Development Geography of Uganda

Location and Areal Coverage

Uganda lies astride the equator in Eastern Africa with in latitudes 40 12' North and 1029' South of
the Equator and between Longitudes 290 34' to 350 0' East of green witch Meridian. Uganda is a
land locked country boarded by Tanzania in the south, Rwanda in the south west, DRC in the
west, the republic of southern Sudan in the North and Kenya in the East. The country’s total
surface area is 241,550 Km2 of which 199,807km2 Km2 is land, while 41,743km2 is open water
and swamps. 55'

The physiography of Uganda

Physiographically, Uganda is located at the heart of the great African plateau. In terms of
altitude Most of the country lies within altitude 900 – 1,500m above sea level with an average
altitude of 1200m. The lowest points being Nimule on the Sudan border in North Western part
of the country, where the altitude is 600 m.a.s.l and the Lake Albert region with altitude of
620m.a.s.l on the floor of the western rift valley. The highest point is Mt Rwenzori whose
highest pick Stanley, is 5110m at the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo followed by
Mount Elgon, 4322m at the border with Kenya.

The plateau and Plains in Uganda

Most of Uganda is part of the interior high plateau of Africa that is lower in the north and
higher in the south. The plateau surfaces form the major landscape element of Uganda lower in
the north and centre of the country and higher in the south and southwest. The plateau in
Uganda can be subdivided into major plateau zones namely; the Lake Victoria plateau zone, the
interior plateau, the western plateau. The plateau in Uganda like the African plateau comprises
several levels lying at varying elevations which represent several stages of truncation/ erosion
across complex underlying structures of the ancient rock basement.

The L Victoria plateau zone is a water shed zone that is dominated by flat topped Mesa-like
hills. These flat topped hills owing their distinctive form in part to a duricrust capping that rise
to much the same height along the immediate lake watershed generally 1280m-1341m.
Separated from each other by broad uniform valley slopes which descend into extensive
papyrus swamps.

To the west relative relief rises so that in Masaka, this hill top level stands at 1280m, rising in
Koki to 1400m and in Rakai and Mubende to 1524m. West of Mubende, relief is dorminated by
broken granite hills and exfoliated domes. Further west, In the Ankole region, the hill tops rise
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up to 1828m. In this part of the country the hills encircle lowland embayments which are
broadly circular in form and represent eroded granite domes; these features are called ‘arenas.’
The upper hill tops show irregularities being higher on resistant rocks as argillites and quartizites
and lower on weaker rocks such as granites and Schists.

It should be noted that in the western plateau zone, the valley level represented by the arena
floors stand at 1463m in Ankole compared to those of Buganda which stands at 1158m. In
principle, it is evident that the general level of the plateau rises from the central plateau zone to
westward and as such the hill tops, flats valley floor levels rise to the west. In the same way,
relative relief rises too.

In the south west of the country, the plateau reaches its greatest heights with the hill summit
levels above 2100m in Kigezi. These Plateau levels are deeply incised particularly by fast flowing
streams. Note that the rise of the plateau from the central part of the country to the west is not
accidental but represents long continued deformation of the plateau by warping.

The Bunyoro-Toro (central) plateau zone, sits on the up warped shoulders of the western rift
valley where the axis of uplift was parallel but behind the fault scarp. The uplift had a gentle tilt
to the north so that the peneplain surface is higher in Toro, 1400m than in Bunyoro 1050m.
Erosional remnants of this surface exist in many localities between Hoima and Masindi forming
the Bunyoro hills. The warping of this landscape has had remarkable effect on drainage pattern
in that the initial East to west pattern was reversed, flooding the valleys that form L. kyoga and
the over flow was forced northward round the edge of the uplifted zone. The kafu reversed its
course and now flows east. Beyond the uplift however the initial direction of flow has been
maintained so that from the marshy water shed in a portion of the original valley, the Misfit
Nkusi drains westward while Kafu flows east. The Uplift and a steep drop to the local base level
of l. Albert 620m has rejuvenated the streams west of the axis of uplift resulting into stream
down cutting and waterfalls. The western boundary is marked by the rift escarpment and
eastward are the northern plains.

In the northern areas of Acholi, Lango, Teso, Northern Busoga and Buganda, relative relief is
low forming the northern plains. On the west, the plains are bounded by the Nile and on the
East by the Eastern highlands. The Acholi Peneplain sweeps Eastward without a break rising
from 1000m to over 1500m at the Kenya boarder. Rising from the erosional plain are inselbergs
and residual hill masses of which the most striking ones are the the Labwor hills and Guruguru
hills. The very gentle warping of this surface upwards to the east and to the west has interrupted
an earlier drainage pattern in which the major streams flowed eastwards. As a result of the up
warping, there has been back ponding and the creation of Lake Kyoga system, a ria at 1040m in
the middle of Africa. As a result of tilting, rivers from the west and East drain into the Kyoga
basin. Due high rate of deposition, L. Kyoga system is shallow; surrounded by alluvial flats and
has large Island of floating as well as grounded papyrus.

