered a number of kingdoms in the area. They included Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro, Busoga, and Toro. The largest of these kingdoms was Buganda, which exists as part of Uganda today. Islam and Christianity were introduced to these kingdoms. The area was placed under the charter of the British East Africa Company in 1888, and was ruled as a protectorate by the United Kingdom from 1894. As several other territories and chiefdoms were integrated, the final protectorate called Uganda took shape in 1914. By 1966, the first Prime Minister, Milton Obote, had overthrown the constitution and declared himself president, ushering in an era of coups and counter-coups which would last until the mid-1980s. 1971 saw Idi Amin take power, ruling the country with the military for the coming decade. Idi Amin Idi Amin's rule cost an estimated 300,000 Ugandans' lives, and he forcibly removed the entrepreneurial East Indian minority from Uganda, decimating the economy. His reign was ended after an invasion by Tanzanian forces aided by Ugandan exiles in 1979. The situation improved little with the return of Milton Obote, who was deposed once more in 1985. The current president, Yoweri Museveni, has been in power since 1986 and was viewed as being part of a new generation of African leaders. There is controversy, however, about the change to the constitution that allows him to run for a third term. Relative stability has been brought to the country with the exception of the North, which continues to struggle with a rebel insurgency.

Politics

rebel insurgency]] The President of Uganda, currently Yoweri Museveni, is both head of state and head of government. The president appoints a prime minister who aids him in his tasks. The current prime minister is Apolo Nsibambi. The parliament is formed by the National Assembly, which has 303 members. 86 of these members are nominated by interest groups, including women and the Ugandan army. The remaining members are elected for five-year terms during general elections. In a measure ostensibly designed to reduce sectarian violence, political parties were restricted in their activities from 1986. In the non-party "Movement" system instituted by Yoweri Museveni, political parties continued to exist but could not campaign in elections or field candidates directly (although electoral candidates could belong to political parties). A constitutional referendum cancelled this 19-year ban on multi-party politics in July 2005. 2005

Geography

Although landlocked, Uganda has access to several large water bodies, including Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, Lake Kyoga and Lake Edward. The country is located on a plateau, averaging about 900 m above sea level. Although generally tropical in nature, the climate differs between parts of the country. Uganda includes several offshore islands in Lake Victoria. Most important cities are located in the south, near Lake Victoria, including the capital Kampala and the nearby city of Entebbe. Uganda is divided into 70 districts, spread across four administrative divisions: Northern, Eastern, Central and Western. The districts are all named after their 'chief town'. The city of Kampala, for example, is in the district of Kampala.

Economy

Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force, with coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues. Since 1986, the government - with the support of foreign countries and international agencies - has acted to rehabilitate an economy decimated during the regime of Idi Amin and subsequent civil war. Stabilising measures have included currency reform, raising producer prices on export crops, increasing prices of petroleum products, and improving civil service wages. The policy changes are especially aimed at dampening inflation, boosting production and improving the balance of payments. balance of payments During 1990-2001, the economy turned in a solid performance based on continued investment in the rehabilitation of infrastructure, improved incentives for production and exports, reduced inflation, gradually improved domestic security, and the return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs. Ongoing Ugandan involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, corruption within the government, and slippage in the government's determination to press reforms raise doubts about the continuation of strong growth. In 2000, Uganda qualified for the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative worth $1.3 billion and Paris Club debt relief worth $145 million. These amounts combined with the original HIPC debt relief added up to about $2 billion. Growth for 2001-02 was solid despite continued decline in the price of coffee, Uganda's principal export. According to IMF statistics, in 2004 Uganda's GDP per-capita reached 300 dollars, a much higher level than in the Eighties but still at half of Sub-Saharan African average income of 600 dollars a years. Total GDP crossed the 8 billion dollar mark in the same year.

Demographics

, see also Languages of Uganda Languages of Uganda Uganda is home to many different ethnic groups, none of whom form a majority of the population. Around forty different languages are currently in use in the country. English became the official language of Uganda after independence. The language with the largest number of native speakers is Luganda, spoken in the Buganda region which encompasses Kampala. The Ateso language follows, spoken by about 4.2 million people covering seven Districts in the Eastern part of the country. Kiswahili is widely used as a basic trade language.

Religion

Christian and Muslim missionaries first arrived in the 1860s, attempting to convert the Bugandan king. The National Census of October 2002 resulted in the the clearest and most detailed information ever given on the religious composition of Uganda. According to the Census, Christians of all denominations made up 85.1% of Uganda's Population. The Catholic Church has the largest number of adherents(41,9%) followed by the Church of Uganda -a local Anglican denomination- (31,9%). Minor Christian groups include Pentecostals (4,6%) and SDA followers (1.5%), while 1,0% were grouped under the cathegory 'Other Christians'. The second religion of Uganda is Islam, with Muslims representing 12,1% of the population according to the Census. Some Muslim Associations believe their numbers have been undercounted, as often the case in Sub-Saharan African Countries dominated by non-muslim rulers. The CIA Factbook estimate for the number of Muslims is 16%. While Muslims today appear to be experiencing some degree of discrimination, they were in the Seventies the most favoured group under the rule of President Idi Amin Dada, himself a Muslim, under whose Government the number of Muslims had significantly grown. Only 1% of Uganda's population follow Traditional Religions and 0,7% are classified as 'Other Non Christians. Also to note is that Uganda hosts one of only seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world. It is known as the Mother Temple of Africa and is situated on Kikaya Hill on the outskirts of Kampala. Its foundation stone was laid in January 1958, and was dedicated on January 13, 1961.

AIDS-prevention

:See also: AIDS in Africa Uganda has been hailed as a rare success story in the fight against HIV and AIDS, widely being viewed as the most effective national response to the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. A variety of approaches to AIDS education have been employed, ranging from the promotion of condom use to 'abstinence only' programmes. The scope of Uganda's success has come under scrutiny from new research. Research published in The Lancet medical journal in 2002 questions the dramatic decline reported. It is claimed statistics have been distorted through the inaccurate extrapolation of data from small urban clinics to the entire population, nearly 90 per cent of whom live in rural areas.[http://www.overpopulation.com/articles/2002/000075.html] US-sponsored abstinence promotions have received recent criticism from observers for denying young people information about any method of HIV prevention other than sexual abstinence until marriage. Human Rights Watch says that such programmes "leave Uganda’s children at risk of HIV".[http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/30/uganda10380.htm]

Culture

Due to the large number of ethnic communities, many still living within their own kingdoms, culture within Uganda is diverse. Many Asians (mostly from India) who were expelled during the regime of Amin are returning to Uganda.
- Music of Uganda
- List of writers from Uganda

Human rights

Respect for human rights in Uganda has been advanced significantly since the mid-1980s. There are, however, numerous areas which continue to attract concern. The conflict in the north continues to generate reports of abuses by both the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the Uganda People's Defence Force. Torture continues to be a widespread practice amongst security organisations. Attacks on political freedom in the country, including the arrest and beating of opposition Members of Parliament, has led to international criticism, culminating in May 2005 in a decision by the British government to withhold part of its aid to the country.

External links

Government

- [http://www.government.go.ug/ Government of Uganda] official site
- [http://www.parliament.go.ug/ Parliament of the Republic of Uganda] official site
- [http://www.visituganda.com/ Uganda Tourist Board] official site

News

- [http://allafrica.com/uganda/ allAfrica.com - Uganda] news headline links
- [http://www.procnews.com/ East African Procurement News] business weekly
- [http://www.monitor.co.ug/ Monitor] independent national newspaper
- [http://www.myuganda.co.ug/ My Uganda] news and community
- [http://www.newvision.co.ug/ New Vision] government-owned national newspaper
- [http://www.uganda-news.com Uganda News] The Top headlines from the major Ugandan newspapers.

