Uganda Society Newsletter

VOLUME 1999
NUMBER 1
JANUARY 1999

FROM THE EDITOR

The results of the Annual General Meeting held on 28^th January 1999 are at the right. We have an exciting new executive committee and we hope they will bring us new and interesting programs in the new year. Best wishes to all and thanks to last year's committee for all its fine efforts on behalf of the membership. To all of you who attended, thank you very much for participating in establishing the future of your Society.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!!!

Many thanks to our wonderful sponsors who keep the Society running. Prime General Supplies assisted the library with a donation for upgrading shelving, Alam Group/Econo Homes are upgrading our rare book shelving, MAKSS Industries brought us this year's End of Year party while Gold Trust Bank underwrote last year's party, CalTex provided us with a computer to the library that has become an essential part of the functioning of the entire Society and will be used to typeset the next issue of the Journal, and Fountain Publishers has donated large numbers of their excellent publications to help keep our library up to date. Please support these organizations which support your Society.

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Our next lecture is:

February 25, 1999 - Mr. Cato Lund will present a lecture entitled The Royal Capitals of the Interlacustrine Kingdoms - an Urban Legacy of Uganda. Mr. Lund spent much time in Uganda last year doing field research on the subject he is to present to us. Join us for what certainly must be a fascinating lecture.

March 25, 1999 - Mr. Justin Willis will deliver an address entitled Alcoholism in the Region and In History, a topic of immediate concern as well as of historic interest.

April 22, 1999 -Mr. D. Mhalaba, South African High Commissioner, will speak on Uganda and South Africa (title to be confirmed).

May 27, 1999 - Uganda, The Spiritual Heart of Africa, will be presented by Mr. Olanga of the Bahai Faith. Find out about this fascinating religion and how Uganda came to be chosen for its African center.

Remember, we hold a lecture on the fourth Thursday of every month.

THE UGANDA JOURNAL

Work begins shortly on volume 45 of the Uganda Journal. As Journal readers know, the Journal includes sections with notes and reviews, which add immensely to its interest over time. For example in the very first volume, we published notes on such varied topics as Acholi dance and music in Uganda, a dry crossing of the Nile and Speke's Journal. The original reason for establishing a notes section still stands: it gives people who acquire pieces of interesting information which may not be suitable for long articles, but which might be of interest to Journal readers, a forum for sharing that information. We have very few submissions of notes or reviews for the upcoming issue. If you have an area of interest and a few minutes to jot down 1000 words or so on it, please take the time to do this and send it to us at the library or at P.O. Box 4980.

Anyone with ideas for articles or notes should contact the Hon. Editor, Mr. Dent Ocaya-Lakidi at 531-499 or the assistant editor, Sheena Carey at 267-080, or leave a note at the library. The Journal is also seeking funding to help support the cost of printing. If you have ideas for fund raising, please let us know.

LIBRARY NEWS

Come join us for a morning to read or to do research. If you haven't visited us, we have a comfortable reading room with arm chairs as well as tables for serious work. In addition to our nearly 2000 titles, we have a periodical section and we house the library of the East African Wildlife Society. Visit us during our regular hours, or before a lecture.

RECENT ACQUISITIONS:

* We recently received copies of The Uganda Journal volumes 1 through 3 (bound), volume 6, numbers 2, 3 and 4, and volume 7 (bound). These volumes nearly complete our collection of Uganda Journals. We are now missing only number 1 of volume 6. If you have a copy of this volume you would be willing to donate or sell, or if you know the whereabouts of a copy which might be available, please let us know. The Journals are the highlight of our library and much used by visitors to the library from all over the world.

* Azania - We now have a full set of this fascinating journal from the British Institute in East Africa. Azania has appeared annually since 1966, covering the history, archaeology and related studies of eastern Africa. The journal documents, through original articles, notes and reviews, new research in its field. We have every issue and an index to all the issues from 1966-1990 to aid researchers in using this valuable work. We also have a copy of A Thousand Years of East Africa, published by BIEA.

* Thomas Ofcansky, a renowned scholar on Uganda, has kindly donated copies some of his books to us. He sent us copies of Uganda: the Tarnished Pearl of Africa and the Historical Dictionary of Tanzania, as well as recently reprinted Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign, with an introduction by Mr. Ofcansky.

* Carolyn Colvin (has sent us a variety of books purchased in the United States, mostly focusing on Kenya. The new selection includes several issues of Kenya Past & Present, published by the Kenya Museum Society. These journals present articles ranging from wildlife to archaeology. The titles include everything from novels by famous Kenyan authors to Kenyan history, books about Kenyatta and Nyerere, the war in Sudan, and Kenyan and African politics and history. The star of the collection is a sumptuously illustrated large format photo book combining Peter Matthiessen's "The Tree Where Man Was Born" with Eliot Porter's photo book "The African Experience." This is certainly one of the most beautiful books published on East Africa.

* Fountain Publishers has donated copies of their recent titles to us. Fountain is currently publishing some of the most interesting work printed on Uganda. Courtesy of Fountain, we now offer Museveni's Long March, Mamdani's Citizen and Subject, Decentralization and Civil Society, Developing Uganda, Kampala Women Getting By, Kigezi and its People, Reflections on the Muslim Leadership Question in Uganda, and a number of other important works covering history, social studies and fiction.

* With money raised for expanding the collection, the library has also acquired many important books focusing on Africa as a whole. We now have several volumes by on the history of Africa by Basil Davidson, who was a founder in the field of African history. We have acquired copies of V.Y. Mudimbe's The Idea of Africa and The Invention of Africa, covering the meaning of Africa, African thought, being African, and Africa as it is seen from outside Africa. We also have copies of new books on the history and social situation of East Africa, and several of the acclaimed novels and poetry published by Femwrite, including the new volume by Susan Kiguli, who read to us so beautifully at Professor Wangusa's lecture last year.

* The library has also acquired several important new books published in the U.S. and the U.K., including new volumes of Ashe's Two Kings of Buganda and Chronicles of Uganda, David Apter's The Political Kingdom in Uganda, Conflict Resolution in Uganda, Kingdom and State, The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda before 1800, and The Social Origins of Violence.