Travel East Africa in your imagination with Engo Tours and Adventures!
Now, while African travel is largely not possible, thanks to Covid-19, let us take the time to plan a first class trip for you. Our meticulously well-planned safaris and urban tours guarantee an amazing African adventure, viewing animals, fishing, hiking and mountain climbing, bird-watching (there are more species of birds in Uganda than in all of North America), and luxuriating in Africa’s great camps and sophisticated hotels and restaurants.
We will put together a complete tour, based on your specific requirements and fondest wishes, and will hold your itinerary until you’re ready to make it come true. Once we are all free to travel again, arrange your dates and come live the adventure that you have, so far, only been able to imagine! As soon as the lockdown is lifted, this offer will disappear, so contact us now, and let’s get this journey started!
The cost for your detailed itinerary is just $50 for each week that you plan to travel. The non-refundable itinerary cost will be credited to your trip quote.
This special, very affordable offer is only available while the lockdown is in effect in East Africa, so don’t delay!
But finding a good general history of the country has been difficult – until now. Richard J. Reid’s A History of Modern Uganda is the book I’ve been waiting for, both for my course and for my own knowledge of Uganda’s historical place in East Africa and the broader world.
Reid sets out to tell the story of Uganda differently, by avoiding a simple narrative of political events to situate the country’s history in the long series of interactions between different ethnic groups and outsiders. He grapples directly with whether it even makes sense to speak of a precolonial history of “Uganda” as a unit, given the linguistic and cultural divides of the precolonial kingdom’s and societies that were slapped together in British East Africa.
Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu’s life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze. As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Nigeria at the time is under military dictatorship, and people are seeking to leave the country. Ifemelu moves to the United States to study, where she struggles for the first time with racism and the many varieties of racial distinctions: for the first time, Ifemelu discovers what it means to be a “Black Person”.[3] Obinze had hoped to join her in the U.S. but he is denied a visa after 9/11. He goes to London, eventually becoming an undocumented immigrant after his visa expires.[4][5]
Years later, Obinze returns to Nigeria and becomes a wealthy man as a property developer in the newly democratic country. Ifemelu gains success in the United States, where she becomes known for her blog about race in America, entitled “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black”. When Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, the two consider reviving a relationship in light of their diverging experiences and identities during their many years apart.
The Zanzibar House of Wonders Museum: Self-Reliance and Partnership, a Case Study in Culture and Development
by Abdul SheriffProvides an interesting case study in culture and development, an example of best practice in the field, with lessons to be learned for the future* Explores the relevance of a museum to the population it serves and to economic development* Offers a glimpse into Zanzibar s extraordinary history and cultureZanzibar is a small island off the east African coast with a grand history. Its national museum is located in one of the world s most beautiful buildings, The House of Wonders. Between 2000 and 2005 a nineteenth-century sultan’s palace was converted into a museum to display the history and culture of Zanzibar and the Swahili coast. Does such a venture need foreign assistance? And if it does, how to circumvent the pitfalls of dependency? This book describes how Zanzibar managed to marry self-reliance and partnership in the development of its new museum. Since the UNESCO report Our Creative Diversity in 1995, attention to culture and development has risen. One of the needs felt in later years was more documentation of examples of best practice in this field. The development of the Zanzibar House of Wonders Museum can serve as such an example. It has been exemplary in many ways: in its contribution to the safeguarding of Zanzibar s heritage and in its wider scope; its approach to self-reliance and autonomy; and in the sustainability of its results. Part of this development has been a training program, which has a unique character and has contributed greatly to the overall results.”
Lying in the remote hills of southwest Uganda, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest harbors elephants, chimpanzees, monkeys, and half the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. For two years, Thor Hanson called that forest home, working with local guides and trackers to develop an ecotourism program for the newly-formed Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Thoroughly researched and beautifully told, Hanson’s story blends natural history with cultural insight to place the forest and the gorillas in the context of modern Africa. The Impenetrable Forest offers a rare glimpse into the world of mountain gorillas, and the human cultures that surround them. A must-read for anyone interested in gorilla tracking, endangered species, or travel to Uganda.
Idi Amin was one of the most evil dictators in modern history, butchering hundreds of thousands of his own people. And for one young novelist he became an obsession. As the tyrant lies on his deathbed, Giles Foden recalls the remarkable life of his tragicomic hero. I’ll be glad when he goes, not least because I won’t have to write about him any more. But it’s been a fine romance. It all began on my parents’ verandah in Mbarara, western Uganda. The year was 1990. I had won a creative writing studentship from Cambridge and had ambitions to write a novel about an African dictator. I had invented one called Dipsenza – a very bad man, as George Bush would put it, but he didn’t quite work. — The Guardian
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
by Philip Gourevitch
In April of 1994, the government of Rwanda called on everyone in the Hutu majority to kill everyone in the Tutsi minority. Over the next three months, 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler’s war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch’s haunting work is an anatomy of the killings in Rwanda, a vivid history of the genocide’s background, and an unforgettable account of what it means to survive in its aftermath. — Goodreads
Kalinda is a page in Mwanga’s palace. His life is centred on pleasing the Kabaka. The beauty of Mwanga’s second wife, Nagawa, threatens his relationship with the Kabaka. Nagawa desperately wants to give Mwanga an heir, but the religious war with in Buganda, coordinated by Reverend Clement tests Kalinda and Nagawa’s loyalty towards their Kabaka.
