By Crispin Kaheru
The other day, I received an invitation to celebrate 50 years of the Uganda–EU partnership on 7 May 2026. So I thought to myself: fifty years? Not quite. My history teachers taught me differently. The relationship between Uganda and Europe did not begin in 1976 when the European Economic Community opened its delegation in Kampala. By then, the relationship was already well over a century old.
In truth, Uganda and Europe have been circling each other for more than 160 years.
In 1862, British explorer John Hanning Speke arrived at the court of Kabaka Mutesa I searching for the source of the Nile. Imagine the scene. A European explorer arrives in Buganda looking for a river that had probably existed for thousands, if not millions, of years. The Kabaka must have wondered why these strange men were so obsessed with water they did not even create.
Then came Henry Morton Stanley in 1875. Then Winston Churchill visited Uganda in 1907, subsequently describing the country as the "Pearl of Africa" in his 1908 book, My African Journey.
Soon after came missionaries, traders, and colonial administrators carrying everything from Bibles to business plans. The Scottish missionary Alexander Mackay built roads, translated scripture into Luganda, and established printing presses. Frederick Lugard arrived with indirect rule. Sir Apollo Kaggwa negotiated political arrangements that would shape Uganda for generations. These were all Europeans. Never mind Brexit!
Like many long relationships, this one has had some unique moments. Europe colonised Uganda. Uganda resisted Europe. Europe lectured Uganda. Uganda lectured Europe back. And yet, remarkably, the relationship endured.
That is why the 50th anniversary of formal EU–Uganda diplomatic partnership matters, not because it marks the beginning, but because it marks survival.
Few partnerships have survived Idi Amin, Cold War politics, structural adjustment, donor fatigue, migration crises, Brexit debates, and still managed to sit together at business forums discussing digital infrastructure and climate finance over coffee from Mount Elgon.
And speaking of coffee, there lies one of the real success stories.
For decades, Uganda exported raw coffee beans while Europe roasted, branded, packaged, and profited handsomely. Today, the conversation is changing. Uganda is pushing for value addition, agro-processing, manufacturing, and industrialisation. Europe is increasingly speaking the language of investment rather than charity. That shift matters.
In 2024, bilateral trade between Uganda and the EU reached about EUR 2.1 billion, with Ugandan exports to Europe nearly tripling since 2019. Coffee, flowers, fish, fruits, and edible oils are crossing into European markets under preferential arrangements. Meanwhile, European investment is moving into infrastructure, agribusiness, energy, technology, and youth entrepreneurship.
The relationship is no longer just about aid envelopes and donor conferences. Increasingly, it is about mutual economic survival. Europe needs stable African partners like Uganda. Uganda needs markets, technology, capital, and skills.
Let me put it this way: Europe is ageing. Uganda is young. Europe has capital. Uganda has energy. Europe has technology. Uganda has demographics. One continent has too many pensioners. The other has too many graduates looking for work. Clearly, nature itself appears to be suggesting a deal.
That is why initiatives like the EU’s Global Gateway programme may prove strategically important. Over EUR 200 million was launched in Uganda in 2024 alone targeting digital infrastructure, agribusiness, SMEs, and women-led enterprises. Thank God even Brussels seems to have discovered that Africans do not survive on governance workshops alone.
And Uganda too must evolve.
We cannot spend the next fifty years exporting raw beans while importing finished chocolate at ten times the price. We cannot continue seeing Europe merely as a donor while ignoring its role as a market, investor, research partner, and geopolitical ally. The future relationship must move from dependency to competitiveness.
The good news is that the foundation already exists. From the roads built by Mackay in the 1880s to the digital corridors being discussed today; from the letters exchanged between Mutesa I and Queen Victoria to the modern Uganda–EU Business Forums; from missionary schools to Erasmus scholarships; from colonial railways to climate financing, this relationship has constantly reinvented itself.
And perhaps that is the real story.
Not that Uganda and Europe have agreed on everything. Far from it. But that after 160 years of arguments, trade, politics, religion, diplomacy, aid, misunderstandings, investment, and occasional mutual irritation, they still keep showing up for the conversation.
That is not merely history. That is a partnership.
The writer is a member of UHRC
