Presenting on Uganda as part of AfriExperience

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Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of presenting on Uganda to a room of Yale University students as part of AfriExperience, organized by the Yale Africa Business & Society Club (ABSC).

• Mountain gorillas.
• Snow-capped Rwenzori peaks at the Equator.
• Tree-climbing lions.
• The unmistakable aroma of a fresh rolex on a Kampala street corner.

It is easy to see why Winston Churchill described Uganda as “from end to end a beautiful garden.”

In line with the theme of past, present, and future, I shared a few facts that tend to surprise people:

• With 19,000+ species, Uganda is among the 10 most biodiverse countries in the world
• Home to over 50% of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas
• Recently surpassed Ethiopia to become Africa’s largest coffee exporter
• 2026 is set to mark the start of commercial oil production

But beyond wildlife and natural resources, the country remains one of Africa’s most underrated intellectual forces:

• Ranks 5th in Africa in peer-reviewed academic output when normalized by GDP
• Makerere University, once called the “Harvard of Africa,” served as a defining postcolonial intellectual hub, educating five African heads of state
• In 1962, Makerere convened what became a defining gathering of postcolonial African storytellers, including Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul
• Transition Magazine, founded at Makerere in 1961, became one of the leading intellectual journals of post-independence Africa and is now published by Harvard University

More recently:

• Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) developed NARO-TICKVAC, an anti-tick vaccine field-tested on 10,000+ cattle with up to ~90% effectiveness, targeting livestock diseases that cost African farmers over $1B annually
• Makerere-based initiative AirQo has built one of Africa’s largest real-time air quality monitoring networks, informing environmental policy across multiple cities
• Makerere School of Law was the highest-ranking African team at the 2024 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C., competing among 700+ law schools from over 100 countries

This is only a snapshot. Over the past few weeks alone, I have met several Ugandans doing remarkable work at the Ivy League and beyond.

I am keen to see many more step into those spaces.

If you are Ugandan and considering graduate study, I am happy to be a sparring partner as you think through your application. Feel free to DM me.

Written by

Timothy Asiimwe

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