Uganda obtained formal independence on October 9, 1962. Its borders, encompass two types of societies: the relatively centralized Bantu kingdoms of the south and the more decentralized Nilotic and Sudanic peoples to the north. Uganda’s written record begins with the introduction of British rule in the late 1800’s. Despite organizational and institutional changes within the British colonial administration, a cohesive administrative record was maintained by civil servants. Throughout the turbulence of the following decades, the Ugandan National Archives persisted in spite of both episodes of deliberate destruction by both British and Ugandan officials and the negligence of a nation torn asunder by violence and cultural dissidence.