Kampala

Kampala is the capital of Uganda, built on a group of hills near the northern shore of Lake Victoria. In Luganda the name refers to a hill of impala, a hunting ground of the kings of Buganda. Each of its oldest hills, among them Mengo, Namirembe and Rubaga, is crowned by a palace, a cathedral or a mosque.

Makerere University, opened in the early 1920s as a technical school, is one of the oldest universities in East Africa and counts several African heads of state among its graduates. The Uganda Museum, founded at the start of the 20th century, keeps a collection of traditional musical instruments from across Uganda. The Uganda National Mosque has a minaret that gives a view over the seven hills of the old city. Namirembe Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral on Namirembe hill, was finished in the early 20th century in brick.

Mengo was the capital of the kings of Buganda in the 19th century, and in 1890 Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company built a fort on the neighboring hill of Old Kampala. The town grew around the fort and a railway station on the line from Mombasa, while the colonial government sat in Entebbe. Kampala became a municipality in the late 1940s, and when Uganda became independent in 1962 it was made a city and replaced Entebbe as the capital.

Uganda Breweries brews Bell Lager at its brewery in Port Bell, the lake port of the city on Lake Victoria. The Mukwano Group, based in Kampala, makes soap, cooking oil and plastics in its factories in the industrial area. Coffee from the farms of central Uganda is graded and exported through dealers in the city.