"The Pearl Of Africa"

Overview:
Uganda is one of the most beautiful countries in East Africa. The richness of its history, the prosperity of its landscape and the mobility of its people shape the destiny of that country of 17 millions people to a more complex environment that attracts visitors from all over the world. Uganda is called the " Pearl of Africa" because of a variety of factors: its history, geography and people.

Geography:
Almost the same size, as Britain, Uganda is 236,580 square kilometres (91,344 square miles) and 2,000 millimetres of rain falls on its land each year. It is located on the equator neighboring Sudan to the North, DRC to the West, Tanzania and Rwanda to the South and Kenya to the East. The striking feature is that most of the Ugandan territory is a plateau, except the presence of small hills and valleys and Savanna plains. Uganda has diverse vegetation due to the fact that there are different kinds of climates and seasons within the country. Kampala is the largest urban city in the country.

History:
Uganda has the reputation of being a country where it was not possible to identify specific language groups or tribes. What is known is that Uganda was inhabited by Negroid people living in very small communities. Many spoken languages exist in different areas in the country. For example, the Bantu languages are spcken in the West, South and in the East. The Sudanic languages are spoken in the North-west and the Nilotic languages in the rest of the North..

People:
The first thought that comes to mind when we refer to the Ugandan people is their diversity. More than 40 languages are spoken in the country. The indigenous population is divided into four languages: Bantu, Nilotic, Nilo-hamitic and Sudanic. But the official language in Uganda is English. The major religions in Ugandan are Christianity (80%) and Islam (11%). Due to a long period of colonialism, many cultural practices have undergone changes throughout the country. As a result, people do not feel as close to their tradition as they were in the past. But despite that phenomenon, marriage, dress and diet still unite the Ugandan people as a whole. As far as marriage is concerned, people often prefer to marry within their tribes and with their local customs. But thanks to the introduction of formal education and widespread tourism, there is a tendency towards social transformations. However, one should bear in mind that many Ugandan traditions and values are being taught at many levels in Ugandan communities, where religious beliefs, political ambitions and modern theories have many difficulties to cohabit. Winston Churchill's words about Uganda still remain true for many Ugandans when he said in his book entitled My Journey to Africa that " Uganda is really the pearl of Africa"