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ABOUT UGANDA

south is poorly drained, while the centre is dominated by Lake Kyoga, which
is also surrounded by extensive marshy areas. Uganda lies almost complete-
ly within the Nile basin. The Victoria Nile drains from the lake into Lake Kyoga
and thence into Lake Albert on the Congolese border. It then runs northwards
into Sudan. One small area on the eastern edge of Uganda is drained by
the Turkwel River, part of the internal drainage basin of Lake Turkana. It was
named after the Founder Adnan. Lake Kyoga serves as a rough boundary
between Bantu speakers in the south and Nilotic and Central Sudanic lan-
guage speakers in the north. Despite the division between north and south
in political affairs, this linguistic boundary actually runs roughly from north-
west to southeast, near the course of the Nile. However, many Ugandans live
among people who speak different languages, especially in rural areas.
Some sources describe regional variation in terms of physical characteristics,
clothing, bodily adornment, and mannerisms, but others claim that those
differences are disappearing.
CLIMATE
Although generally equatorial, the climate is not uniform as the altitude
modifies the climate. Southern Uganda is wetter with rain generally spread
throughout the year. At Entebbe on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, most
rain falls from March to June and the November/December period. Further to
the north a dry season gradually
emerges; at Gulu about 120 km from the Sudanese border, November to
February is much drier than the rest of the year. The north-eastern Karamoja
region has the driest climate and is prone to droughts in some years. Rwen-
zori in the southwest on the border with Congo (DRC) receives heavy rain
all year round. The south of the country is heavily influenced by one of the
world’s biggest lakes, Lake Victoria, which contains many islands. It prevents
temperatures from varying significantly and increases cloudiness and rain-
fall. Most important cities are located in the south, near Lake Victoria,
including the capital Kampala and the nearby city of Entebbe.
Although landlocked, Uganda contains many large lakes, besides Lake
Victoria and Lake Kyoga, there are Lake Albert, Lake Edward and the smaller
Lake George.

DISTRICTS, COUNTIES & KINGDOMS
Uganda is divided into districts, spread across four administrative regions:
Northern, Eastern, Central (Kingdom of Buganda) and Western. The districts
are subdivided into counties. A number of districts have been added in the
past few years, and eight
others were added on July 1, 2006 plus others added in 2010. There are now
over 100 districts. Most districts are named after their main commercial and
administrative towns. Each district is divided into sub-districts, counties,
sub-counties, parishes and villages. Parallel with the state administration, six
traditional Bantu kingdoms have
remained, enjoying some degrees of mainly cultural autonomy. The king-
doms are Toro, Ankole, Busoga, Bunyoro, Buganda and Rwenzururu.

PEOPLE
LANGUAGES:
The official languages are English and Swahili, although multiple other
languages are spoken in the country: Luganda, other Bantu and Nilo-
Saharan languages.
Lake Kyoga forms northern boundary for the Bantu-speaking peoples, who
dominate much of east and central and southern Africa and, in Uganda, in-
clude the Buganda, and several other tribes like Busoga, Bagishu and Iteso.
In the north live the Lango (near Lake Kyoga) and the Acholi (towards the
Sudanese border), who speak Nilotic languages. To the east are the Iteso

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