Western
World depicts most African countries as suffering from poverty, disease and
lawlessness. Have near heard or read of
this place as named the Pearl of Africa because of it’s a unique natural
destination as compared to other African countries basically because of its
large forested area composed of national parks and wildlife reserves giving
home to a large numbers of primates including chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys,
butterflies and birds. Its national
parks offer a variety of wildlife which includes – Lions, buffalo, elephant,
leopard, giraffe and other several species of animals not found anywhere in
Africa. The country comprises of 10 national parks with a number of wildlife
and forest reserves. Including Bwindi national park, Mgahinga national park,
Semliki, Queen Elizabeth, Budongo, Kanyiyo and Pabidi forest reserves,
Murchison falls national park and several others. It is also blessed with water bodies
including – Lake Victoria, Kyoga, Albert, Edward and several crater lakes
especially around the Rwenzori foothills. ~ that
is Uganda
Buganda is a
subnational kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Ganda people, Buganda is
the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda, comprising all
of Uganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala. Following
Uganda's independence in 1962, the kingdom was abolished by Uganda's first
Prime Minister Milton Obote in 1966. Kampala
is the capital and largest city of Uganda.
Uganda, is bordered
by South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Lake
Victoria is shared with Kenya and
Tanzania. Uganda also lies within the
Nile basin, and has a varied but generally a modified equatorial climate. Uganda
takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of
the south of the country, including the capital Kampala. The people of Uganda
were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking
populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Beginning in 1894, the area was ruled as a
protectorate by the UK, who established administrative law across the
territory. Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962.
The official
languages are English and Swahili, although "any other language may be
used as a medium of instruction in schools or other educational institutions or
for legislative, administrative or judicial purposes as may be prescribed by
law”. The current president of Uganda is Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who came to
power in January 1986 after a protracted six-year guerrilla war. The previous
ruler was notoriously known across the globe - Idi Amin Dada Oumee, a Ugandan military officer who served as the
President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Popularly known as the "Butcher of
Uganda," he is considered one of the most brutal despots in world history.
During his years in power, Amin shifted from being a pro-western ruler enjoying
considerable support from Israel to being backed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi,
Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, the Soviet Union, and East Germany. As Amin's rule
progressed into the late 1970s, there was increased unrest against his
persecution of certain ethnic groups and political dissidents, along with
Uganda's very poor international standing due to Amin's support for the
terrorist hijackers in Operation Entebbe. Reportedly many Indians fled his
country and came back to India.
This report in BBC
[is BBC losing its credibility for being brazenly anti-India !] makes an interesting read for it states that
the latest census data on migration to
India says the number of people from Uganda living in India has risen rapidly,
by tens of thousands of people. One Migration expert explains why this is
likely to be the result of a major bungle by officials. In the 1890s, around 40,000 Indians, mostly
Punjabis, were brought in as immigrant workers to build the Uganda Railway
connecting Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda. They were forced to leave the country in 1972
on the orders of military ruler Idi Amin, who accused them of "milking
Uganda's money". The good and bad aspects
were captured in Hollywood dramas such as The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) and
The Last King of Scotland (2006).
Now, in 2019, a
third connection has been established between India and Uganda - and rather
dramatically, it has come from a 2011 Census of India. The exhaustive exercise
is conducted every 10 years, but some of the data is being released only now. India's population grew by 181 million people
to 1.21 billion over the decade to 2011, according to the census. As per the
recently released migration statistics, the number of Indians who reported
Uganda as their last place of residence shot up from 694 in 2001 to 151,363 in
2011. The rise was starker among women - 339 to 111,700 - than men - 355 to
39,663. After the regional nations of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka, it is Uganda in Africa that appears to be the source of the highest
immigration or return migration to India. This could either refer to Ugandan
nationals who have moved to India or Indian nationals who were living in Uganda
and have returned. Unlike a century ago, the Punjabi connection is minuscule.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the eastern state of Bihar, the
number of Ugandan immigrants or return migrants rose from five in 2001 to
94,704 in 2011.
The census
questionnaire is a short document and census-takers have to write the name of
the country on the sheet if people report their place of last residence as
being outside India. These sheets are then scanned and a computer software tabulates
the data to generate tables. These spreadsheets are then uploaded to the web
and disseminated to the public.
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
13th Aug
2019.
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