President Yoweri Museveni is set to rebrand the country

Under the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), Uganda has been sold as “an unspoilt and largely unexplored tourism destination, but the stunning lushness of our national parks provides the setting for some of the African continent’s most memorable visitor experiences. Mountain gorilla tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park offers the best viewing opportunity in the world for these rare primates, and is the highlight of any trip to Uganda.”

Uganda, UTB adds, is blessed with the rarest primates, including half of the 1,000 Mountain Gorillas there are in the world, along with 5,000 chimpanzees.

Beyond the primates, there are more than 1,000 species of birds, which include the Crested Crane, Uganda’s national bird, and the shoebill.

Uganda has 56 tribes and about nine indigenous communities that formally came to be recognized in the 1995 constitution amendment of 2005.

All these tribes come with a rich diversity within the heterogenous firmament that is Uganda, thereby showing Uganda to be blessed by culture in different varieties.

The rebranding of Uganda is also expressed in renaming Kololo airstrip to Kololo Independence Grounds, where Uganda was granted its independence by the British on October 9th, 1962.

Uganda was originally branded as, “Pearl of Africa” by the former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who was visiting Uganda in 1907.

“The kingdom of Uganda is a fairy-tale. You climb up … and at the end there is a wonderful new world. The scenery is different, the vegetation is different, the climate is different, and, most of all, the people are different from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of Africa ... I say: ‘Concentrate on Uganda’. For magnificence, for variety of form and colour, for profusion of brilliant life - bird, insect, reptile, beast - for vast scale -- Uganda is truly the pearl of Africa,” said Winston Churchill.

In the spirit of rebranding, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) also plans to rename all streets named after Uganda’s colonial masters and foreign notables in an effort to indigenize the city.

Dastur Street-Kampala owes its name to a term used mostly among the Parsis of India. Pulse Live Uganda

Ms. Zahara Maala Luyirika, the Speaker of KCCA, said that this signage overhaul would begin this month.

“That matter was brought before the council but we referred it to the physical planning committee. The committee has been working with the Directorate of Physical Planning and they will be tabling a report before council on January 13, 20022, on renaming city streets and roads,” Ms Luyirika said.

She added that the council backs the decolonizing of streets and roads in favor of renaming those streets and roads after Ugandan natives who have made patriotic contributions to the country.

This effort is also backed by law as the KCCA Act mandates the council to “initiate, formulate and enact legislation” towards the management of Kampala city.