Nakisanze Segawa was born in the Luweero Triangle. She is both a fiction writer and a Luganda performance poet. Her poetry and short stories have been published by Jalada and Femrite. Nakisanze is a contributor to both the Daily Monitor and Global Press Journal.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: We should all be feminists
We teach girls that they can have ambition, but not too much … to be successful, but not too successful, or they’ll threaten men, says author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In this classic talk that started a worldwide conversation about feminism, Adichie asks that we begin to dream about and plan for a different, fairer world — of happier men and… https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TED Speaker
Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature. Novelist https://www.ted.com/speakers/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie
Now that Entebbe Airport has reopened, and your Ugandan safari can finally become a reality, this article will give you an idea of what to expect as you transit through the airport, and travel about the country. As always, your safety is our primary concern, so you may be assured that we are taking all necessary precautions to keep you safe. We look forward to welcoming you soon!
This is to let you know that we are taking extreme precautions in keeping our guests safe from the Covid-19 pandemic. We would first like to say that Uganda has been one of the least affected countries in East Africa, due to quick action by the government in March. As we cautiously begin to reopen, here are some of the steps we are taking:
1. We are enhancing our cleaning protocol, which includes thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing our vehicles. Vehicle surfaces are also sanitized after any 30-minute stop while on safari.
2. Our staff are regularly tested to ensure that they are safe from the virus.
3. Our guests are advised to travel with a Covid-19 certificate to ensure that they are safe from the virus.
4. We have a temperature gun that will check our guests immediately upon arrival and while on the trip to ensure we are all safe. This will be done every morning upon the start of our safaris.
5. Social distancing will be observed from the start and all throughout the safari or tour.
6. A mask is essential to carry along as you travel. We advise that you carry the type of mask made of cloth with a filter, and carry a good supply so that you may change as necessary.
7. We will have hand sanitizer available in the vehicle. As an added precaution, please carry your own personal supply of hand sanitizer.
Protocols have been established for travelers arriving and departing through Entebbe International Airport. In the next post, we will let you know what you can expect as you transit through.
We so look forward to welcoming you back to Uganda. Please let us know how we can help make that happen.
The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda by Andrew Rice From Rwanda to Sierra Leone, African countries recovering from tyranny and war are facing an impossible dilemma: to overlook past atrocities for the sake of peace or to seek catharsis through tribunals and truth commissions. Uganda chose the path of forgetting: after Idi Amin’s reign was overthrown, the new government opted for amnesty for his henchmen rather than prolonged conflict.
Ugandans tried to bury their history, but reminders of the truth were never far from view. A stray clue to the 1972 disappearance of Eliphaz Laki led his son to a shallow grave—and then to three executioners, among them Amin’s chief of staff. Laki’s discovery resulted in a trial that gave voice to a nation’s past: as lawyers argued, tribes clashed, and Laki pressed for justice, the trial offered Ugandans a promise of the reckoning they had been so long denied.
For four years, Andrew Rice followed the trial, crossing Uganda to investigate Amin’s legacy and the limits of reconciliation. At once a mystery, a historical accounting, and a portrait of modern Africa, The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget is above all an exploration of how—and whether—the past can be laid to rest. — Goodreads
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
by Roméo DallaireOn the 10th anniversary of when UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada proudly publishes the unforgettable 1st-hand account of the genocide by the leader of the mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism & international politics. His message is simple, undeniable: Never again.
When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire was called to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in ’93, he thought he was heading off on a straightforward peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned & suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days.
In Shake Hands with the Devil, he takes readers with him on a return voyage into hell, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. This book is an unsparing eyewitness account of the failure by humanity to stop the genocide, despite timely warnings. Woven thru the story of this disastrous mission is his own journey from confident Cold Warrior, to devastated UN commander, to retired general engaged in a painful struggle to find a measure of peace, hope & reconciliation.
This book is a personal account of his conversion from a man certain of his worth & secure in his assumptions to one conscious of his own weaknesses & failures & critical of the institutions he’d relied on. It might not sit easily with standard ideas of military leadership, but understanding what happened to him & his mission to Rwanda is crucial to understanding the moral minefields peacekeepers are forced to negotiate when we ask them to step into dirty wars.–Goodreads