As if it were an annex of Uganda, west Nile extends from the Albert Nile to the Congo water
shed. A complex fault trough guides the Nile in this region. Much of the land is a plain
interrupted by hills but towards the Congo, Land raises to a plateau at about 1200m.
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In terms of mode of formation, these plateau surfaces are thus erosional surfaces and a product
of long periods of erosion un-interrupted by folding and uplifting. Initially uplift raised the
Ugandan surface into upland and later erosion acting under periods of relative tectonic stability
reduced the uplifted block to varying levels of elevation based on rock structure and rate of
tectonic activity.

The plains in Uganda can be attributed prolonged uniform erosion over largely homogenous
rocks with the Inselbergs as points of rock resistance to weathering and erosion. Refer to Davis’
peneplanation theory and Penck Pediplanation theory.

MOUNTAINS

The rise of the plateau levels to the East and west is emphasized by the impressive mountainous
topography found along the border lands. To the west lie the Rwenzori Mountains (often
called the Mountains of the Moon) forming about eighty kilometers of the border between
Uganda and Zaire. The highest peaks of Mount Stanley, in the Ruwenzoris, are snowcapped .
Foremost among these are Margherita (5110meters) and Alexandra (5,094 meters). The
mountain slopes down into part of the deep trouph of the western rift valley.

To southwest is the Mufumbiro volcanoes, the northernmost of the Mufumbiro volcanoes reach
4,132 meters on Mount Mahavura; 3,648 meters on Mount Mgahinga; and 3,477 meters on
Mount Sabinio, which marks the border with Rwanda and Zaire.

To the east, the border with Kenya is also marked by volcanic highlands. Dominating these,
roughly 120 kilometers north of the equator, is the mass of Mount Elgon, which rises from the
1,200-meter plains to reach a height of 4,322 meters. Mount Elgon is a large extinct extinct
volcano, with ridges radiating thirty kilometers from its crater. Rich soil from its slopes is eroded
into the plains below. Together with these is Tororo rock and a complex of similar eroded
volcanic plugs. North of Mount Elgon are the mountains of northern Karamoja namely Nepak
and Kadam. Kadam (also known as Debasien or Tabasiat) Peak, reaches a height of 3,054
meters, and Mount Moroto, at 3,085 meters.

In the far northeast, Mount Zulia, Mount Morungole, and the Labwor and Dodoth Hills reach
heights in excess of 2,000 meters. The lower Imatong Mountains and Mount Langia, at 3,029
meters, mark the border with Sudan. Relief contrasts are great in the west, the Rwenzori from
the highest peak of the Rwenzori to the hot arid flats around Lake Albert to the northwest, with
a height difference of about 4500m.

While the Rwenzori is a horst elevated between faults, the other Ugandan mountains are
volcanic in origin. Those of the Eastern boarder are older and have been deeply eroded,
Moroto and Kadam are examples. Others have almost been completely destroyed as Tororo
and Napak.

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Lakes and Rivers

Uganda is a well-watered country. Nearly one-fifth of the total area, or 44,000 square
kilometers, is open water or swampland. Four of East Africa's Great Lakes--Lake Victoria, Lake
Kyoga, Lake Albert, and Lake Edward lie within Uganda, on its borders. Lake Victoria dominates
the southeastern corner of the nation, with almost one-half of its 10,200-square-kilometer area
lying inside Ugandan territory. It is the second largest inland freshwater lake in the world (after
Lake Superior), and it feeds the upper waters of the Nile River, which is referred to in this
region as the Victoria Nile.

Lake Kyoga and the surrounding basin dominate central Uganda. Extensions of Lake Kyoga
include Lake Kwania, Lake Bugondo, and Lake Opeta. These "finger lakes" are surrounded by
swampland during rainy seasons. All lakes in the Lake Kyoga Basin are shallow, usually reaching
a depth of only eight or nine meters, and Lake Opeta forms a separate lake during dry seasons.
Along the border with Zaire, Lake Albert, Lake Edward, and Lake George occupy troughs in the
western Rift Valley.

Leaving Lake Victoria at Owen Falls, the Victoria Nile descends as it travels toward the
northwest. Widening to form Lake Kyoga, the Nile receives the Kafu River from the west before
flowing north to Lake Albert. From Lake Albert, the Nile is known as the Albert Nile as it travels
roughly 200 kilometers to the Sudan border. In southern and western Uganda, geological
activity over several centuries has shifted drainage patterns. The land west of Lake Victoria is
traversed by valleys that were once rivers carrying the waters of Lake Victoria into the Congo
River system. The Katonga River flows westward from Lake Victoria to Lake George. Lake
George and Lake Edward are connected by the Kizinga Channel. The Semliki River flows into
Lake Edward from the north, where it drains parts of Zaire and forms a portion of the Uganda-
Zaire border.