Overviews

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1069166.stm BBC News Country Profile - Uganda]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ug.html CIA World Factbook - Uganda]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/ug/ US State Department - Uganda] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports

Directories

- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/Uganda.html Columbia University Libraries - Uganda] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Uganda/ Open Directory Project - Uganda] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/uganda.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Uganda] directory category
- [http://www.ugandaonline.net/ UgandaOnline] directory
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Uganda/ Yahoo! - Uganda] directory category

Other

- [http://www.ugandacan.org/ Uganda Conflict Action Network] working for peace in northern Uganda
- [http://www.refugeelawproject.org Refugee Law Project] An organisation working with refugees and the conflict in northern Uganda

Tourism

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- [http://www.visituganda.com/ Uganda Tourist Board]
- [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/africa/uganda/ Lonely Planet Uganda Guide]
- [http://www.aboutuganda.com Uganda Travel Directory] - aboutuganda travel guide Category:African Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Landlocked countries zh-min-nan:Uganda ko:우간다 ms:Uganda ja:ウガンダ th:ประเทศอูกันดา

East Africa

East Africa often refers to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, but depending on geography or geopolitics, may also include:
- Burundi and Rwanda (sometimes considered part of Central Africa)
- Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia (sometimes considered The Horn of Africa or North East Africa)
- Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar (usually considered part of Southern Africa)
- Sudan (usually considered North East Africa, and sometimes North Africa) The East African Community (EAC), an intergovernmental organisation and trading bloc, consists of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Geography

Some parts of East Africa have been renowned for their concentrations of wild animals, such as the "big five" of elephant, giraffe, lion, zebra and rhinoceros, though populations have been declining under increased stress in recent times, particularly the rhino and elephant. The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global forces that have created the Great Rift Valley, East Africa is the site of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest peaks in Africa. The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa a target for European exploration and exploitation in the nineteenth century. Today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Politics

Until recently most governments were illiberal and corrupt, and several countries were riven with political coups and ethnic violence. Since the end of colonialism, the region has endured:
- Ethiopian Civil War (Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front against the Derg)
- Ogaden War
- Second Sudanese Civil War
- Somali Civil War
- Burundi Civil War
- Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in Uganda
- 1998 American embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam
- Eritrean-Ethiopian War Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have enjoyed relatively stable government. The Awdal region of Somalia too has seen relative prosperity.

