All You Need to know About Culture in Uganda
All You Need to know About Culture in Uganda, Including Diverse Cultures. The culture in Uganda is comprised of a variety of ethnic groups. Over 50 culturally diverse populations make up the portion of Uganda. These various ethnic groups have their own beliefs, culture, traditions, norms and more.
The Bantu tribe carries the biggest portion of ethnicity in Uganda, with the majority living in the central region, eastern region and southern region of Uganda. The north is mainly made up of Nilotics like the Itesots, Langi, Karamojongs, Lugbaras, Acholis and more.
So far English is the national language of Uganda and Kiswahili comes in as an official language too. For the past years, there has been a debate about making Kiswahili the national language but this bill still hangs in balance.
These two languages are the most popular in Uganda, followed by Luganda, the native language of the Baganda. The sad thing is a big percentage of people in rural areas are not fluent in English but speak Kiswahili more.
When it comes to age groups, Uganda definitely slots up among the youngest nations in the world. This is because over half of its total population are under the age of 16. This is clearly evident when you journey into the country; you will definitely notice the kids are more in number compared to adults.
Religion
According to Wikipedia, most of the Ugandans are Christians. Christians actually make up close to 85.2% of the total population in Uganda, followed by Muslims, who make up about 12% and the rest of the religions sharing the remaining percentage.
Foods in Uganda
The most commonly consumed food in Uganda is bananas, which are traditionally referred to as “matoke. Uganda is among the top exporters of matoke in the world, according to statistics. Most of the households basically live on matoke and posho, especially the percentage in the rural regions of the country. Other widely consumed foods are sweet potatoes, millet, cassava, ground nuts, green vegetable and yams.
Uganda also has a variety of local drinks like Malwa (mostly consumed by Itesots), Kwete, Mubisi, Bushera, Akaliga and more. Most of these local drinks are consumed in rural areas, especially in the western and eastern regions of the country.
Clothing
The official dress for ladies in Uganda is the Gomesi and Kitenge, whereas the men wear Kanzus. This kind of dressing is mostly evident in most of the traditional functions and events in Uganda, especially traditional marriages, also referred to as “Kwanjula.”
Transport in Uganda
Uganda has public taxis, motorcycle taxis (Boda Boda) and private taxis. Public taxis are vans marked with blue squares, whereas private taxis usually have squares too but of different colors. The country has more public taxis and boda bodas than private taxis.
The boda-bodas are found almost everywhere but we recommend using Safe Bodas (boda-bodas with orange helmets and gears). The public taxis can be found in the new taxi park, old taxi park or along the roads in Kampala. For more information about culture and tradition in Uganda, don’t hesitate to email us at info@habariugandatours.com
