Soga people

The Soga (also called Basoga) are a Bantu ethnic group native to the kingdom of Busoga in eastern Uganda.

Soga people
Basoga
Total population
2,960,890[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
 Uganda
Languages
Soga language
Religion
Predominately Christianity and Traditional African religions, Minority Islam
Related ethnic groups
Bagwere, Baganda and other Bantu peoples
PersonOmuSoga
PeopleAbaSoga
LanguageOluSoga
CountryBuSoga

History

Early contact with European explorers
Main articles: Uganda before 1900 and Colonial Uganda

Busoga's written history began in 1862. On 28 July Royal Geographical Society explorer John Hanning Speke arrived at Ripon Falls (near Jinja, where the Victoria Nile flows from Lake Victoria and begins its descent to Egypt. Since Speke's route (inland from the East African coast) took him around the southern end of Lake Victoria, he approached Busoga from the west (through Buganda). Having reached his goal (the source of the Nile), he turned northward and followed the river downstream without exploring Busoga. He records, however, being told that Usoga (Swahili for Busoga) was an island (it is bordered on all four sides by water). According to the 2002 Census of Uganda, 16.2% of Basoga are Roman Catholic, 46.2% are Anglican (Church of Uganda), 30.6% are Muslim and 3.7% are Pentecostal.[3]


References
  1. "Uganda". World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples.
  2. Uganda Bureau of Statistics. "National Population and Housing Census 2014 - Main Report" (PDF).
  3. "Population Composition" (PDF). ubos.org. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.