Sudan

:For the region of the same name, see Sudan (region); for the orange-red dye see Sudan I. The Republic of the Sudan, or Republic of Sudan (in recent years the definite article has increasingly been dropped in common usage) is the largest country by area in Africa, situated in Northeast Africa. The capital is Khartoum. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. Libya
History
Main article: History of Sudan Three Kushite and Meroetic kingdoms called northern Sudan their home in ancient times, this region was also known as the Nubian Kingdom and these civilizations flourished mainly along the Nile River from the first to the sixth cataracts. These kingdoms were influenced by, and in turn influenced Pharaonic Egypt. In fact, the borders of the ancient Egyptian and Sudanese kingdoms fluxated greatly and what is now the upper third of present day Northern Sudan was during ancient times indistinguishable from Upper Egypt. Pharaonic Egypt Although Christianity had been introduced into Sudan in the third or fourth century, around 640 AD, Islam came to Sudan. A merchant class of Arabs established themselves as economically dominant in feudal Sudan. Important kingdoms in the next 1,200 years include Makuria and the Kingdom of Sennar. In 1820, Sudan came under Egyptian rule when Mehemet Ali, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, sent armies under his son Ismail Pasha and Mahommed Bey to conquer eastern Sudan. Religious leader Muhammad ibn Abdalla, the self-proclaimed Mahdi (Messiah), attempted to unify the tribes of western and central Sudan in the 1880s. He led a nationalist revolt against Egyptian rule culminating in the fall of Khartoum in 1885, in which the British General Gordon was killed, the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's poem Fuzzy Wuzzy, a tribe in the region of Port Sudan. The Mahdist state survived until being overwhelmed by an Anglo-Egyptian force under Lord Kitchener in 1898. Great Britain ran Sudan as two essentially separate colonies, the south and the north, until 1956. 1956 The year before independence in 1956, Southern Sudanese embarked upon a civil war. During the British rule, laws had been put in place making it illegal for anyone living above the 10th parallel to go further south and anyone above the 8th parallel further north. The British law set the country up for this envitable conflict with this law. The law was enacted to prevent the spread of malaria and other tropic diseases that had ravaged British troops. Furthermore, while the British built roads, schools and set up a government in the predominately Arab north, the British left the South to Missionaries to "tame the savages" creating what historians generally agree was a grave injustice in the country. This sparked 17 years of civil war from 1955 to 1972. In 1972, the Addis Ababa Agreement led to a cessation of the north-south civil war and a degree of self-rule. This led to a ten-year hiatus in the civil war. In September 1983, then President, Gaafar Nimeiry, created a Federated Sudan which included 3 federal states in Southern Sudan. It was the introduction of Sharia law and the dissolution of the 3 federal states in the South that led to the reinvigoration of the civil war. After shortages of fuel and bread, a growing insurgency in the south, drought and famine, in 1984-5 another military coup led by Gen. Suwar al-Dahab restored a civilian government. However the civil war intensified in lethality and the economy continued to deteriorate. In 1989 General Omar el-Bashir became president and chief of state, prime minister and chief of the armed forces. In 1991, Osama Bin Laden moved to Sudan. His stated objective was to use his money, power and expertise in the construction field to help Sudan. Bin Laden was responsible for building the road from Khartoum northward to the town of Shendi. He was attracted to Sudan because it claimed to be a purely Islamic state. He is purported to have lost a sizable amount of money on business ventures in Sudan; some estimates place his losses in excess of $100 million USD [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio2.html]. In place of payment on his road venture, the Government of Sudan, strapped for cash, paid him with a defunct tanning factory, which was confiscated when in 1996 he was forcebly expelled at the request of the United States and relocated to Afghanistan. Afghanistan The ongoing civil war has displaced more than 4 million southerners. Some fled into southern cities, such as Juba; others trekked as far north as Khartoum and even into Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, and other neighboring countries. These people were unable to grow food or earn money to feed themselves, and malnutrition and starvation became widespread. The lack of investment in the south resulted as well in what international humanitarian organizations call a "lost generation" who lack educational opportunities, access to basic health care services, and little prospects for productive employment in the small and weak economies of the south or the north. In early 2003 a new rebellion began in the western province of Darfur, during which time the government committed terrible atrocities. In February 2004, the government declared victory over the rebellion but the rebels reported that they remained in control of rural areas and others reports indicated that widespread fighting was continuing. Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004, although skirmishes in parts of the south were reportedly continuing. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the Naivasha treaty on 9 January 2005, pursuant to which the south will be granted autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum on independence. It created a position for a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil 50/50, but also left both the North's and South's armies in place. John Garang, the south's elected co-vice president died in a helicopter crash three weeks after being sworn in. It is hoped that the treaty will finally mark the end of a decades-long war that has claimed millions of lives. Now politically, there is a "verbal" peace between the north and the south; however, intertribal wars still exists in the western region of Darfur.
Politics
Main article: Politics of Sudan Sudan has an authoritarian government in which all effective political power is in the hands of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Bashir and his party have controlled the government since he led the military coup on 30 June 1989. From 1983 to 1997, the country was divided into five regions in the north and three in the south, each headed by a military governor. After the April 6, 1985 military coup, regional assemblies were suspended. The RCC was abolished in 1996, and the ruling National Islamic Front changed its name to the National Congress Party. After 1997, the structure of regional administration was replaced by the creation of 26 states. The executives, cabinets, and senior-level state officials are appointed by the president, and their limited budgets are determined by and dispensed from Khartoum. The states, as a result, remain economically dependent upon the central government. Khartoum state, comprising the capital and outlying districts, is administered by a governor. In December 1999, a power struggle climaxed between President al-Bashir and then-speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi, who was the NIF founder and an Islamist ideologue. Al-Turabi was stripped of his posts in the ruling party and the government, parliament was disbanded, the constitution was suspended, and a state of national emergency was declared by presidential decree. Parliament resumed in February 2001 after the December 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections, but the national emergency laws remain in effect. Al-Turabi was arrested in February 2001, and charged with being a threat to national security and the constitutional order for signing a memorandum of understanding with the SPLA. Since then his outspoken style has had him in prison or under house-arrest, his most recent stint beginning in March of 2004 and ending in June of 2005. During that time he was under house-arrest for his role in a failed coup attempt in September of 2003, an allegation he has denied. According to some reports, the president had no choice but to release him, given that a coalition of National Democratic Union (NDA) members headquartered in both Cairo and Eriteria, composed of the political parites known as the SPLM/A, Umma Party, Mirghani Party, and Turabi's own National People's Congress, were calling for his release at a time when an interim government was preparing to take over in accordance with the Naivasha agreement and the Machokos Accord. See Presidents of Sudan
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Sudan Sudan has had a troubled relationship with many of its neighbors and much of the international community due to what is viewed as its aggressively Islamic stance. For much of the 1990s, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia formed an ad-hoc alliance called the "Front Line States" with support from the United States to check the influence of the National Islamic Front government. During this period, Sudan supported anti-Uganda rebel groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army in retaliation for Ugandan support of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Beginning from the mid-1990s Sudan gradually began to moderate its positions as a result of increased US pressure following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and the new development of oil fields previously in rebel hands. Sudan also has a territorial dispute with Egypt over the Hala'ib Triangle. Since 2003, the foreign relations of Sudan have centered on the support for ending the Second Sudanese Civil War and condemnation of government support for militias in the Darfur conflict.
States
Darfur conflict Main article: States of Sudan Sudan has 26 states or wilayat: Al Jazirah, Al Qadarif, Bahr al Jabal, Blue Nile, East Equatoria, Junqali, Kassala, Khartoum, Lakes, North Bahr al Ghazal, North Darfur, North Kurdufan, Northern, Red Sea, River Nile, Sennar, South Darfur, South Kurdufan, Unity, Upper Nile, Warab, West Bahr al Ghazal, West Darfur, West Equatoria, West Kurdufan, and White Nile.
Autonomy, Separation, Conflicts
Southern Sudan is an autonomous region intermediate between the states and the national government. Darfur is a region of three western states affected by the current Darfur conflict. There is also an insurgency in the east led by the Eastern Front.
Geography
Eastern Front Eastern Front Main article: Geography of Sudan Sudan is situated in Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea. It is dominated by the River Nile and its tributaries. With an area of 2,505,810 km², it is the largest country in the continent. The terrain is generally flat plains, though there are mountains in the east and west. The climate is tropical in the south; arid desert conditions in the north, with a rainy season from April to October. Soil erosion and desertification are environmental hazards. See List of cities in Sudan
Economy
Main article: Economy of Sudan Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces formidable economic problems, starting from its low level of per capita output. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which, along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate. Increased oil production, revived light industry, and expanded export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 6.1% in 2003. Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the work force and contributing 39% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - including the long-standing civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian/animist south, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years. See Communications in Sudan, Transportation in Sudan
Demographics
Transportation in Sudan Main article: Demographics of Sudan, Social order of Sudan In Sudan’s 1993 census, the population was calculated at 26 million. No comprehensive census has been carried out since that time due to the continuation of the civil war. Current estimates from the Central Intelligence Agency factbook as of 2004 estimate the population to be about 39 million. The population of metropolitan Khartoum (including Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North) is growing rapidly and ranges from 6-7 million, including around 2 million displaced persons from the southern war zone as well as western and eastern drought-affected areas. Sudan has two distinct major cultures--Arabicized Black Africans (but also some non-black Egyptian Arabs) and non-Arab Black Africans--with hundreds of ethnic and tribal divisions and language groups, which makes effective collaboration among them a major problem. The northern states cover most of the Sudan and include most of the urban centers. Most of the 22 million Sudanese who live in this region are Arabic-speaking Muslims, though the majority also use a traditional non-Arabic mother tongue--e.g., Nubian, Beja, Fur, Nuban, Ingessana, etc. Among these are several distinct tribal groups: the Kababish of northern Kordofan, a camel-raising people; the Ga’alin (الجعلين), Rubatab (الرباطاب), Manasir (المناصير) and Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة) of settled tribes along the rivers; the seminomadic Baggara of Kurdufan and Darfur; the Hamitic Beja in the Red Sea area and Nubians of the northern Nile areas, some of whom have been resettled on the Atbara River; and the Negroid Nuba of southern Kurdufan and Fur in the western reaches of the country. The southern region has a population of around 6 million and a predominantly rural, subsistence economy. This region has been negatively affected by war for all but 10 years since independence in 1956, resulting in serious neglect, lack of infrastructure development, and major destruction and displacement. More than 2 million people have died, and more than 4 million are internally displaced or have become refugees as a result of the civil war and war-related impacts. Here the Sudanese practice mainly indigenous traditional beliefs, although Christian missionaries have converted some. The south also contains many tribal groups and many more languages are used than in the north. The Dinka--whose population is estimated at more than 1 million--is the largest of the many black African tribes of the Sudan. Along with the Shilluk and the Nuer, they are among the Nilotic tribes. The Azande, Bor, and Jo Luo are “Sudanic” tribes in the west, and the Acholi and Lotuhu live in the extreme south, extending into Uganda.
People of Sudan

- Ja'alein peoples 50% "Arabic Tribes"
- Ababda
- Azande
- Baggara peoples
- Beja tribe
- Dinka tribe
- Fur People
- Manasir tribe
- Masalit
- Nuba peoples
- Nuer tribe
- Zaghawa (more, with rough locations)
- Acholi east
- Ayuak south central
- Barit Juba City
- Didiga east
- Kakua southwest
- Latuga east
- Madi east
- Shililuk east
- Toposa east
- many more
Culture
Main article: Culture of Sudan
- Music of Sudan
- List of writers from Sudan
- Islam in Sudan
- Clothing in Sudan Largest Christian denominations are the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, the Presbyterian Church in the Sudan and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Education
:Main article: Education in Sudan Institutions of higher education in the Sudan include:
- Academy of Medical Sciences
- Ahfad University for Women
- Bayan Science and Technology College
- University of Gezira
- University of Khartoum
- Mycetoma Research Center
See also

- Cities in Sudan, list of
- Education in Sudan
- Darfur Conflict
- Social order of Sudan
- Human rights issues in Sudan
- Janjaweed
- Kush
- Lost Boys of Sudan (Docu-film)
- Merowe Dam Project
- Military of Sudan
- Nubia
- Prime Ministers of Sudan
- Not the Sudan nuclear test by the US
- Sudan 1 Food Additive
- United Nations Mission In Sudan
- Patron saint: Josephine Bakhita
Miscellaneous topics

External links

Government

- [http://www.sudan.gov.sd/english.htm Sudan Government] official site
- [http://www.sudan-parliament.org/ Majlis Watani] official Parliament site
News

