Not That It's a Contest...

America is very about the idea of "diversity" -- just look at any college or grad school application asking how you contribute to a "diverse student population" (uh…). And, to be fair, one of the best things about America is its diversity. It's incredible to be surrounded by a host of races, ethnicities, religions, and opinions about everything under the sun (even at family gatherings).

Interestingly though, something I never really realized until I began writing this article is that, in my opinion, America's current diversity goes hand in hand with its history of immigration. To borrow a bit from my dark LSAT days, I saw/see a history of immigration as necessary for the diversity America enjoys today. Those in the throes of the LSAT's grip might write that belief as follows:

[If] Diversity --> [Then] Immigration

Which logically you can rewrite as:

[If] NO Immigration --> [Then] NO Diversity

In other words, without hundreds of years of immigration, America would not be as diverse today. I think my narrative of American diversity went something like: "We're the most diverse country because we have this totally unprecedented history of hundreds of years of immigration from all over the world that's still continuing today! Now we're this melting pot (or salad bowl) of all different races and cultures. What other country can boast of a legacy like that?"

Well… certainly not Uganda . I don't know if you are aware, but there actually has not been this huge influx of immigrants from all corners of the world pouring into Uganda since the 1600's. So, logically, it follows that Uganda is necessarily less diverse than America. And, if you walked around in Uganda for a few days, probably that assumption would be confirmed.

When I first came to Uganda, I thought hands down, America is more diverse. Where is the middle class? The gender/sexual orientation spectrum? The multitude of religions? I mean, for crying out loud, where are all of the different colors?? And Uganda's so small*, just the size of Oregon, how could it possibly be as diverse as America?

Well my friends. You, like me, might be interested to learn that by some metrics, Uganda is actually more diverse than America.

Whaaat??

I KNOW . How is that possible? Well, Uganda's diversity is absolutely fascinating, mostly because it's a type of diversity that is almost completely unheard of in America. Instead of trying to explain it, we're going to use maps and history, so buckle your seatbelts and prepare for your mind to twist. Let's lurhn!

(Note: You can click on the pictures to see the original image, and a very sad bibliography is at the bottom of this article with their sources.)

Diversity in America and Uganda came about in very different ways, which contributes to why the "diversity" found in both countries looks so different today. Let's start with the basics…

Early Migrations: (Many) People GTFO of Africa

Source: By Ephert (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ok yeah we've all heard this story before: A long, long time ago, we all came from Africa (*collective gasp*). We then collectively decided "Forget this", packed our bags and left for Europe -- much like what I'm going to do when I COS (haaa… joking… kinda…).

Some People Set Up Shop in America

70 Maps That Explain America

So then, again, pretty familiar. Some people called Native Americans are just j-chilling in America and have these nifty things called "tribes". America is super culturally diverse from one tribe to another: different languages, different customs, different "religions", etc. Moving from one tribe to another, I'm sure, could be a lot like moving from one country to another, even if you're just moving a small distance geographically. Look at how many there are! Whoaa!!

PS - Tribes aren't unique to America, across the world tribes are springing up errywhur.

Europeans Get the Memo

70 Maps That Explain America

The British are coming! The British are coming! Ah ok, so Europeans get the memo and are like, whoa, wait, that place called America sounds bomb, I wanna go there. Europeans are out of their tribe phase and now have "countries", but Native Americans are pretty happy with their tribes, so that's how Europeans find them.

When the Europeans come, they say: "Heyyy… Native Americans… so… we're just gonna need this." *shoves Native Americans West*. Rinse and repeat. See the visual here.

Europeans Conquer and Divide

While Europeans are making themselves at home, they divide up America without any regard to the Native Americans and their tribal boundaries. (See the visual of that here.) Colonists drew borders without any real thought to the different populations and without taking into account the different cultures, languages, who may or may not get along, etc. Ultimately though, it didn't end up mattering, because Europeans eradicated the Native Americans along with their tribes.

We Name Ourselves

Then we named all of our new boundaries (states), and, voila, America as we know it was formed.

70 Maps That Explain America

"This map breaks out the language of origin for each US or Mexican state, Canadian province, and Central/South American nation. The East Coast is dominated by English names, most taken from various British monarchs (the Carolinas are named in honor of Charles I, Virginia for Elizabeth I, etc.), cities and regions (York, Hampshire, Jersey), or other figures (William Penn). Also, unsurprisingly, the West Coast has a number of Spanish names, and there are a handful of French ones (Maine, Vermont, Louisiana)."

