Introduction

Abstract

Uganda is a landlocked country situated on the Equator. It is bounded by Sudan in the north, Kenya in the east, Tanzania and Rwanda in the south, and Zaire in the west. Its area is about 236 040 sq. km. It owes much of its strategic importance to the fact that it encompasses the source of the River Nile. The 1980 Population Census recorded slightly over 12.6 million people in Uganda, including at least 15 major ethnic groups which can be categorised into four main language clusters: Bantu, Lwo, Nilo-Hamitic and Sudanic. Broadly speaking, the Bantu-speakers are to be found in the south and west of the country, Lwo in the north, Nilo-Hamitic in the east, and Sudanic in the north-west. In the country’s contemporary history both ethnic and linguistic factors have been central to intra-military and civil-military relations.