- [http://allafrica.com/sudan/ AllAfrica.com - Sudan] news headline links
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/0,14658,1235601,00.html Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: Sudan]
- [http://www.suna-sd.net/Index_EN.htm Sudan News Agency (SUNA)] and [http://www.sunasms.com SunaSMS] government sites
- [http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/sudan Yahoo! News Full Coverage - Sudan] news headline links
- [http://www.sudantribune.com/sommaire.php3 Sudan Tribune] France-based (in English)
Overviews

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/820864.stm BBC News Country Profile - Sudan]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/su.html CIA World Factbook - Sudan]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/su/ US State Department - Sudan] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
Directories

- [http://www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/sudan.htm Arab Gateway - Sudan] directory category
- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/Sudan.html Columbia University - Sudan] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Sudan/ Open Directory Project - Sudan] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/sudan.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Sudan] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Sudan/ Yahoo! - Sudan] directory category
Tourism

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Other

- [http://www.sudan.net/ Sudan.net] portal
- [http://www.sudaneseonline.com/ Sudaneseonline.com] portal
- [http://www.sudani.com/ Sudani.com Portal]
- [http://www.iabolish.com/today/features/sudan/overview1.htm Slavery in Sudan] Category:Arab League Category:African Union member states Category:Middle Eastern countries Category:Peace and Security Council zh-min-nan:Sudan ko:수단 ms:Sudan ja:スーダン simple:Sudan th:ประเทศซูดาน

Rwanda

Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. It is bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Its fertile and hilly terrain, which gives it the title "Land of a Thousand Hills" (French: Pays des Mille Collines), supports one of the densest populations in Africa. It is best known to the outside world for the 1994 Rwandan genocide that resulted in the deaths of up to one million people.

History

Prior to European colonization, Rwanda is the site of one of the region's most complex monarchical systems. The earliest known inhabitants of the region now known as Rwanda were the Pygmy and Twa. Later, groups known as Hutus and Tutsis also settled in the same region. In 1895 Rwanda, like Burundi, became a German province. The Germans, however, were at first completely dependent on the existing government. The German authority kept the indigenous administration system by applying the same type of indirect rule established by the British Empire in the Ugandan kingdoms. After Germany's loss in World War I, the protectorate was taken over by Belgium with a League of Nations mandate. Belgian rule in the region was far more direct and harsh than that of the Germans. Belgian colonizers, backed by Christian churches, mainly Catholics, used the Tutsi upper class over lower classes of Tutsis and Hutus, creating a wider social gap between social entities than had existed before. Belgian-forced labor policies and stringent taxes were mainly enforced by the Tutsi upper class, whom the Belgians used as buffers against people's anger, thus further polarising the Hutu and the Tutsi. Many young peasants, in order to escape tax harassment and hunger, migrated to neighboring countries. They moved mainly to Congo but also to Ugandan plantations, looking for work. After World War II Rwanda became a UN trust territory with Belgium as the administrative authority. Through a series of processes, including several reforms, the assassination of King Mutara III Charles in 1959 and the fleeing of the last Nyiginya clan monarch, King Kigeri V, to Uganda, the Hutu gradually gained more and more power until, upon Rwanda's independence in 1962, the Hutu held virtually all power. In 1990, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda from Uganda. During the course of the fighting, top Rwandese government officials, mainly Hutu, began secretly training young men into informal armed bands called interehamwe ("coming together"). Government officials also launched a radio station that began anti-Tutsi propaganda. The military government of Juvénal Habyarimana responded to the RPF invasion with pogroms against Tutsis, whom it claimed were trying to re-enslave the Hutus. In 1992 the government and the RPF signed a cease-fire agreement known as the Arusha accords in Arusha, Tanzania to form a power sharing government, but fighting between the two sides continued. The United Nations sent a peacekeeping force named the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), under the leadership of Canadian General Roméo Dallaire. UNAMIR was vastly underfunded and under-staffed. During the armed conflict, the RPF was blamed for the bombing of Kigali. These attacks were in reality done by the Hutu army as part of a campaign to create a reason for the genocide that was about to ensue. On April 6 1994, President Habyarimana was assassinated [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/rwanda.htm] when his Falcon 50 trijet was shot down while landing in Kigali. It remains unclear who was responsible for the assassination – most credible sources point to the presidential guard, spurred by Hutu nationalists fearful of losing power, although others believe that Tutsi rebels were responsible, possibly with the help of Belgian mercenaries. Over the next three months, the military and interehamwe militia groups killed between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in the Rwandan Genocide. The RPF continued to advance on the capital, and occupied the northern, the east and the southern parts of the country by June. U.N. member states refused to answer UNAMIR's requests for increased troops and money. Meawhile, French troops were dispatched to stabilize the situation under Opération Turquoise, but resulted in exacerbating the situation and evacuating only foreign nationals. On July 4th, 1994, the war ended as the RPF entered the capital Kigali. In the resulting Great Lakes refugee crisis over 2 million Hutus fled the country after the war, fearing Tutsi retribution. Most have since returned, although some militias remained in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and became involved in the First Congo War and Second Congo War. In 1996, Rwanda and Uganda invaded eastern Congo in an effort to eliminate the interahamwe groups operating there and to gain influence in the region, sparking the First Congo War. Today, Rwandans continue to struggle with the legacy of genocide. 2004 marked the ten year aniversary with a ceremony in Kigali. Rwandan genocidal leaders are on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in the Rwandan National Court system, and, most recently, through the informal Gacaca village justice program. The current Rwandan government, led by Paul Kagame has become increasingly militant and opposed to dissent.

Politics

Kagame Main article: Politics of Rwanda After its military victory in July 1994, the Rwandese Patriotic Front organized a coalition government similar to that established by President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1992. Called the Broad Based Government of National Unity, its fundamental law is based on a combination of the constitution, the 1993 Arusha accords, and political declarations by the parties. Habyarimana's National Movement for Democracy and Development was outlawed. Political organizing was banned until 2003. The first post-war presidential and legislative elections were held in August and September 2003, respectively.

Provinces

2003 Rwanda is divided into 12 provinces:

Geography

Main article: Geography of Rwanda Geography of Rwanda This small country is located near the center of Africa, a few degrees south of the Equator. It is separated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley to the west; it is bounded on the north by Uganda, to the east by Tanzania, and to the south by Burundi. The capital, Kigali, is located in the centre of the country. Rwanda's countryside is covered by grasslands and small farms extending over rolling hills, with areas of rugged mountains that extend southeast from a chain of volcanoes in the northwest. The divide between the Congo and Nile drainage systems extends from north to south through western Rwanda at an average elevation of almost 9,000 feet. On the western slopes of this ridgeline, the land slopes abruptly toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley, and constitutes part of the Great Rift Valley. The eastern slopes are more moderate, with rolling hills extending across central uplands at gradually reducing altitudes, to the plains, swamps, and lakes of the eastern border region. Therefore the country is also fondly known as "Land of a Thousand Hills" (Pays des mille collines).

Climate

Although Rwanda is a tropical country, its high elevation makes the climate temperate. In the mountains, frost and snow are possible. The average daily temperature near Lake Kivu, at an altitude of 1,463 meters (4,800 feet) is 23°C (73°F). Rwanda is considered the lightning capital of the world, due to intense daily thunderstorms during the two rainy seasons (February-May and September-December). Annual rainfall averages 80 centimeters (31 in.) but is generally heavier in the western and northwestern mountains than in the eastern savannas.

