Evidence of civilisation in Uganda 3000 years before Jesus

Deep into the lake, we find Dolwe Islands, one of Lake Victoria’s best kept secret sites. The islands represent beauty, contrast, diversity and mystery. If you enjoy starring untouched natural beauty, this is the place for you. But this is a story for another day. 

Everywhere on the islands there is glaring evidence that our ancestors were technically advanced humans. They drew a lot of art on the walls of their shelters. The art is in several varieties symbolising the imaginations and ways of life of the people of that time. There are specific places from where they mixed the paint which they used to draw their paintings. if you think about it, a person who can paint is a person who can write. And their paint was not just about simple scribbling - it had deep meanings. Even modern day humans may struggle to interpret it - which is the very essence of art (everyone to have their own interpretation). Having ability to mix paint that could last over 5000 years in open space is indicative of how advanced these guys were. Even modern day scientists still struggle to find the formula or the material used to make this paint.

Besides painting, our ancestors mastered the technology of drilling hard rocks and making anything they wanted out of it. There are hundreds of rocks with holes that were carefully drilled in the same size , precision and shape. A careful observation shows some marks, indicating that the instruments used to drill the rocks were clearly man made and harder than the rock itself. They even managed to level rock roofs, making them smooth and attaining the height they wanted. On these roofs, there is soot which proves that these people had fire.

There is also evidence that they knew how to count. On one of the rocks, they made a board game (mweso). First, the mweso holes are made in a straight line and in the same order that the mweso is made today. You cannot make the exact number of holes if you don't know how to count. Besides, how do you play the mweso if you cannot count? At one rock, Bugiire, there is a rock gong, a musical instrument that was clearly played for several years. It's a rock that is able to produce all the melodic notes and one end (which was played) is smooth while the other (not played) is rough. This tells you that our forefathers discovered music and actually enjoyed it. 

All of these sightings in the middle of know where in the lake raise important questions. How did the ancient people reach these islands? Did they have vessels that could sail and reach this far? Today, a normal boat takes about 4-5 hours to reach these islands. If they were able to sail, then they had advanced boat building technology! and a navigation system.  Lake Victoria has always been around. Layman's proof is that even before Moses of the Bible was born the Nile River was there and it comes from Lake Victoria. Science shows that the last time the lake dried up completely was about 17,000 years ago. If this is true, may be this is about the time that our ancestors lived in this place. But then, these could have been highly elevated areas. How did they climb the rocks to do all this writing? Other questions include: who were these people? Which tribe were they? What happened to all these developments? A society that had men that could count, write, sail, invent and make fire was a very advanced society. One thing you should know is that this is not the stone age kind of people we were taught in school. This was a well civilised society. 

Perhaps you need to visit these islands and see all of these things for yourself. You will know for sure that Ugandans were more advanced than so many other people - even before America existed as a country!

Besides, the place has beautiful white sand beaches, expansive waters for all sorts of water activity, curvy rocks and a cool breeze. Talk to us if you need to discover this secret of Africa's early civilisation.