"Send Me Your Tired, Your Poor"

So, long story short, America was, and continues to be, populated by immigrants from all over the world (though predominantly from mostly white, Western countries). A map below, and another cool visual here.

Constitution Center

And the tribes of the Native Americans are all but forgotten. In today's America, the idea of being segregated by "tribe" is almost so foreign it's hard to imagine. From different continents, and from widely disparate countries, races, cultures, languages, norms, etc. immigrants have always come in, spread out, mixed and matched. In today's America, the British aren't found exclusively to the southwest speaking English and the Germans only in the east speaking German (thank goodness, otherwise I wouldn't be here). America is just this wonderful hodgepodge of races and ethnicities living every and anywhere they please. How cool is that?

Ok, so you knew all (or most) of that. Great, how does that relate to Uganda?

Let's go back to step 1:

(Many) People GTFO of Africa (Part II)

But what about those who didn't? What's going on in Africa?? This is the part my history lessons always omitted, but I shall fill you in with what my little research has revealed now.

Well, my readers, Africa, just like many other places in the world, groups itself into tribes! These tribes, just like Native American tribes, have their own distinct cultures, languages, religions, etc. Just like in America, these tribes are moving around, warring, expanding, falling, etc. I couldn't find a picture of old-school African tribes like I did for old-school Native American tribes, but I do have an example of one early tribe's movements. Here's a map of Bantu tribe's movements from 1000 B.C-1100 A.D. Note their movement into the area next to Lake Victoria that would become Uganda!:

Bantu Migration

And here's a much later map showing some of the major tribal boundaries (the green spots) right before Europe formally carved up Africa. Note the Buganda Kingdom next to Lake Victoria:

Nutty History

Europeans Get the Memo: Part II

This is where things get interesting and where the histories start to diverge. In America, Europeans came, ignored Native Americans' boundaries, created their own boundaries, and then eradicated the Native Americans. Consequently, the Native American ethnic boundaries stopped mattering entirely, and America, as we know it today, has no tie to the tribal system at all anymore.

In Africa, however, Europeans came in, ignored the existing tribal boundaries, created their own boundaries (only about 100 years ago!)…

Nutty History

… and then… didn't eradicate the local population. There are no waves of European immigrants flooding into Africa to settle down. The local tribes aren't destroyed. Instead, the local tribal boundaries continue to exist with the European borders superimposed on top of them.

"This new map of the continent was superimposed over the 1,000 indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. Because they [European Leaders] were looking at maps (and not actually there), these new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided some tribes and merged together groups that historically hated each other."

- Nutty History

Below is an example of the different tribes/ethnicities in Africa with the European borders on top of them:

African Conflict and the Murdock Map of Ethnic Boundaries

So, in one European-created "country", you might have 5 or more tribal groups coexisting. Take, for example, Uganda:

Ethnographic Uganda

You have the Lugbara in the Northeast (where I am) speaking Lugbarati, the Baganda/Buganda dominate most of Central Uganda speaking Luganda, you have the Acholi in the North, the Iteso and the Jopadhola in the East, and so on. There are over 50 tribes and 40 different, active languages in this area we call "Uganda".

Whoa.

So, interestingly enough, the lack of Western immigration (and mass immigration in general) actually preserved a type of diversity that was wiped out and no longer exists in America. As a fun hypothetical before we go on, what would America look like if it had had a fate more similar to Africa? What if Europeans hadn't settled in America and the local tribes had continued to exist to present day? Of course we can't know, but here's a map that projects what the different Native American ethnic boundaries may have looked like.

70 Maps That Explain America

All you have to do now is superimpose the current state boundaries on top of this map, and imagine America's population to be almost entirely of Native American descent. Easy, right…?

Let's get back to Uganda…

Ugandan diversity vs. American diversity:

Uganda is very diverse, but in a different way than America. Ugandans do identify as "Ugandan", but they also strongly, if not more strongly, identify with their tribe: "I'm a Lubgara/Buganda/Acholi…". In my experience, I've found Ugandans identify with their tribe first, then their country and, finally, their continent.

Fun fact: It blows my teachers' minds when I tell them there are no tribes in America.

Some side-effects of these ethnicities and tribes co-existing in the same country is a multitude of languages and a lack of a universal Ugandan "culture" -- the culture and language vary by tribe. I know there are some who are reading this now absolutely quivering to tell me: "There are X many languages spoken in America and many different cultures!!"