Economy

Pays des mille collines Main article: Economy of Rwanda Rwanda is a rural country with about 90% of the population engaged in (mainly subsistence) agriculture. It is landlocked with few natural resources and minimal industry. Primary exports are coffee and tea. It has a low GNP, resulting in it being listed as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC)

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Rwanda The population consists of three ethnic groups. The Hutus, who represent the main part of the population, are mostly cultivators raising goats or sheep, while a few are ceramists like the Twa. The Tutsis are a pastoral people dedicated to cattle and sheep raising. Until 1959, they formed the dominant caste under a feudal system based on cattleholding. The Twa are thought to be the remnants of the earliest settlers of the region. However, the whole population shares a genuine common Bantu culture. Rwanda's population density, even after the 1994 genocide, is among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly every family in this country with few villages lives in a self-contained compound on a hillside. The urban concentrations are grouped around administrative centers.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Rwanda
- Music of Rwanda
- List of writers from Rwanda

Miscellaneous topics

List of writers from Rwanda
- Communications in Rwanda
- Foreign relations of Rwanda
- Holidays in Rwanda
- List of cities in Rwanda
- List of Rwandan companies
- Military of Rwanda
- Transportation in Rwanda
- Rwandan Genocide

Films

- Hotel Rwanda (2004) dramatization based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand threatened Tutsis refugees during the 1994 genocide. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/ imdb entry])
- Sometimes In April (2005) dramatization of the 1994 genocide focusing on the experiences of a intermarried Hutu-Tutsi family. ([http://imdb.com/title/tt0400063/ imdb entry])

External links

Government

- [http://www.gov.rw/ The Republic of Rwanda] official government site
- [http://www.rwandaparliament.gov.rw/ Rwanda Parliament] official site

News

- [http://allafrica.com/rwanda/ AllAfrica.com - Rwanda] news headline links

Overviews

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1070265.stm BBC News Country Profile - Rwanda]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rw.html CIA World Factbook - Rwanda]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/rwanda/0,14451,1183763,00.html Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: Rwanda]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/rw/ US State Department - Rwanda] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports

Directories

- [http://www.rwanda-online.org/ Rwanda online] Rwanda directory and Portal.
- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/Rwanda.html Columbia University Libraries - Rwanda] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Rwanda/ Open Directory Project - Rwanda] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/rwanda.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Rwanda] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Rwanda/ Yahoo! - Rwanda] directory category
- [http://www.yellowikis.org Yellowikis] is collecting information on Rwandan Companies.

Tourism

-
- [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/africa/rwanda Lonely Planet Rwanda Guide]
- http://www.museum.gov.rw National Museum of Rwanda official site

Other

- [http://www.ictr.org/ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda] official site
- [http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa/Rwanda.asp Global Issues - Conflict in Rwanda]
- [http://libcom.org/history/articles/rwanda-burundi-history/index.php Rwanda: a history of Empire and exploitation] 1894-1990
- [http://www.assistonline.org/ ASSIST a.s.b.l.] Rwandan NGO serving vulnerable children and youth
- Category:African Union member states Category:Landlocked countries zh-min-nan:Rwanda ko:르완다 ms:Rwanda ja:ルワンダ

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania in Swahili), or Tanzania, is a country on the east coast of east Africa. It is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south. To the east it borders the Indian Ocean. The country is named after Lake Tanganyika, which forms its western border, and Zanzibar, off its east coast. The country has been a member of the Commonwealth since reaching independence (1961). In 1964, Tanganyika united with the Zanzibar islands, forming the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, later renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. In 1996, Tanzania's capital was officially moved from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, although many government offices still remain in the old capital.

History

Main article: History of Tanzania A German colony from the 1880s until 1919, the area subsequently became a British trust territory from 1919 to 1961. Julius Nyerere became Minister of British-administered Tanganyika in 1960, and continued as Prime Minister when Tanganyika became independent in 1961. Tanganyika and the neighbouring Zanzibar — which had become independent in 1963 — merged to form the nation of Tanzania on 26 April 1964. Nyerere introduced African socialism, or Ujamaa, which emphasized justice and equality, but proved economically disastrous, leading to food shortages as collective farms failed. In 1979, Tanzania declared war on Uganda after Uganda invaded and tried to annex Tanzanian territory in the north of the country. Tanzania not only expelled Ugandan forces, but also invaded Uganda itself, forcing the ousting of Idi Amin. Nyerere handed over power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 1985, but retained control of the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), as Chairman until 1990, when he handed that responsibility to Mwinyi. In October 1995, one-party rule came to an end when Tanzania held its first ever multi-party election. However, CCM comfortably won the elections and its candidate Benjamin Mkapa was subsequently sworn in as the new president of the United Republic of Tanzania on 23 November 1995. One of the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings occurred in Dar es Salaam; the other was in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2004, the undersea earthquake on the other side of the Indian ocean caused tidal surges along Tanzania's coastline in which 11 people were killed. An oil tanker also temporarily ran aground in the Dar es Salaam harbor, damaging an oil pipeline. oil pipeline]]

Politics

Main article: Politics of Tanzania Tanzania's president and National Assembly members are elected concurrently by direct popular vote for 5-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister who serves as the government's leader in the National Assembly. The president selects his cabinet from among National Assembly members. The Constitution also empowers him to nominate 10 non-elected members of Parliament, who also are eligible to become cabinet members. Elections for president and all National Assembly seats will be held in October 2005. The unicameral National Assembly elected in 2000 has 295 members. These 295 members include the Attorney General, five members elected from the Zanzibar House of Representatives to participate in the Parliament, the special women's seats which are made up of 20% of the seats a particular party has in the House, 181 constituents seats of members of Parliament from the mainland, and 50 seats from Zanzibar. Also in the list are 48 appointed for women and the seats for the 10 nominated members of Parliament. At present, the ruling CCM holds about 93% of the seats in the Assembly. Laws passed by the National Assembly are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically designated union matters. Zanzibar's House of Representatives has jurisdiction over all non-union matters. There are currently 76 members in the House of Representatives in Zanzibar, including 50 elected by the people, 10 appointed by the president of Zanzibar, 5 ex officio members, and an attorney general appointed by the president. In May 2002, the government increased the number of special seats allocated to women from 10 to 15, which will increase the number of House of Representatives members to 81. Ostensibly, Zanzibar's House of Representatives can make laws for Zanzibar without the approval of the union government as long as it does not involve union-designated matters. The terms of office for Zanzibar's president and House of Representatives also are 5 years. The semiautonomous relationship between Zanzibar and the union is a relatively unique system of government. Tanzania has a five-level judiciary combining the jurisdictions of tribal, Islamic, and British common law. Appeal is from the primary courts through the district courts, resident magistrate courts, to the high courts, and Court of Appeals. Judges are appointed by the Chief Justice, except those for the Court of Appeals and the High Court who are appointed by the president. The Zanzibari court system parallels the legal system of the union, and all cases tried in Zanzibari courts, except for those involving constitutional issues and Islamic law, can be appealed to the Court of Appeals of the union. A commercial court was established in September 1999 as a division of the High Court. For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 26 regions--21 on the mainland, 3 on Unguja, and 2 on Pemba (Unguja and Pemba make Zanzibar). Ninety-nine district councils have been created to further increase local authority. These districts are also now referred to as local government authorities. Currently there are 114 councils operating in 99 districts, 22 are urban and 92 are rural. The 22 urban units are classified further as city (Dar es Salaam and Mwanza), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Tanga), and town councils (the remaining 11 communities).

