Kampala is both the capital and commercial city of Uganda as it posses almost all administrative offices of Uganda and major business entities are situated there. It is located in central Uganda in the Buganda kingdom. The late Idi Amin the former president of Uganda made Kampala the capital city of Uganda in the 1970s.
Since it is the Kampala city of the country it holds very many people of different ethnicities around Uganda as they come to Kampala to earn a living. Kampala is the most populous city in Uganda. Albeit different people of different tribes live in Kampala, it is dominated by the Baganda people and they are the people that hold much history in the capital. It is the Luganda language that is mainly spoken in the city.
It is mostly Buganda cultural sites that exist in Kampala and the following are the cultural sites one would not miss when he/she visits the capital of Uganda.
The Uganda Museum is the main and oldest museum in the country. It is located on Kira road in Kampala city. This has the earliest remains of humans in Uganda and also memorials of the Uganda heroes people that have achieved great things in Uganda and all over the world for Uganda. This museum gives one an insight into Uganda’s history and inception.
There is Kasubi tombs where the ancestral kings called the Kabakas are buried. It was established in 1882 as the palace of Kabaka Muteesa I which was later turned into tombs after his death in 1884. Kasubi tomb is a cultural heritage site recognized by UNESCO. Unfortunately, it was partly burnt in 2010 but it has been reconstructed thanks to the Ugandan people, government, and international organizations.
In Kampala, there are Namugongo shrines where the Uganda martyrs were burnt and also commemorated from. These religious people were killed by Kabaka Mwanga then king of Buganda due to their disobedience to the traditional religion. These shrines are widely known all over the world as of every 3rd June people around the globe come to Uganda to remember these martyrs. The Uganda martyrs shrine attracts many tourists from different parts of the world.
Kampala has Bulange Buganda parliament where the Kabaka and his cabinet sit to discuss matters within Buganda. These premises have good architecture and also when one is here guide gives fantastic narrations of occasions and history that happened in Buganda kingdom.
There is also Kabaka’s lake in Kampala which is the largest man-made lake in East Africa. The lake was set up to provide sports activities to the Kabaka of Buganda and it was also used as an escape route from the British by the Kabaka of Buganda during the colonial time.
There are also other places in Kampala to visit like the Bahai tempel in Kikaya the only temple in Africa. There is also the Old Kampala Gadaffi mosque which is the biggest mosque in Uganda and also the Namirembe and Rubaga Cathedrals which are the most powerful worship places for Christians in Uganda.
If one wanted to know one of the powerful cultures in Uganda that is the Baganda culture then taking a tour around Kampala leads one to that. These cultural tours in Kampala are normal supplements of wildlife safaris and gorilla tracking tours in Uganda that are undertaken to see exotic animals like the elephants, lions, gorillas, giraffes, hippos in their natural habitats.