Uganda is a beautiful country with an impressive people. This is one of my favourite countries in all of Africa. The people of Uganda have survived the troubles of 1967-86 period and emerged standing upright and wearing a smile. In that short period, the country suffered under the caprice of two despicable despots. One was the indisputably insane Idi Amin and the other, the arguably insane Milton Obote.
This is now history – a testament of the dignity and endurance of this people. The transformation of the country in the period since normalcy returned is nothing short of astounding. And it shows in the faces of the people you meet. That the graceful beauties of Uganda have not received the recognition they deserve in international beauty pageants is for me incontrovertible proof that most of these events are really fixed.
Winston Churchill was so besotted by the country that he gave it the name that has endured: the “Pearl of Africa”. His observations about Uganda remain true today: “The scenery is different, the vegetation is different, the climate is different, and, most of all, the people are different from anything elsewhere …in...