Spectacular waterfalls occur at Karuma falls and Murchison (Kabalega) Falls on the Victoria Nile
just east of Lake Albert. At the narrowest point on the falls, the waters of the Nile pass through
an opening barely seven meters wide. One of the tributaries of the Albert Nile, the Zoka River,
drains the northwestern corner of Uganda, a region still popularly known as the West Nile
although that name was not officially recognized in 1989. Other major rivers include the Achwa
River (called the Aswa in Sudan) in the north, the Pager River and the Dopeth-Okok River in
the northeast, and the Mpologoma River, which drains into Lake Kyoga from the southeast.

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Evolution of Uganda’s Physiography

Uganda forms part of the great African plateau which, exposed as a land surface during long
geological epochs, was reduced to a peneplain. The many flat-topped hills of Buganda bear
evidence of the high degree of uniformity which this peneplain had attained before it was
elevated, warped, tilted, broken, and exposed to the rejuvenated drainage which subsequently
dissected it. Buganda has an average altitude of nearly 1200M, but in the south-west, average
altitude is over 1500M, and much of the area exceeds 1800M. The lowest mean altitude is in
the north-east, where most of the country is little over 900M.

The plateau’s altitude in Uganda rises from the lake Victoria region to the East and West,
broken by the rift valley north west of the Victoria plateau and declines northward. The north-
eastern boundary is along the foot of the western escarpment of the Eastern Rift or Great Rift
Valley of Kenya. In general the plateau has been tilted up towards the edges along the Eastern
and Western Rifts.

Rising from the plateau are numerous peaks which, in particular are restricted to the margins of
the country. To the south-east corner is Mt. Elgon (4321 M), which with Mt. Debasien (3063M
), the Napak, Mt. Moroto and other hills in Karamoja, forms a range of extinct volcanoes
bordering the Eastern Rift. On the west is the Rwenzori Range that rises to about 5110M and
this affords the only permanent snow and glacier fields in Uganda on Margherita peak found on
Mt. Stanley. The Rwenzori Range is not volcanic but an upthrust/ faulted block surrounded by
the down thrust areas of Lake Albert, the Semliki Valley, and Lakes Edward and George. This
part of the country contains the most astonishing physiography and tectonics and is a centre of
seismic disturbances which from time to time are felt over much of the country.

In the extreme south-west of the country, lying athwart the Western Rift, are the volcanic peaks
of the Mufumbira Range, continuing into the Congo as the Birunga Mts. The highest of the
volcanoes lying with in the Uganda border, all of which are extinct, are Muhavura (4,132
I3,547 ft.), Sabinyo (3,477M), and Mgahinga (3,648 M.) On the Congo side of the border
several of the volcanoes of this range are still active.

With a few exceptions, principally the Victoria Nile and part of the Kagera, the rivers of Uganda
are unimpressive. Most of the principal rivers occupy broad valley, have a very slow rate of
flow, and are choked by papyrus. At first sight they appear to be nothing more than a great
system of papyrus swamps, but physiographically these rivers are far more interesting than this
swamp scenery would suggest, for several of the largest rivers do flow in more than one
direction.

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During a long period of geological time, prior to the deposition of the Karroo Beds, Uganda, in
common with much the backbone of Africa, was a land surface. This greatly prolonged
exposure to subaerial denudation resulted in a general planing down to almost a common level
peneplain.

About late Cretaceous or early Tertiary times, powerful earth movements commenced, which
profoundly disturbed the great African peneplain. It was broken into smaller blocks, some of
which sank or were forced down with the resultant formation of the Eastern and Western Rifts.
The blocks between the two great parallel systems of rift valleys were not left undisturbed; they
were tilted and warped.

The erosional equilibrium which had been attained during the later phases of the formation of
the great peneplain was destroyed, and the renewed erosion which set in, eroded the old
peneplain into a very dissected plateau. There were also two later, though shorter, periods of
peneplanation, and it is the remnants of the second of the three peneplains that are particularly
well seen in the lateritised flat hill-tops of central Buganda.

Crustal disturbances of such magnitude as those that gave rise to the rift valleys naturally lead to
the escape and discharge of molten magrna from below. The voicanic activity which proceeded
in East Africa during Tertiary times, into the Quaternary period, has continued locally to the
present day. In Uganda, this activity broke out along the margins of the Eastern and Western
Rifts giving rise to Elgon and its northerly associates, as well as the Mufumbiro Range.

In addition to these volcanic areas which have been previously mentioned, the corner of the
plateau block bordering the upraised mass of the Ruwenzori Range, flanked on three sides by
the Western Rift, was a particularly unstable region. In consequence it is dotted by numerous
volcanoes; but few of these extruded any appreciable amount of lava. They were craters of the
type characterised by great explosive violence, and ejected magma being fragmental and mainly
in the form of fine dust and lapilli. Many of these old explosion craters of Nyakasura,
Busongora, Bunyaruguru are now occupied by picturesque crater lakes. Some of them, such as
those of Katwe and Kasenyi, are strongly saline and support a native salt industry.