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Jinja is Uganda’s second largest settlement for most of the 20th century and is set 80km east of Kampala. Jinja is famous as the source of the Nile a place where the world’s longest river exits Lake Victoria (Africa’s largest freshwater lake) and starts, its epic 6500km journey to the Mediterranean Sea via the forests of Uganda and deserts of Sudan and Egypt.
Jinja is a town rich in history and was the largest industrial heart of Uganda, but its economy collapsed in the 1970s when Amin expelled all Indians and has never recovered.
Jinja retains its spacious and attractive layout of its colonial layout, and the roads are lined with some fine Asian architecture and thickly vegetated residential suburbs carved from the jungle giving it a sense of tranquility.
Tourism is big business in Jinja though the highly sought-after white-water rafting, bungee jumping, and other exciting activities are further upstream after Bujagali. Only the source of the Nile is downstream and the old town.
Jinja was home to the now submerged Rippon falls and the water from Ripon Falls, fell into a narrow opening that were regarded as the Source of the Nile by the locals of Jinja before 1954.
In 1862–3 John Hanning Speke was the first European to follow the course of the Nile downstream after discovering the falls that his intuition had marked as the source of the Nile.
He named the falls after George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, who was President of the Royal Geographical Society during 1859–60.
The Falls functioned as a natural outlet for Lake Victoria, until in 1954 the construction of Owen Falls Dam was completed and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth the 2nd on her 1954 visit to Uganda and Kenya. The Dam also effectively extended Lake Victoria and submerged Ripon Falls.
Jinja’s proximity to the hydroelectric dam proved attractive to several textile and other manufacturing plants including a brewery among others. For the next decades the economy of Jinja boomed and population rose which included a settler community of 800 Europeans and 5,000 Asians as reflected today in the sprawling double storey mansions that languish in the suburbs and Asian architecture lining the streets of Jinja.
Jinja’s fortunes collapsed following the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972 by Idi Amin. Most of the towns leading industries had been under Asian management and the friends of Amin who were installed in their place generally lacked any business experience resulting in a total breakdown on the local economy.
Checkout our Jinja tours available below:
12 Day Exploring the Nile, Game & Primates (Luxury)
Exploring Jinja with Jumanji Africa Safaris allows you to experience a variety of different safari activities to make your trip even more memorable. Below are the various activities that you can take part in when you visit Jinja.
Considered one of the best one-day white water trips in the world, no safari to Uganda would be complete without truly experiencing the Nile from its source.
White water rafting is the most sought-after experience in Jinja among other activities such as Bungee Jumping, paddleboarding, tandem kayaking and more.
Notice:
No rafting or swimming experience necessary, however clients should be water confident and reasonably fit.
Rafting in Jinja can be done at different water energy levels such as
Grade 5 Rafting – Duration: 15 km • 4 – 5 hours on the river
This is the wildest White-Water Rafting on the Nile. You wild ride all the major rapids that the Nile can throw at you but trust me – it’s so much fun.
Grade 3 Rafting – Duration: 15 kms • 4 – 5 hours on the river
This is the ideal one-day white water river trip for families with children as young as eight and those who want to experience white water rafting on the Nile without the intensity of grade 5 rapids.
Family Float – Duration: 7 kms • 1 ½ – 2 hours on the river
This 2-hour family float is the perfect adventure for small kids. With a minimum age of 4, and plenty of opportunity to splash in the waters of the Nile, this trip provides a wonderful morning adventure for families.
This trip is a great experience for younger families and grandparents alike. For those who wish, there is plenty of places for the kids to swim, always under the watchful eyes of our safety kayakers.
The roads of Jinja city are lined with several colonial-era British and Asian architectural gems of which some have been restored to their former glory and others in varying states of disrepair. Among those is good shape include Madhvani House built in 1919 and The Source Café which occupies a warehouse built in 1924 by the Kampala Oriental Company. Those in a sorry state include the Rasik Villa built in 1935 on Iganga Road, the Police Station built in 1928 on Main Street and Vithaldas Jaridas Building built in 1919 on Naranbhai Road. Southwest of the town center is the VIcar’s House however many other old houses between the town center and the Nile Cressent have been beautifully renovated as hotels or private residences.
This is a well-cemetery comprising of 178 graves of Ugandan and British soldiers killed in World War 2, when Jinja was the Ugandan center for the King’s African Rifles. It contains also 1 World War 1 grave and 4 of servicemen who died after 1945. Within the cemetery is a screen inscribed with the names of 127 East African servicemen who died during World War 2 but whose graves were too remotely located to be maintained properly. Every year 2nd Sunday of November, the British High Commissioner to Uganda and other commonwealth representatives visit the cemetery to pay their respects.
Source of the Nile is a landscape on the East Bank of the now-submerged Ripon Falls the natural landmark associated with the source of the Nile prior to the construction of the Owen Falls Dam in the 1950. It’s a pleasant spot deserving of a once in a lifetime visit and a prominent plaque is there to remind you it marks the starting point of the Nile as it flows to the Mediterranean Sea.