UGANDA - THE PEARL OF AFRICA
Uganda is located in the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa and lies on both sides of the Equator. The total area of the country is about 241,000 square kilometres and 44,000 of it are covered by fresh water bodes.
Uganda is a country positioned within East and Central Africa. The country is land-locked and borders the Sudan to the north, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Kenya to the east, and Tanzania and Rwanda to the south.
Uganda offers unique diversity with some of the finest features that Africa has to offer. The country has contrasting physical features ranging from widespread plains with rolling hills to snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, winding rivers and spectacular flora and fauna.
Uganda is the source where the mighty Nile, the longest river in the world starts its journey from Lake Victoria, Africa's largest fresh water lake to the Mediterranean Sea.
Uganda is truly a remarkable wildlife destination, and Ugandans are regarded as among the most friendly of African people.
The official language is English, which most people can speak. Uganda's population is approximately 28 million. It is made up of a complex and diverse range of tribes.
After Sir Winston Churchill's many journeys across the length and width of the African continent, he concluded that the Uganda was indeed the ‘Pearl of Africa’.
“My journey is at an end, the tale has been told the reader who has followed so faithfully and so far has a right to ask what message I bring back. It can be stated in three words…[Uganda] is alive by itself. It is vital, and in my view, in spite of its insects and diseases, it ought in the course of time to become the most prosperous of all our East African possessions, and perhaps the ‘financial driving wheel’ of this part of the world.
My counsel plainly is – concentrate upon Uganda! Nowhere else in Africa will little money go so far. Nowhere else will results be more brilliant, more substantial or more rapidly realised.
Uganda is from end to end a ‘beautiful garden’ where ‘staple food’ of the people grows almost without labour. Does it not sound like a paradise on earth? It is the ‘Pearl of Africa’.”
From “My African Journey” By Winston Churchill (1908)