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Essay / Uganda: a land of pristine and astonishing beauty...
Like a fairy tale on top of a railway track, Uganda is a land of pristine beauty and astonishing ecosystems. From the high volcanic peaks of the eastern and western borders, to the wetlands of the Albert Nile River, to the dense growth of the tropical rainforests of the North; Uganda has rich soil which, combined with its geographical location in Central Africa, has the capacity to produce coffee which has become both a mainstay of the agricultural economy and a favorite of connoisseurs around the world. The English and Swahili languages, combined with the mixtures of cultural dialects that exist throughout the country, the religions of traditional African belief structures and Christianity are the two main ones in the region. I chose this country because of its economic solidarity and independence from external demands, being self-sufficient in goods for one of the longest periods in African history. Having gained independence in October 1962, Uganda shares its borders with Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. There is a wide variety of flora and fauna in the region with rainforests, vegetation is densest in the south and generally transitions to wooded savannah in central and northern Uganda. Dry acacia forests, dotted with occasional candelabra and spurge and interspersed with grasslands, are found in the south. The northeastern steppes and thickets represent the driest regions of Uganda (Uganda 2010). In the Lake Victoria region and western highlands, forest cover has been replaced by elephant grass and forest remnants due to human incursions. Mid-altitude forests are home to a rich variety of species. The high altitude forests of Mount Elgon...... middle of paper ...... factually speaking, if these boundaries had been accepted, would it have been better to build to a different model? Would Uganda have done better by forming half a dozen separate mini-states: as a separate Banyoro nation-state and Baganda nation-state, etc.? (Davidson, 1983)? Works Cited Bohannan, Paul and Philip Curtin. Africa and Africans. Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc., 1995. Byrnes, Rita M. Uganda: A Country Study. 1990. http://www.health.go.ug/ (accessed April 7, 2011). Davidson, Basil. Modern Africa A social and political history. New York: Longman Group UK Limited, 1983. Moyo, Dambisa. Dead help. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Nyekorac, David. Another city in Africa – “Lira”. 2005. http://kabiza.com/Lira-Children-Kony-Rebels.htm (accessed April 7, 2011). “Uganda”. British Encyclopedia. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2010, March 27, 2010.