Uganda
(Supported by a Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities)
logo2
Kenya Tanzania  Uganda Burundi  Rwanda

Uganda -- Sports, Entertainment, and Recreation


With a national league and yearly playoffs, soccer is the most popular sport and spectator entertainment. Cricket and rugby also attract large numbers of spectators. Boxing offers a national trophy in each division, and also is popular. Uganda sends athletes to the world's main sporting events, especially the Olympic's, and its athletes have won medals, mostly in track-and-field.

For daily entertainment, the radio is the media of choice for most Ugandans. There are 10 radio stations offering a variety of programseducational, plays, news, stories and, of course, music. Television is also a popular form of entertainment, but since there are much fewer television sets per capita than radios, it is not as important as radio. Television is only available to affluent families and in most hotels. Programming from England and the United States is used to bolster locally produced programs.

Around Kampala people enjoy going to restaurants and clubs where troupes perform traditional dances. Throughout Uganda, traveling popular theater groups perform plays with themes addressing current concerns in politics, social change, health, and family situations. Popular plays, which have a long tradition in Uganda, are used for educational purposes as well. In a country where the adult illiteracy rate is high, plays are an important means through which to educate and inform the general population on HIV/AIDS and its prevention. In a country that suffers from one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, the role of popular theater in terms of prevention cannot be underestimated.

For further reading:

Frank, Marion. 1995. AIDS Education Through Theatre: Case Studies from Uganda : Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth African Studies Series 35.

Previous Menu Home Page What's New Search Disclaimer