As is the case with the other countries that linguists have discussed under the
name East Africa, i.e. Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, English came
to the area that makes up Uganda today relatively late. This chapter traces the
history of English in the country. It describes where speakers of English initially
came from and who the users of English have been until today to provide a
basis for a full appreciation of the sociolinguistics of present-day Uganda and
of the differences from its East African neighbours Kenya and Tanzania. It will
also discuss how the protectorate status, the lack of a settler strand, and the circumstances
of the 1960s, 70s and 80s set Uganda apart from more prototypical
postcolonial countries and seem to provide challenges to existing models.