WELCOME TO UGANDA.
The Republic of Uganda: Uganda is a landlocked country located in the east Africa, one of the countries that form a fine country block of east African community. Uganda lies on Latitude: 1º00´ North of the Equator and longitude: 32º00´ East of Greenwich. The total area of the country is 236,040 sq km out of which 36,330 sq km is water and 199,710 sq km is land.
The country shares its borders with Kenya in the east, Sudan in the North, Democratic Republic of Congo in west, Rwanda in the South West, and finally Tanzania in the south. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also bordered by Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompassed a portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala.
The people and Culture:
Situated at the geographical heart of the African continent, Uganda has long been a cultural melting pot, as evidenced by the existence of 30-plus different indigenous languages belonging to five distinct linguistic groups, and an equally diverse cultural mosaic of music, art and handicrafts.
The country's most ancient inhabitants, confined to the hilly southwest, are the Batwa and Bambuti - Pygmies, relics of the hunter-gatherer cultures that once occupied much of East Africa to leave behind a rich legacy of rock paintings, such as at the Nyero Rock Shelter near Kumi.
At the cultural core of modern-day Uganda lie the Bantu-speaking kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, Ankole and Toro, whose traditional monarchs — reinstated in the 1990s after having been abolished by President Milton Obote in 1967 — still serve as important cultural figureheads. According to oral tradition, these centuries-old kingdoms are offshoots of the mediaeval kingdoms of Batembuzi and Bachwezi, which lay in the vicinity of present-day Mubende and Ntusi, where archaeological evidence suggests that a strongly centralized polity had emerged by the 11th century. Three former kings of Buganda are buried in an impressive traditional thatched building at the Kasubi Tombs in Kampala.
Uganda's cultural diversity is boosted in the northeast by the presence of the Karimojong, traditional pastoralists whose lifestyle and culture is reminiscent of the renowned Maasai, and in the northwest by a patchwork of agricultural peoples whose Nilotic languages and cultures are rooted in what is now Sudan. The Rwenzori foothills are home to the hardy Bakonjo, whose hunting shrines are dedicated to a one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed pipe-smoking spirit known as Kalisa. while the Bagisu of the Mount Elgon region are known for their colourful Imbalu ceremony, an individual initiation to manhood that peaks in activity in and around August of every even numbered year.
National Parks of Uganda:
Uganda has ten National Parks, six of which are forest national parks and four are game parks, there are also several other game reserves spread in the country, thus this gives an opportunity for experiencing both primate and the game safaris around one destination Uganda.
The country's largest protected area is Murchison falls National Park, whose palm-studded grassland support populations of lion, buffalo, elephant and Uganda kob, the localised Rothschild's giraffe and Immense concentrations of hippos and birds can be seen from morning and afternoon launch trips along the Nile to the bottom of the falls for which the park is named. Rwenzori Mountains National Park protects the slopes and glacial peaks of the 120km-long Rwenzori Mountains or 'Mountains of the Moon', a world-class hiking and mountaineering destination
Set majestically in the shadow of the Rwenzori, Queen National Park offers prime game safaris as you drive passing grazing to buffalo, elephant; various antelope. The park has recorded over 600-plus bird species. The park also habits the uncommon specie of the lions-the tree climbing lions that can be sighted in the Ishasha sector of the park.
Of Uganda's forested reserves, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is best known for its superb gorilla tracking, but it also provides refuge to elephant, chimpanzee, and various small antelope, as well as 23 bird species restricted to the Albertine Rift, Its also the only forest where the mountain Gorillas coexist with the chimps in the same forest. The other important forest national park is Kibale forest, with13 primates species including chimpanzees the highest in any tropical rain forest in Africa. The forest hosts over 1450 chimps as well as the rare I’Hoest’s monkey and East Africa’s largest population of the threatened red colobus monkey.
Birdwatching In Uganda:
Uganda is Africa's most complete birdwatching destination, with more than 1,000 species recorded within an area comparable to that of Great Britain.
Specialist birding tours through Western Uganda routinely notch up an incredible tally of 400 species within two weeks, while enthusiastic amateurs might reasonably hope to aim for 300 species within the same time.
For dedicated ornithologists, Uganda's prime attraction is the presence of more than 100 West African forest species at the most easterly — and most accessible — extent of their range. This alluring list of forest specialists includes the psychedelic Great Blue Turaco and the raucous Black-and-White Casqued Hornbill, as well as the gem-like Green Broadbill and 23 other species endemic to the Albertine Rift. Uganda is the best place to see what many rate as the most sought after African bird: the Shoebill, a massive prehistoric-looking swamp-dweller notable for its heavy clog-shaped bill.
Birdlife is prolific throughout Uganda, but certain key sites should be included in any ornithological itinerary. In the west, these include Bwindi National Park for Albertine
Rift endemics, Queen Elizabeth National Park for a peerless checklist of 600 species, Semuliki National Park for Congo Basin endemics, Mabamba Swamp near Entebbe for Shoebill, the community-run guided.
Bigodi Wetland near Kibale Forest for Great Blue Turaco and other colourful forest birds, and Murchison Falls National Park for savannah specialists such as Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Red-Throated Bee-Eater and Denham's Bustard. A key birding location in eastern Uganda is Lake Bisina, a stronghold for the endemic Fox's Weaver as well as papyrus-dwellers such as Shoebill and Papyrus Gonolek.