Geography

Mwanza Mwanza] Mwanza Main article: Geography of Tanzania Tanzania is mountainous in the north-east, where Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, is situated. To the north and west are the Great Lakes of Lake Victoria (Africa's largest lake) and Lake Tanganyika. Central Tanzania comprises a large plateau, with plains and arable land. The eastern shore is hot and humid, with the island of Zanzibar lying just offshore. Tanzania contains many large and ecologically significant wildlife parks, including the famous Serengeti National Park in the north.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Tanzania Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for half of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs 90% of the work force. Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops to only 4% of the land area. Industry is mainly limited to processing agricultural products and light consumer goods. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and bilateral donors have provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania's deteriorated economic infrastructure. Tanzania has vast amount of natural resources like gold deposits and beautiful national parks that remain underdeveloped. Growth in 1991-99 has featured a pickup in industrial production and a substantial increase in output of minerals, led by gold. Natural gas exploration in the Rufiji Delta looks promising and production has already started [http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cna52112.htm]. Recent banking reforms have helped increase private sector growth and investment. Short-term economic progress also depends on curbing corruption and cutting on unnecessary public spending [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3719712.stm].

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Tanzania Population distribution in Tanzania is extremely uneven. Density varies from 1 person per square kilometer (3/mi²) in arid regions to 51 per square kilometer (133/mi²) in the mainland's well-watered highlands to 134 per square kilometer (347/mi²) on Zanzibar. More than 80% of the population is rural. Dar es Salaam is the capital and largest city; Dodoma, located in the center of Tanzania, has been designated the new capital and the Parliament sits there, although action to move the capital has stalled. The African population consists of more than 120 ethnic groups, of which the Sukuma, Haya, Nyakyusa, Nyamwezi, and Chaga have more than 1 million members. The majority of Tanzanians, including such large tribes as the Sukuma and the Nyamwezi, are of Bantu stock. Groups of Nilotic or related origin include the nomadic Masai and the Luo, both of which are found in greater numbers in neighboring Kenya. Two small groups speak languages of the Khoisan family peculiar to the Bushman and Hottentot peoples. Cushitic-speaking peoples, originally from the Ethiopian highlands, reside in a few areas of Tanzania. Although much of Zanzibar's African population came from the mainland, one group known as Shirazis claims its origins to be the supposed island's early Persian settlers. Non-Africans residing on the mainland and Zanzibar account for 1% of the total population. The Asian community, including Hindus, Sikhs, Shi'a and Sunni Muslims, and Goans, has declined by 50% in the past decade to 50,000 on the mainland and 4,000 on Zanzibar. An estimated 70,000 Arabs and 10,000 Europeans reside in Tanzania. Each ethnic group has its own language, but the national language is Kiswahili, a Bantu-based tongue with strong Arabic borrowings.

Regions

Chaga Main article: Regions of Tanzania For further information see Tanzania
- [http://www.vdiest.nl/Africa/tanzania.htm] Tanzania is divided into 26 regions: Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Manyara, Mara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pemba North, Pemba South, Pwani, Rukwa, Ruvuma, Shinyanga, Singida, Tabora, Tanga, Zanzibar Central/South, Zanzibar North, Zanzibar Urban/West

Culture

Zanzibar Urban/West Zanzibar Urban/West Main article: Culture of Tanzania
- Music of Tanzania
- List of writers from Tanzania Taarab Music[http://www.mwambao.com/tarab.htm] is a fusion of Swahili tunes sung in rhythmic poetic style spiced with Arabic or, at times, Indian melodies. It is an extremely lively art form springing from a classical culture, still immensely popular with women, drawing all the time from old and new sources. Taarab forms a major part of the social life of the Swahili people along the coastal areas; especially Zanzibar, Tanga and even further in Mombasa and Malindi along the Kenya coast. Wherever the Swahili speaking people travelled. Tarabu culture moved with them. It has penetrated to as far as Uganda. Rwanda and Burundi in the interior of East Africa, where taarab groups compete in popularity with other western-music inspired groups. In the Persian Gulf, Dubai and Muscat,perhaps because of significant number of Waswahili from Tanzania, play host to many groups of Taraab who receive frequent invitations. These days a taarab revolution [http://www.swahilicoast.com/taarab_music_of_zanzibar.htm] is taking place and much heated debate continues about the music which has been changed drastically by the East African Melody phenomenon. Melody, as they are affectionately known by their mostly women fans, play modern taarab, which, for the first time, is 'taarab to dance to' and features direct lyrics, by- passing the unwritten laws of lyrical subtlety of the older groups such as Egyptian Musical Club and Al-Wattan Musical Club where meaning to their songs where only alluded to and never directly inferred. Today taarab songs are explicit sometimes even graphic in sexual connotation. Much of the music, today, of groups like Melody and Muungano is composed and played on keyboards, increasing portability, hence the group is much smaller in number than 'real taarab' orchestras and therefore more readily available to tour and play shows throughout the region and beyond. Tanzanian music has lost much of its identity since the heydays of the likes of Mbaraka Minshehe (who, perhaps, was the most popular and original musician of his time), this is partly attributed to the influx of musicians from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), who were entering the country as refugees and made residence in the country. But in recent years, mainly from the mid-nineties, a new breed of young Tanzanian musicians has emerged and are coming up with popular tunes which are Tanzanian in composition. Bands like Twanga Pepeta have managed to curve a new tune distinct from imported Zairean tunes and are competing with Zairean bands in popularity and audience acceptance. The Tanzanian artistes have devised a new style going by the name of "Bongo Flava", which is blend of all sorts of melodies, beats, rhythms and sounds. The trend among the Tanzanian music consumers has started changing towards favouring products from their local artists who sing in Swahili, the national language. The mushrooming of FM music stations and cheap production studios has been a major boost to the music industry in the country. Contemporary artists like Juma Nature, Lady Jaydee, Mr. Nice, Mr. II, Cool James and many others command a huge audience of followers in the country and neighbouring countries. More information about Tanzanian music and events can be found on the various portals that have sprung up recently. Tanzania has an enormously high growth-rate for internet technologies, estimated at up to 500% per year. Because costs for computers are still quite high many users share connections at internet cafes or at work. [http://www.naomba.com naomba.com business directory], [http://www.tanzaniadirectory.info Movie and Sports information], [http://www.tanzaniayangu.com Arusha locality information] all are part of an increasing number of websites dedicated to the region.

Communications

Telecommunication services in Tanzania have in the past often been very unreliable. The mobile telephone services are usually available only in urban areas, although there are currently efforts to provide nationwide mobile phone coverage. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4036503.stm] Mobile Phone Companies
- Celtel
- Mobitel
- Tanzania Telecommunications Company
- Vodacom
- Zantel Internet Services Providers(ISPs) Internet services have been available since 1996 however there is no current fiber connectivity available to the Internet backbone, thus the connectivity is over Satellite network to the rest of the world, even to the neighbouring countries. It is expected that EASSY fiber project will bring in Internet connectivity to Tanzania at lower latency and lower cost. Some of the Internet Service Providers are;
- University Computing Centre[http://www.ucc.co.tz]
- Africa Online Tanzania[http://www.africaonline.co.tz ]
- Raha[http://www.raha.com]
- Cats-Net[http://www.cats-net.com]
- TTCL[http://www.ttcl.co.tz]
- Kicheko[http://www.kicheko.com]
- Arusha Node Marie[http://www.habari.co.tz]
- ZanLink[http://www.zanlink.com] The complete list of the ISPs can be accessed from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority(TCRA) website[http://www.tcra.go.tz/Market%20info/isp.htm] Data Operators
- SatCom Networks Africa Limited
- DATEL[http://www.datelnet.com]
- TTCL[http://www.ttcl.co.tz]
- SimbaNet[http://www.simbanet.net]
- Afsat Communications[http://www.afsat.com] The complete list of Data operators can be accessed from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority(TCRA) website[http://www.tcra.go.tz/Market%20info/data.htm] In 2005, mainland Tanzania (i.e. not Zanzibar) modified its licensing system for electronic communications, modelling it on the approach successfully pioneered in Malaysia in the late 1990s where traditional 'vertical' licences (right to operate a telecoms OR broadcasting network, and right to provide services on that network) are replaced by 'horizontal' licences (right to operate a telecoms AND broadcasting network, but a separate licence required to provide services on that network). This reform was the first of its kind on the African continent actually put into practice, and allows investors to concentrate on their area of expertise (i.e. network operation or service provision) across a maximum number of previously separate sectors (i.e. telecommunications, broadcasting, Internet). This reform should, amongst other things, facilitate the arrival of telephony services over cable television networks, television services over telecommunications networks, and Internet services over all types of networks. In short, Tanzania is the first African country to adapt its regulatory environment to the phenomenon of convergence.

