Talk:Wadelai

1963 survey

I have removed the assertion that "A survey was made in 1963." and what I assume was the reference, "BRATHAY EXPLORATION GROUP EXPEDITION TO UGANDA 1963 RGS-IBG Expeditions Database".

I found two relevant points:

• Brathay Exploration Group visited the area in 1962; descriptions in this short film and this journal article do not mention Wadelai.
• The Uganda Museum's Baker Centenary Expedition did survey the Albert Basin in summer 1963, taking in two area:
  1. "The area to the south of Lake Albert and east of the Semliki River between the Kisegi and Wasa Rivers"
  2. "The Murchison Falls area to the north of Lake Albert on both banks of the Victoria Nile"

jnestorius^(talk) 01:06, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

All's well; I found online sources and re-added with proper cites. jnestorius^(talk) 03:54, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Co-ordinates

The co-ordinates 2°50′N 31°35′E from the 1911 (11th) edition are unreliable; they appear to be a long way north-east of the actual site of the station; they were removed from the article by the 1929 (14th) edition. OTOH there are GeoNames co-ordinates for the modern settlement and sub-county; I'm not sure how reliable they are or what existence the settlement has on the ground as opposed to in a GIS database. Since the article is really about the fort rather than the putative modern settlement I don't think the latter's co-ordinates should be promoted from their present location in the running text. jnestorius^(talk) 03:54, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Here are the four relevant places from GeoNames; all in Northern Region, Uganda:

• Amuru District > Kilak County > Amuru subcounty > (?Atiti village >) Wadelai Hill 2°43′45″N 31°29′09″E (? location of British "Wadelai" base)
• Pakwach District > Jonam County >
  • Wadelai subcounty 2°38′26″N 31°21′17″E >
    • Wadelai village populated place 2°43′27″N 31°23′33″E [not a "village" — see next section jnestorius^(talk) 16:31, 5 November 2021 (UTC)]
    • Pakwinyo village > Emin Pasha Camp 2°43′09″N 31°26′21″E

jnestorius^(talk) 16:08, 1 November 2021 (UTC)

Villages

From the Nebbi District website is the following 2015 list of the parishes and villages in Wadelai sub-county....

Parishes and villages of Wadelai sub-county

Parish	Population (2014)	Villages in the parish
Mutir	3,303	Ajei East, Ajei West, Mutir Central, Mutir East, Mutir West, Ojigu Central, Ojigu East, Ojigu West, Pailo Central, Pailo East, Pailo West, Palam East, Palam West
Pakwinyo	6,284	Akonyi, Aparario, Forest, Kabamba, Kolokolo, Mangala, Ocayo Lower, Ocayo Upper, Ongwele East, Ongwelle West, Orra, Pabego, Pachora East, Pachora West, Pader, Padigo, Parabilo, Pavogi East, Pavogi West, Ponvidi
Pumit	4,644	Agi North, Agu South, Aroga, Bar-Boro, Lwalo, Ngamia, Padei North, Padei South, Pajago West, Pajgo East, Pavuji East, Pavuji West
Ragem Lower	5,988	Ajobo, Alicaku, Alla, Jupaley East, Jupaley West, Mukandwa, Nyakumba East, Nyakumba West, Nyawino, Okuma Central, Okuma East, Okuma South, Okuma West, Opetku, Pakich East, Ragem Central, Ragem West
Ragem Upper	3,927	Ayabu Central, Ayabu East, Ayabu West, Borowio, Borowio Central, Kalalo, Paten Central, Paten Lower, Paten Ocayo, Paten Upper, Payeng East, Payeng West, Ragem Prison

References

Since 2015:

1. Wadelai sub-county has been moved to Pakwach District
2. the parishes of Ragem Lower and Ragem Upper have been erected into a new sub-county of Ragem
3. two new parishes of Ongwelle and Ojigo have been created in the reduced Wadelai sub-county, presumably taking some of the villages previously in Mutir, Pakwinyo, and/or Pumit parishes. (Probably Ongwelle parish at a minimum includes Ongwele East and Ongwelle West villages, and Ojigo parish includes Ojigu Central, Ojigu East, and Ojigu West villages.)

OpenStreetMap has the most detailed map of the area; its "Wadelai" node has metadata properties "GNS:dsg_string" and "place" with values "populated place" and "village" respectively. The nodes neighbouring Wadelai mostly correspond to village names:

OpenStreetMap nodes around Wadelai

OpenStreetMap name	direction	possible village name(s)
Arogalibowa	NW	Aroga, ?Bar-Boro, ?Lwalo
Agu	N	Agi [sic] North, Agu South
Mutir	NE	Mutir Central/East/West
Panyilo	E	?Pailo Central/East/West, ?Pajago West, Pajgo [sic] East
Pakwinyo	SE
Paten	S	Paten Central/Lower/Ocayo/Upper
Oborowiyo	SW	Borowio, Borowio Central

My surmises are as follows:

• the nodes on OpenStreetMap do not correspond to "village" in the sense of "officially defined local government subdivision of a parish", but rather
  • EITHER "village" the vague sense of "settlement of small population"
  • OR "populated place" in the sense of "small administrative unit", which may be a parish (as with name Pakwinyo, Mutir, and Pumit, all names on the map) or subcounty (as with Wadelai)
• In which case, it is wrong for GeoNames to have separate entries (and co-ordinates) for Wadelai subcounty and Wadelai populated place. They are one and the same.

jnestorius^(talk) 16:31, 5 November 2021 (UTC)