Theorizing the African City

The capital of Uganda, Kampala is the country’s largest city. Comprised of five different boroughs – Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division, the city is also referred to as Kampala District.

Located northwest of Murchison Bay, the city is located quite centrally within Uganda. The city itself spans 73 square miles – 68 of which are land and 5 of which are water. It is elevated at roughly 4,000 feet.

Approximately 1.65 million Ugandans call Kampala home. Kampala also houses Makerere University, the East African Development Bank headquarters, the Uganda Museum, the Ugandan National Theatre, the Nakasero Market, and St. Balikuddembe Market.

In the 1675 Map, Kampala is directly on a latitude line. It is near Amara Mons, Agola, and Fungi.

In the 1770 Map (shown above), it is again directly on the same latitude line, and there is a block of text

nearby as opposed to other cities or important landmark notations.

In terms of the Malaria distribution, it is entirely dark blue as represented by the Malaria MARA map. This suggests that there is quite a high frequency of malaria in Kampala.

It appears as though Kampala’s city center, and the avenues that stem from it, form somewhat of a boomerang and Y as noted in the picture above.

The five layers of AfricaMap that I selected to explore were Ethnicity, Economy Agriculture Crop Type, Population Growth Rate, 1000 CE, and religion by ethnicity.

The Ethnicity map indicates one type of ethnicity throughout Kampala – Ganda – which is also associated with the Bantu family (recall Bantu is the primary language in Uganda). Given Ganda’s similarity to the country’s name, this is the prevalent ethnicity throughout most of Uganda.

The Economy Agriculture Crop Type map shows that Kampala, like Uganda, focuses on a tree fruit agricultural economy. This also illuminates the idea that Kampala is a lush environment given the combination of trees and proximity to water.

The Population Growth Rate map, based on the World Census from 2000 suggests that Kampala grows at the same rate as the rest of Uganda – a high 2.77 – 5.84%.

The 1000 CE map shows that Kampala fell in the San category during this time period.

Lastly, the Religion by ethnicity map displays the religious diversity found in Kampala. It appears that Christianity, represented by the pink dots, is quite prominent. Nonetheless, Ethnic Religions (blue) and Islam (green) are also in the mix.