Lado District

The Lado Enclave was an exclave of the Congo Free State and later of Belgian Congo that existed from 1894 until 1910, situated on the west bank of the Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan and northwest Uganda.

Traditionally the home of the Lugbara,Bari, and Moru peoples, the area became part of the Ottoman-Egyptian province of Equatoria, and was first visited by Europeans in 1841/42, becoming an ivory and slave trading centre. Lado, as part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, came under the control of the British and in 1869 Sir Samuel Baker created an administration in the area, based in Gondokoro, suppressed the slave trade and opened up the area to commerce.

Charles George Gordon succeeded Baker as Governor of Equatoria in 1874 and noting the unhealthy climate of Gondokoro, moved the administrative centre downstream to a spot he called Lado, laying the town out in the pattern of an Indian cantonment, with short, wide and straight streets, and shady trees. Gordon made the development of primary industry in Lado a priority, with the start of commercial farming of cotton, sesame and durra and the introduction of livestock farming. Although Gordon stationed over three hundred soldiers throughout the region his efforts to consolidate British control over area were unsuccessful and when he resigned as Governor in 1876, only Lado and the few garrison settlements along the Nile could be considered administered.

Emin Pasha was appointed as Governor to replace Gordon and began to build up the region's defences and developed Lado into a modern town, founding a mosque, Koranic school and a hospital, so by 1881 Lado boasted a population of over 5000 tokuls (round mud huts common to the region).

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