Miscellaneous topics

- Communications in Tanzania From the CIA World Factbook 2000. Not Wikified.
- Foreign relations of Tanzania From the CIA World Factbook 2000. Not Wikified.
- List of Tanzanian companies
- List of Famous Tanzanians
- Military of Tanzania From the CIA World Factbook 2000. Not Wikified.
- [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/345.html Privatizing Tanzania telecommunication company]
- Stamps and postal history of Tanzania
- Transportation in Tanzania From the CIA World Factbook 2000. Not Wikified.

External links

Government

- [http://www.tanzania.go.tz/ The United Republic of Tanzania] official site
- [http://www.parliament.go.tz/ Parliament of Tanzania] official site

Higher Learning Institutions

- [http://www.udsm.ac.tz/ UDSM]The University Of Dar-Es-Salaam.
- [http://www.suanet.ac.tz/ SUA]The Sokoine University Of Agriculture.
- [http://www.hkmu.ac.tz/ HKMU]The Hubert Kairuki Memorial University.

News

- [http://allafrica.com/tanzania/ AllAfrica.com - Tanzania] news headline links
- [http://www.theexpress.com/ The Express Online] weekly newspaper
- [http://www.ippmedia.com/ IPP Media]
- [http://www.tanzania-news.com/ Tanzania News] The Top headlines from the major Tanzanian newspapers.

Business

- [http://www.cti-tz.com/members2.htm Confederation of Tanzanian Industries]

Overviews

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1072330.stm BBC News Country Profile - Tanzania]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tz.html CIA World Factbook - Tanzania]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/tz/ US State Department - Tanzania] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports

Directories

- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/Tanzania.html Columbia University Libraries - Tanzania] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Tanzania/ Open Directory Project - Tanzania] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/tanzan.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Tanzania] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Tanzania/ Yahoo! - Tanzania] directory category

Tourism

-
- [http://www.discovertanzania.org/tanzania.asp Tanzania] Climate, medical and visa information

Other

- [http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=256 GlobalPolitician - "Tanzania: An Example Of What Third World Should Not Do"] December 22, 2004 editorial
- [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/14/opinion/edpower.html IHT - "Now, some good news from Africa"] April 15, 2005 editorial Category:African Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Geographic portmanteaus zh-min-nan:Tanzania ko:탄자니아 ms:Tanzania ja:タンザニア

Lake Victoria

:This page is about the African lake. For the Australian lake, see Lake Victoria (New South Wales). Lake Victoria (New South Wales) Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza (also known as Ukerewe) is one of the Great Lakes of Africa. Lake Victoria is 68,870 square kilometres in size, making it the continent's largest lake, the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area. Being relatively shallow, Lake Victoria ranks as the seventh largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 2,760 cubic kilometres of water. It is the source of the longest branch of the Nile River, the White Nile. The lake lies within an elevated plateau in the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley and is subject to territorial administration by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. There are more than 3,000 islands within Lake Victoria, many of which are inhabited. These include the Ssese Islands in Uganda, a large group of islands in the northwest of the Lake that are becoming a popular destination for tourists.

Exploration history

The first recorded information about Lake Victoria comes from Arab traders plying the inland routes in search of gold, ivory, slaves and other precious commodities. An excellent map known as the Al Adrisi map dated from the 1160s, clearly depicts an accurate representation of Lake Victoria, and attributes it as being the source of the Nile. The lake was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to seek the source of the Nile for strategic reasons of the British Colonial administration. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this vast expanse of open water for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged at Speke's audacity to claim this discovery for himself whilst on what was supposed to have been a scouting expedition. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. The well known British explorer and missionary David Livingstone failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately the American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating the Lake and reporting the great outflow at Rippon Falls on the Lake's northern shore. It was on this journey that Stanley was said to have greeted the British explorer with the famous words Dr. Livingstone, I presume?, upon discovering the Englishman ill and despondent in his camp on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.

Ecology and social impacts

Henry Morton Stanley can be made out in the distance.]] Lake Victoria plays a vital role in supporting the millions of people living around its shores, in one of the most densely populated regions on earth. The ecosystem of Lake Victoria and its surroundings have been badly affected by human influence. During the 1950s, the nile perch (Lates niloticus) was introduced into the lake's ecosystem in an attempt to improve the yields of fishing in the lake. The nile perch proved totally devastating to the local ecosystem – of the hundreds of endemic species, many are now extinct. Further, the initial good returns on nile perch catches has diminished dramatically. Currently, the nile perch is being overfished. It is reported that some populations of endemic species have increased again. An eco-problem with a happier outcome was the fight against the huge increase of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a native of the tropical Americas, which forms thick mats of plant causing difficulties to transportation, fishing, hydroelectic power generation and drinking water supply. By 1995 90% of the Ugandan coastline was covered by the plant. With mechanical and chemical control of the problem seeming unlikely, the mottled water hyacinth weevil, (Neochetina eichhorniae) was bred and released into the lake with very good results.

Transportation

Since the 1900s Lake Victoria ferries have been an important means of transport between Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The main ports on the lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja.

External links

- [http://www.worldlakes.org/index.asp LakeNet]
- [http://www.oneworld.org/patp/pap_victoria.html Trouble in the Tropics]
- [http://www.coop99.at/darwins-nightmare/index.htm Darwin's Nightmare], an award winning documentary film by Hubert Sauper on the global political economy of nile perch trade at lake Victoria and its social consequences for the region. Victoria Victoria Victoria ko:빅토리아 호 ja:ヴィクトリア湖

Buganda

Buganda is the kingdom of the 52 clans of the Baganda people, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda. The three million Baganda (singular Muganda; often referred to simply by the root word and adjective, Ganda) make up the largest Ugandan ethnic group, although they represent only about 16.7 percent of the population. The name Uganda, the Swahili term for Buganda, was adopted by British officials in 1894 when they established the Uganda Protectorate, centred in Buganda. Buganda's boundaries are marked by Lake Victoria on the south, the Victoria Nile River on the east, and Lake Kyoga on the north. The Luganda language is widely spoken in Buganda, and is one of the most popular second languages in Uganda along with English.

