People of Uganda

More than 40 languages are spoken in Uganda, where the indigenous population can be divided into four major linguistic groups: Bantu, Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic and Sudanic. Broadly speaking, the Bantu occupy most of the southern half of Uganda, the Nilotic (Luo) the central section of northern Uganda, the Nilo-Hamites the north-east, and the Sudanic the north-west of the country.

The Bantu groups include the: Bafumbira, Baganda, Bagisu, Bagwe, Bagwere, Bakenyi, Bakiga, Bakonuo, Bamba, Banyankole, Banyarwanda, Banyoro, Banulil, Baosga, Batoro, Batwa and Samia.
The Nilotic groups include the: Acholi, Alur, Jonam, Langi. Luo and Padhola.
The Nilo-Hamites include the: Iteso, Kakwa, Karimogong, Kumam, Labwork, Sebei Pokot ad Tepth.
The Sudanic groups include the: Lendu, Lugbar and Madi.

The official language in Uganda is Engosu and, although Swahili is widely spoken it has not yet been adopted as the lingua franca.

As a result of colonial rule, new religions, modernization and education, cultural practices have undergone some changes and adherence to tradition is not as strong as it once was. However, traditions in marriage, dress and diet still hold. Most of the people live in family homesteads surrounded by their gardens and fields. When a husband has more than one wife, each wife has a separate house with her own plot of land to cultivate.

The nomadic cattle-herding people are the Baima in the south east and the Karimogong in the north-east. These people live in groups around their cattle kraals and move with their herds looking for pasture and water. Their diet is mainly milk, blood and meat.

The crop-growing communities prepare special delicacies at ceremonies based on the crops and vegetables they grow. In the central region, banana, groundnuts and greens are available at almost every meal and all taste sweeter when steamed in banana leaves. Millet bread is a delicacy in the north, east and west of Uganda. Long robes and dresses are worn at ceremonies and on days of prayer. On most occasions in Buganda men wear the kanzu, a long robe with long sleeves over which a coat is worn. The women wear long robes known as gomesi or busuti with a large length of cloth tired around the gomesi at the waist. The major religions are Christianity to which 85 per cent of the people belong and Islam to which about 11 per cent belong. Among the people of Uganda, descent succession and inheritance follow the paternal line. Bride-wealth is paid by the bridegroom's father - usually in the form of cattle or money. Intertribal marriages occur, but remain comparatively few. Traditionally all property belongs to the man and when he dies it is divided among his sons.