Historical Dictionary of Uganda

Uganda has now joined the list of countries covered by Scarecrow Press' series of Historical Dictionaries of Africa. An introductory essay provides an overview of the geography, demography, and economy of one of Africa's most scenically beautiful and diverse countries. The historical section of the introduction outlines Uganda's chequered development as a British protectorate and then deals with its initial post-independence before outlining its tragic decent into chaos and carnage under Presidents Idi Amin and the reinstated Milton Obote. Finally, Pirouet notes the change of political direction under Yoweri Museveni. A chronology follows which locates events that are dealt with more fully in the dictionary proper. The entries in the main section of the dictionary cover places, historical events and movements, important persons and ethnic groups, languages, and political and other movements up to early 1994. This is followed by a lengthy select bibliography arranged under twelve main heads. The introduction to the bibliography provides a brief guide to the main collections of archival material relating to Uganda. One of the fascinations of Ugandan history is the exceptionaly rich documentation relating to the early colonial period, and the unusual amount of high-quality Ugandan language published and archival source material which characterizes this highly literate society.