These six places cover about 550 thousand square kilometers and straddle the equator in Africa. About half of the land is the northwestern part of a plateau, which lies between the west and east branches of the Great Rift Valley. In the center of this continental feature--at Uganda's southeast--is Lake Victoria(2). The lands relatively near this lake are fertile; those in northern Uganda are drier savannah.
The west branch of the Rift Valley, from north to south, includes the Albert Nile(3), flowing north into Sudan, then Lake Albert(4), the Seminiki River, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River, which flows south from Lake Kivu to Lake Tanganyika. That lake continues south of Burundi and South Kivu.(5)
West of the Albert Nile the land rises quickly above 1,000 meters, in an extension of the Blue Mountains, whose heights lie further southwest, in the Upper Congo Region. South of the Ruzizi and east of the Rift Valley, the Ruwenzori Mountains rises above 5,100 meters at Margherita Peak on the Congo-Uganda border. Northeast of Lake Kivu, along the Congo-Rwanda border, the volcanic Virunga Range tops 4,500 meters at Mount Karisimbi. These heights are extended southward, on both sides of Lake Kivu, the Ruzizi and Lake Tanganyika. On the east side they do not reach 3,000 meters but are higher in South Kivu.
Similar features to these mountains, on the Kenya-Uganda border, overlook the east branch of the Rift Valley. Generally these are below 3,100 meters, but Mount Elgon is above 4,300 meters.
Lake Victoria is the chief hydrographic feature outside the Rift Valley. It receives the Kagera near the Uganda-Tanzania border. The upper waters of the Kagera include the Luvironza, which is the southernmost source of the Nile.(6) The lake exits through the Victoria Nile, which flows through Lake Kyoga, in the center of Uganda, and into Lake Albert.(7)
The upper Congo, here called the Lualaba, flows north through relatively low land in the center of Maniema. A tributary, the Lomani, forms much of Maniema's west boundary before joining the main flow.
Other rivers include the Achwa, a tributary of the White Nile, which drains part of northern Uganda; the Katanga, which starts in swamps near near Lake Victora, and flows through Lake George into Lake Edward; and the upper Mdagawasi, which forms part of Burundi's southeastern border before exiting into Tanzania.(8).
Almost six in ten speak languages in the J subgroup of Central Narrow Bantu languages, but no one language predominates. Ganda(9) is the most important because of its use, alongside English, as a second language throughout all of Uganda but the north.(10). Rundi-Rwanda is, however, spoken by the most speakers as a first language(11), accounting for about one in three. These speakers are, unfortunately, fiercely divided on non-linguistic grounds into Hutu and Tutsi. The Western Lacustrine (or Rutara) group of dialects are all mutually intelligible and are spoken by more than one in ten.
More than two in three people are Christian, with Roman Catholics outnumbering Protestants two to one. Moslems account for more than one in ten, mostly in Uganda and Manieuma. All people believe in the importance of the spiritual realm, a retention from local religions. These religions account for nearly two in ten believers, a higher porportion south than north. Typically they believe in a creator god, usually known by words related to Ntu, and in ancestral and other spirits that influence the material realm. The Ganda religion has a pantheon of Kibuka and Nende (war), Mukasa (children and fertility), elemental gods, a god of hunting and gods of deseases. Sacrifices to gods or spirits can avoid harm harm from the spiritual realm.
Millenarian religions, common in northern Uganda, have few followers but their violence, anti-statism and support from abroad make them highly disruptive. The Lord's Resistance Army is the latest of several.
Kampala(12), the capital of Uganda, is the only urban area with more than a million residents. Located just north of Lake Victoria, the city has 1.4 million and the metropolis 1.6 million. In the 16th century it was a royal residence, and in 1890 a British fort, but only since 1962, has it been a modern capital.
Speakers of Nilo-Saharan languages, now about two in ten, may have been in northeastern Uganda for ten thousand years. This presumption equates the linguistic group with the physical culture called the 'aquatic tradition'.(13)
Narrow Bantu language speakers arrived here from the west or northwest before 500 B.C.E., and spread south and southwestward. Among the Rundi-Rwanda, the Hutu are probably their descendents. The Tutsi are probably later arrivals who assimulated. Another group that assimulated to Rundi-Rwanda were the pygmies.
Around 1500 the Luo, a Sudanese Nilo-Saharan group, invaded. The Acholi in northern Uganda are their descendents.
In the mid-19th century Islam arrived in Uganda via trade routes from the north and the Swahili coast. European invaders(14), bringing two warring versions of Christianity, came soon after. Millinarian resistance movements arose in northern Uganda, and have re-emerged since.
north of Uganda
east of Uganda
east of Rwanda and Burundi, southeast of Burundi, and across Lake Tanganyika from the southeast corner of South Kivu
south of Maniema and South Kivu
southwest of Maniema
northwest of Maniema and North Kivu, and west of northern Uganda
Africa
Democratic Republic of Congo
(1) Formerly known as Zaïre; also called Kinshasa Congo.
(2) Africa's largest lake, the world's third.
(3) The west branch is also known as the Albertine branch.
(4) Formerly also known as Lake Mobuto Sese Seko. It is Africa's fifth largest lake.
(5) It is part of the Congo River system, via the Lukuga. The Congo is Africa's second longest river and the world's eighth. The lake is Africa's second largest lake, the world's seventh.
(6) The Luvironza to the Ruvuvu to the Kagera to Lake Victoria to the Victoria Nile to Lake Albert to the Albert Nile, which becomes the White Nile or Bahr el Jebel (Mountain River) north of Uganda. The Nile is the world's longest river.
(7) An alternate, more southerly, connection to Lake Albert is through the Kafi River, which starts at the Victoria Nile west of Lake Kyoga.
(8) It ultimately ends up in Lake Tanganyika.
(9) Soga is considered a distinct language by its speakers, and for political reasons, but it and Ganda are mutually intelligible. More than one in ten are native speakers of Ganda and about one in 20, of Soga.
(10) French is the common second language in Rwanda and Burundi.
(11) It is Rwanda in Rwanda and Rundi in Burundi. Together with other dialects that are also mutually intelligible, they are sometimes called Southern Lacustrine.
(12) It means 'grazing place of impala'.
(13) This link was proposed by J.E.G. Sutton and Patrick Munson.
(14) British and Gremans at first, as well as Frnech missionaries. In 1916 French-speaking Belgium conquered the German possessions.