Culture

English to the east, and Lake Kyoga to the north.]] Authoritarian control is an important theme of Ganda culture. In precolonial times, obedience to the king was a matter of life and death. A second important theme of Ganda culture, however, is the emphasis on individual achievement. An individual's future is not entirely determined by status at birth. Instead, individuals carve out their fortunes by hard work as well as by choosing friends, allies, and patrons carefully. The traditional Ganda economy relied on crop cultivation. In contrast with many other East African economic systems, cattle played only a minor role. Many Baganda hired laborers from the north as herders. Bananas were the most important staple food, providing the economic base for the region's dense population growth. This crop does not require shifting cultivation or bush fallowing to maintain soil fertility, and as a result, Ganda villages were quite permanent. Women did most of the agricultural work, while men often engaged in commerce and politics (and in precolonial times, warfare). Ganda social organization emphasized descent through males. Four or five generations of descendants of one man, related through male forebears, constituted a patrilineage. A group of related lineages constituted a clan. Clan leaders could summon a council of lineage heads, and council decisions affected all lineages within the clan. Many of these decisions regulated marriage, which had always been between two different lineages, forming important social and political alliances for the men of both lineages. Lineage and clan leaders also helped maintain efficient land use practices, and they inspired pride in the group through ceremonies and remembrances of ancestors. Ganda villages, sometimes as large as forty or fifty homes, were generally located on hillsides, leaving hilltops and swampy lowlands uninhabited, to be used for crops or pastures. Early Ganda villages surrounded the home of a chief or headman, which provided a common meeting ground for members of the village. The chief collected tribute from his subjects, provided tribute to the kabaka, distributed resources among his subjects, maintained order, and reinforced social solidarity through his decision-making skills. Late nineteenth-century Ganda villages became more dispersed as the role of the chiefs diminished in response to political turmoil, population migration, and occasional popular revolts. swampy lowlands, it is a major example of an architectural achievement in organic materials, principally wood, thatch, reed, wattle and daub. The tombs are designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.]] Most lineages maintained links to a home territory (butaka) within a larger clan territory, but lineage members did not necessarily live on butaka land. Men from one lineage often formed the core of a village; their wives, children, and in-laws joined the village. People were free to leave if they became disillusioned with the local leader to take up residence with other relatives or in-laws, and they often did so. The family in Buganda is often described as a microcosm of the kingdom. The father is revered and obeyed as head of the family. His decisions are generally unquestioned. A man's social status is determined by those with whom he establishes patronclient relationships, and one of the best means of securing this relationship is through one's children. Baganda children, some as young as three years old, are sent to live in the homes of their social superiors, both to cement ties of loyalty among parents and to provide avenues for social mobility for their children. Even in the 1980s, Baganda children were considered psychologically better prepared for adulthood if they had spent several years living away from their parents at a young age. Baganda recognize at a very young age that their superiors, too, live in a world of rules. Social rules require a man to share his wealth by offering hospitality, and this rule applies more stringently to those of higher status. Superiors are also expected to behave with impassivity, dignity, self-discipline, and self-confidence, and adopting these mannerisms sometimes enhances a man's opportunities for success. Ganda culture tolerates social diversity more easily than many other African societies. Even before the arrival of Europeans, many Ganda villages included residents from outside Buganda. Some had arrived in the region as slaves, but by the early twentieth century, many non-Baganda migrant workers stayed in Buganda to farm. Marriage with non-Baganda was fairly common, and many Baganda marriages ended in divorce. After independence, Ugandan officials estimated that one-third to one-half of all adults marry more than once during their lives.

History

Pre-colonial and colonial Buganda

Originally a vassal state of Bunyoro, Buganda grew rapidly in power in the eighteenth and nineteenth century becoming the dominant kingdom in the region. Buganda was never conquered by colonial armies; rather the powerful king (kabaka), Mutesa, agreed to protectorate status. At the time, Mutesa claimed territory as far west as Lake Albert, and he considered the agreement with Britain to be an alliance between equals. Baganda armies went on to help establish colonial rule in other areas, and Baganda agents served as tax collectors throughout the protectorate. Trading centres in Buganda became important towns in the protectorate, and the Baganda took advantage of the opportunities provided by European commerce and education. At independence in 1962, Buganda had achieved the highest standard of living and the highest literacy rate in the country. 1962 The twentieth-century influence of the Baganda in Uganda has reflected the impact of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century developments. A series of kabakas amassed military and political power by killing rivals to the throne, abolishing hereditary positions of authority, and exacting higher taxes from their subjects. Ganda armies also seized territory held by Bunyoro, the neighboring kingdom to the west. Ganda cultural norms also prevented the establishment of a royal clan by assigning the children of the kabaka to the clan of their mother. At the same time, this practice allowed the kabaka to marry into any clan in the society. One of the most powerful appointed advisers of the kabaka was the katikiro, who was in charge of the kingdom's administrative and judicial systems - effectively serving as both prime minister and chief justice. The katikiro and other powerful ministers formed an inner circle of advisers who could summon lower-level chiefs and other appointed advisers to confer on policy matters. By the end of the nineteenth century, the kabaka had replaced many clan heads with appointed officials and claimed the title "head of all the clans." The power of the kabaka impressed British officials, but political leaders in neighboring Bunyoro were not receptive to British officials who arrived with Baganda escorts. Buganda became the centrepiece of the new protectorate, with a degree of control over the other kingdoms: Toro, Nkore, Busoga and Bunyoro. Many Baganda were able to take advantage of opportunities provided by schools and businesses in their area. Baganda civil servants also helped administer other ethnic groups, and Uganda's early history was written from the perspective of the Baganda and the colonial officials who became accustomed to dealing with them.

Power politics in pre-independence Uganda

Bunyoro The prospect of elections in the run up to independence caused a sudden proliferation of new political parties. This development alarmed the old-guard leaders within the Uganda kingdoms, because they realized that the centre of power would be at the national level. The spark that ignited wider opposition to Governor Cohen's reforms was a 1953 speech in London in which the secretary of state for colonies referred to the possibility of a federation of the three East African territories (Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika), similar to that established in central Africa. Many Ugandans were aware of the Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (later Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi) and its domination by white settler interests. Ugandans deeply feared the prospect of an East African federation dominated by the racist settlers of Kenya, which was then in the midst of the bitter Mau Mau uprising. They had vigorously resisted a similar suggestion by the 1930 Hilton Young Commission. Confidence in Cohen vanished just as the governor was preparing to urge Buganda to recognize that its special status would have to be sacrificed in the interests of a new and larger nation-state. Kabaka Freddie, who had been regarded by his subjects as uninterested in their welfare, now refused to cooperate with Cohen's plan for an integrated Buganda. Instead, he demanded that Buganda be separated from the rest of the protectorate and transferred to Foreign Office jurisdiction. Cohen's response to this crisis was to deport the kabaka to a comfortable exile in London. His forced departure made the kabaka an instant martyr in the eyes of the Baganda, whose latent separatism and anticolonial sentiments set off a storm of protest. Cohen's action had backfired, and he could find no one among the Baganda prepared or able to mobilize support for his schemes. After two frustrating years of unrelenting Ganda hostility and obstruction, Cohen was forced to reinstate Kabaka Freddie. The negotiations leading to the kabaka's return had an outcome similar to the negotiations of Commissioner Johnston in 1900; although appearing to satisfy the British, they were a resounding victory for the Baganda. Cohen secured the kabaka's agreement not to oppose independence within the larger Uganda framework. Not only was the kabaka reinstated in return, but for the first time since 1889, the monarch was given the power to appoint and dismiss his chiefs (Buganda government officials) instead of acting as a mere figurehead while they conducted the affairs of government. The kabaka's new power was cloaked in the misleading claim that he would be only a "constitutional monarch," while in fact he was a leading player in deciding how Uganda would be governed. A new grouping of Baganda calling themselves "the King's Friends" rallied to the kabaka's defense. They were conservative, fiercely loyal to Buganda as a kingdom, and willing to entertain the prospect of participation in an independent Uganda only if it were headed by the kabaka. Baganda politicians who did not share this vision or who were opposed to the "King's Friends" found themselves branded as the "King's Enemi

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