Yes, thank youu for that. Many people in America can or do speak a language besides English, but in Uganda it's different. It's not just a small niche of people in each region that are able to communicate in a language other than English or Swahili (the two official languages). Changing regions is more like going from one European country to another: generally every aspect of life is conducted in a language that's different from the neighboring regions. In America, I have not seen such a drastic change in the language from region to region.

Regarding culture, I don't want to get into the weeds with this, but in my humble opinion, the cultural variations between tribes is more pronounced than the cultural variations I have experienced in America. Two additional factors contribute to America having a more homogeneous culture: access to technology and access to transportation. A lack of internet/mass media (very few people have access to computers) and the difficulty of traveling between the regions (very few people leave their tribe/ethnic group on a regular basis) discourage the formation of a homogeneous Ugandan culture in the same way that is seen in many Western countries.

So, in summary, I have found that Uganda is very diverse in terms of languages spoken and diversity between one region's culture another region's; however, Uganda is very homogeneous in the sense that within a region, almost everyone is the same ethnicity, and, even within Uganda itself, almost everyone's race is African/Ugandan. Unlike America, in Uganda diversity is not a "melting pot" of people from different continents and countries intermingling with each other. I would argue, diversity in Uganda is clearly evident when comparing the culture/language of random individuals in different geographic regions of the country.

By comparison, the United States is relatively homogeneous in terms of language and a cross-country culture, but is very diverse in terms of its population's heritage -- it's almost impossible to describe what an "American" looks like. I would argue diversity in America is clearly evident when comparing the race/heritage of random individuals in the same geographic region.

Not That It's a Competition, but...

Some of you now might be trying to decide which country is more diverse. For me, I just don't know.

For what it's worth, one way to measure diversity is to use a measure known as ethnic fractionalization called ELF (for Ethno-Linguistic Fractionalization). The ELF measure reflects the likelihood that two people chosen at random will be from different ethnic groups. According to this study, in Africa, Uganda is the second most fractionalized country. Uganda's ELF is 0.9, which means you have a 90% chance of randomly choosing two Ugandans who are from different ethnic groups (and, I'm sure, speak different languages).

If you want to see how that compares to America, I found this Wikipedia page:

I'm not here to tread on anyone's ideas of American exceptionalism that states "WE ARE THE MOST DIVERSE COUNTRY BY GEORGE!" but I definitely held the belief (though I may not have known it) that the only country with any real diversity is America. I think my idea of diversity was limited to diversity as I saw it in America: different skin colors, sexual orientations, socio-economic statuses… areas of diversity on which American culture places emphasis. And, yes, much of that type of diversity isn't as readily available in Uganda as it is in America; but, being here has expanded my horizons when I consider the topic of "diversity", and in some ways I see America as much more homogeneous than I used to.

I've come to appreciate the diversity within Uganda, the multitude of languages and cultures all squished together into such a small area. I'm often challenged, such as when I try to speak my local language outside of my town and no one understands me; but, more often than not it's fascinating. It's made me re-evaluate what it means to be "diverse". Does it mean different religions (note how America is killing the religious fractionalization)? Different languages? Different races? Different cultures? I'll leave that to your judgement.

In summary though, as much as I have and will continue to try and describe "Uganda" for those at home, describing "Uganda" is as difficult as describing an "American". Yes, there are basic generalities that I will describe in more detail later, but it's important to understand that these are just generalities based on my small sampling of an incredibly diverse country.

I hope this has proved as interesting and thought provoking to you as it has to me. As always, thank you for reading.

One Footnote: "...And Uganda's so small*"

*Uganda is roughly the size of Oregon.

If It Were My Home: Compare US to UG

Because I'm from Texas, I used this site to show me the size of Uganda in relation to my own home state. You can play around with it at if you want to see how Uganda compares to other states in America! (Note: I didn't fact check the statistics they show comparing life in Uganda to life in America.)

If It Were My Home: Compare US to UG

When compared to America, Uganda is pretty small, so it is truly fascinating that Uganda has such a high cultural fractionalization. It just doesn't seem like there'd even be enough geographic space for that many cultures to coexist. However, whereas the population of Oregon is roughly 4 million, Uganda's population is nearly ten times that: ~37.9 million. It's one of the most populous land-locked countries in the world.

For me at least, being here and writing this article has really put American regional stereotypes into perspective (and as a Texan who went to school in New York, I have heard a lot of stereotypes). I hope it's done the same for y'all. #LoudAndProud