Uganda National Anthem

Key Facts

• 1. Before independence, a government subcommittee held a nationwide contest for the anthem. According to the published account of the later court case, some 50 entries were submitted and four were shortlisted; Kakoma, who said he wrote his entry in a single day, was declared the winner in July 1962.
• 2. The anthem contains no references to war or enemies. Its three short stanzas ask God to uphold Uganda and speak of liberty, love and labour, peace and friendship with neighbors, and the fertile land, ending with the words 'The Pearl of Africa's Crown'.
• 3. At just eight bars, it is one of the shortest national anthems in the world, and all three stanzas are sung at international football matches.
• 4. Kakoma was paid 2,000 Ugandan shillings for the anthem and later sued the government for royalties. In 2019, after his death, the Court of Appeal ruled that the copyright had belonged to the government and that the anthem's copyright protection had ended in 2012.