Sir Samuel Baker and the Victoria Nile Shipwreck

The history of Uganda has a diversity of religious and colonial players mainly from Britian and the Arabic traders. It is well known that slave trade was the main highlight of not only Uganda but also East Africa at large.

There are a number of historical slave trade sites in Uganda. However much Uganda is a land locked country; it was one of the main players in the slave markets of East Africa due to the supremacy of the Bunyoro and Buganda Kingdoms. Like else where in the world; Masters, kings and chiefs used to do raids in the neighboring communities to acquire people they would sell as slaves. This was also true of the Uganda martyrs who most of which came from the neighboring tribes.

Though slavery was already practiced in Buganda, it was a beat dignified. The slaves were raised as though they were family members, given names in line with the master’s family so that if there was any need to send the master’s child in the king’s palace as a servant, they would instead choose the slave who carried their name to serve the King.

Serving the King was never an easy task. The king was supreme, any mistake would cost you your life at any given day. So the chiefs would often raise slave children who would later serve in the palace as the chief’s sons before the king. This would help the chiefs protect their sons from being killed in case of any mistake.

However when the Arabs came to East Africa, they introduced a new form of slavery which went beyond raising individuals as slaves in a home to selling them to whoever had enough items to barter trade with the master. Many slave stop overs were set up in the different parts of Uganda to acquire slaves from almost every corner of Uganda.

It was during these days of selling people to work in other parts of the world as slaves that trade and religion formed a contradicting junction of events. Some individuals dealt in slave trade yet at the same time they were religious.

There were mainly three religions that were fighting for a spot in Uganda; Catholicism, Anglicans and Muslims. And most of these had representatives some of which were religious while others fronted the desires of their home countries. Out of these; Sir Samuel Baker was among.

Sir Samuel Baker was an explorer but mostly known for the big game hunting; mainly Rhinos. His exploration work was done in different parts of Uganda; Acholi region inclusive. It was in Acholi region that Sir Samuel Baker’s great Shipwreck took place.

Most of Sir Samuel Baker’s journeys were inspired by his quest for the source of the Nile with his fellow explore John Speke.

Due to the poor road networks in those days, water transport was the most efficient way to move from one end to another. So no one would opt for road transport unless the option of water transport was not available.  But there was one problem with water transport, you were never guaranteed of a safe voyage partly because of the condition of the ships. It was also for these same reasons why Sir Samuel Baker crushed on a Ship in Acholi region on Victoria Nile.

Sir Samuel Baker was able to survive the ship wreck, but his gun is believed to have sunk with the Ship. Efforts are being undertaken to retrieve the ship and the gun of the late sir Samuel baker from Victoria Nile. This has come with a number of amazing discoveries like the electric fish in the Victoria Nile.

This is one of the places we recommend tourists to visit. It is still unexplored; we believe for flexibility purposes it is better to do it through a self drive safari or hire with a driver to save you time.