| Wadelai | |
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Wadelai
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| Country | Uganda |
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Wadelai is a village of northern Uganda on the Albert Nile and was the final chief station of Emin Pasha when Governor of Equatoria.
It lies at 2 50' N., 31 35' E., 200 m. in a direct line N.N.W. of Entebbe on Victoria Nyanza, and 72 mi. by river below Butiaba on Albert Nyanza. The British built a government station there on a hill 160 to 200 ft. above the Nile at a spot where the river narrows to 482 ft. and attains a depth of 30 ft. At this place was a gauge for measuring the discharge of the river.
Wadelai was first visited by a European, Lieut. H. Chippendall in 1875, and was named after a chieftain who, when visited by Gessi Pasha (on the occasion of that officer's circumnavigation of Albert Nyanza), ruled the surrounding district as a vassal of Kabarega, king of Unyoro. The region was annexed to the Egyptian Sudan and Wadelai's village chosen as a government post. This post was on the western bank of the Nile, below the existing station.
Here for some time Emin Pasha had his headquarters, evacuating the place in December 1888. Thereafter, for some years, the district was held by the Mahdists. In 1894 the British flag was hoisted at Wadelai, on both banks of the Nile, by Major E. R. Owen. Some twelve years later the government post was withdrawn. There is a village at the foot of the hill.
Winston Churchill described Wadelai as "newly abandoned to ruin" after a visit in 1907. A survey was made in 1963.