Uganda’s position on the Equator ensures a fairly constant all year round temperature of between 27 and 31 degrees Celsius, but during the rainy season there are torrential tropical downpours, sometimes lasting two or three hours, when everyone and everything has to stop.

The official population of Uganda in 2023 is 48,582,334, a 2.82% increase from 2022, but birth registration is not in place everywhere so the true figure could be much higher. Half the population is aged under 15 years, so everywhere you go you are greeted by smiling children! Sadly, however, the life expectancy is only 55 years. There are hundreds of different tribes within districts and at least 10 different languages throughout the country. Tribal customs in the districts vary, but often they appear to understand each other, so perhaps it is just a question of different accents and dialects, rather than completely different languages.

Uganda has an extensive agricultural economy, with the production of coffee, sugar, tea, rice, millet, maize, matoke [plantain], sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cotton and almost every fruit and vegetable you can imagine. Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, is another source of wealth, providing tilapia (fish) to nearby towns. There are many beautiful places to visit in Uganda, including The Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – so described because of its dense bamboo. There are also the Sipi Falls, Kidepo Valley and Mburo National Parks, Mount Elgon and Rwenzori Mountains, which offer leisure pursuits like rafting, as well as watching wildlife, including gorillas, in their natural habitat.

In the capital, Kampala, there is high unemployment as many people from the villages come looking for work. This has led to people being crammed into small accommodation in the slum areas. Malaria is prevalent and HIV/Aids affects seven percent of the population, leaving many children as orphans. But in spite of their difficult life and the despair and hopelessness of many of the population, Uganda is known as the happiest nation in east Africa and all generations greet each other with smiles. Upon arrival in Kampala the visitor can be overwhelmed by the amount of traffic – mainly the “boda-bodas” (small motorbikes) and taxis, (minibuses). Walking is often the safest option, as the boda-bodas are ridden in all directions with little respect for the rules of the road! They will carry anything and everything from a coffin to a pig for the right price. Taxis should seat a maximum of 14 people but frequently manage to cram in more than 20. Then there are the hundreds of 4x4s with ramming bars on the front, though whether they are for attack or defence is anyone’s guess!

The taxis sometimes have a ‘Word’ on the front or back proclaiming “Trust God, Jesus is Lord”, or “Praise Allah”, acknowledging God’s existence and His claim on our lives – we can either choose to ignore or to embrace Him.

DANCE.

Dance in Uganda has always been an expression of feelings. In Uganda, we dance for courtship, at birth, to celebrate puberty, when getting ready for marriage, war, as well as when sad or happy.However, little history has been computed about the dances in Uganda were named such. In fact, the years in which they were formed is not known.

What you need to know?

We love to dance. That is no secret. Whether it is in celebration, worship or an expression of a message, Ugandans love to get down. With the international Dance Day, which is celebrated on April 29 only a few days away, we trace the history of our traditional dances and how dance has evolved over the years.

How dance has evolved?

Originally, dance was a form of communication and each dance style symbolised something. “Dance was used to demonstrate hunting, traditions and footwork was greatly observed. Even when it advanced to dancing to tape recordings you could not afford to dance off beat lest you would be laughed at.”

The dance in the early 2000's and early 2006’s excitement can’t be hidden of how practicing for a dance in day time dance that they used to have during holidays. “We used to pay Shs 2000 but we would dance, sweat and leave the dance floor when we were very tired. We used to dance in groups, it didn’t matter whether you knew someone, what united us was the ability to dance and dancing alone was selfish.” Hajara says. she adds that dancing had meaning and was more physical than today. Frowning as she talks about today’s dance, she can’t hide her disappointment about the way dance is done today. She says nowadays dance is distorted, footwork is not observed and it’s more about entertainment than authenticity. This cuts across to the traditional dances whereby the traditional dances are losing their originality.

There is a lot of intermarrying of traditional dances with western dances to match the current trends. “Even majority cultural groups don’t perform the original cultural groups whereas the dances may be good to look at, however the original dances have not been documented so the future generation may not know how the dances used to be. Furthermore originality has been lost. Further explains that unlike in the past, the current audience may not even know the words in the songs of the dance so the dance has to entice and communicate the message hence the need for an organised performance.