Kampala
Seven hills like Rome. Buganda Kingdom capital predates colonialism. Amin expelled 80,000 Asians (1971)—returnees rebuilt the economy. 200,000 boda-boda drivers as primary transport. Albertine Rift oil: Norway model or Nigeria model?
Kampala was built on seven hills—like Rome, as Ugandans like to note—but the comparison flatters. The Buganda Kingdom's capital at Mengo, on one of those hills, was the center of one of East Africa's most sophisticated pre-colonial states. When the British arrived in 1890, they found a kingdom with a functioning bureaucracy, a road network, and a kabaka (king) who negotiated treaties rather than fighting losing battles.
The British chose Kampala as the colonial administrative center for the Uganda Protectorate (1894), positioning it adjacent to but separate from the Buganda king's hill at Mengo. The dual-city arrangement—colonial Kampala and traditional Mengo—created a political geography that persists. The Buganda Kingdom was abolished in 1966 when Milton Obote's troops stormed the kabaka's palace, but restored in 1993 as a cultural institution. The kabaka still lives on Mengo hill.
Idi Amin's regime (1971-1979) expelled Uganda's Asian community—roughly 80,000 people—and destroyed the commercial class that had run the country's trade. Kampala's Asian Market, Indian-built temples, and Ismaili infrastructure survived, but the brain drain and capital flight took decades to reverse. When Yoweri Museveni's government invited Asians to return and reclaim property in the 1990s, the returnees rebuilt businesses that now dominate Kampala's formal economy.
Modern Kampala is East Africa's fastest-growing city, expanding at roughly 5% annually to over 3 million in the metropolitan area. Boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers number over 200,000 and constitute both the primary transport network and the most dangerous employment sector—accidents are a leading cause of death.
Uganda's oil reserves in the Albertine Rift are expected to begin production, potentially transforming Kampala's economy. Whether oil revenue follows the Norwegian model (sovereign wealth fund) or the Nigerian model (elite capture) will determine the city's next chapter.
Kampala tests whether a city that survived Amin can survive oil wealth—which has destroyed more African economies than any dictator.