Terms of Use

1. Agreement and who we are

Uganda Culture is a free website that documents Uganda's cultures together with their communities. It is run by Uganda Culture, based in Uganda. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Uganda Culture, and "you" means anyone who uses the site.

By using Uganda Culture, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you register as a member, we ask you to accept them, and we record the version you accepted and when. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

These terms work together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Contributor Agreement, Content Policy, Copyright and Licensing page and Community Guidelines.

2. Using the site

Uganda Culture is free to read. You do not need an account to browse records, read the journal, use the cultural map or explore cultural tourism listings. There are no adverts.

You can also take part without an account. You can suggest a correction on any page, ask for something to be removed, send a contribution or join the newsletter.

Anyone under 18 needs the consent of a parent or guardian to register or to contribute.

When you use the site, we handle your personal information as our Privacy Policy describes. Please read it to understand what we collect, why, and the rights you have, including the right to ask for a copy of your data or for it to be erased through Your data.

3. Accounts and sign-in

Registering

To become a member, you register with your real first name and surname, an email address you control and a password. Please keep your details accurate. You can see and change them on your account page.

Keeping your account secure

Signing in needs your email, your password and a six-digit code that we send to your email. After five codes, the account is locked for 60 minutes. Sessions last at most 24 hours and end after 60 minutes without activity.

You are responsible for keeping your password and your email account secure. Do not share your sign-in details or codes with anyone. We will never ask you for your password. If you think someone else has used your account, change your password and contact us at [email protected] straight away.

Each account is for one person. You must not create an account for someone else without their permission, or pretend to be another person.

4. Acceptable use

What you may do

You may read, search and share pages, and reuse our content as our Copyright and Licensing page allows. You may contribute what you know, suggest corrections and take part respectfully.

What you may not do

When you use Uganda Culture, you must not:

• break the law, or help anyone else to break it;
• send content that is false or misleading on purpose, hateful, harassing, threatening or obscene;
• share personal information about another person without their consent;
• share cultural knowledge that a community keeps restricted;
• send content you do not have the right to share, or that infringes someone else's rights;
• send AI-generated text, images or audio as documentation of culture;
• pretend to be another person, a community or an institution;
• try to get into accounts or systems you are not allowed to use, or get around our security or rate limits;
• send spam, or use automated tools in a way that overloads the site or collects personal information;
• introduce viruses or other harmful code.

Our Community Guidelines and Content Policy explain these rules in more detail.

Telling us about a problem

If you see something on the site that breaks these rules, names you without your consent or shares restricted knowledge, please use Request removal. We acknowledge removal requests within 48 hours and decide them within 7 days. When the request comes from the person named, their family, their community or the rights holder, we hide the page while we review it. For mistakes of fact, use Suggest a correction.

5. Contributions

You can send stories, photos, audio, video links, recipes and events, with or without an account. When you contribute, you accept the Contributor Agreement, which sets out the rights you give us and the promises you make about your contribution. We record which version you accepted.

You choose how you are credited: by your name, by another name, or not publicly. Every contribution must follow our Content Policy.

Editors review every contribution, a separate person approves it, and an editor publishes it. We may edit a contribution for accuracy, clarity or length, ask you questions about it, or decide not to publish it. Publishing a contribution does not mean we agree with every view in it.

Contributions about or showing children need the consent of a parent or guardian. Living people are named only with their consent, and oral histories need the narrator's consent to be recorded and published.

6. Our content and reuse

Text written by Uganda Culture is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each photo, audio and video item shows its own licence and credit, chosen with its owner, and some are all rights reserved.

Our licence covers our writing and media. It does not cover the cultures, knowledge, names or practices we document, which belong to their communities. The Uganda Culture name and logo, and other logos, are not covered by CC BY-SA. Our Copyright and Licensing page explains how to reuse our content and how to credit it. If you believe something on the site infringes your rights, see our takedown process.

7. Cultural respect

Uganda Culture exists to document cultures with care and with the consent of their communities. When you use the site, please respect the communities, clans, kingdoms and cultural institutions it describes, and the people who shared their knowledge.

Accounts of the same tradition can differ between clans, regions and families. Disagree respectfully, and use Suggest a correction to share another account with its source. Do not use content from the site to mock, misrepresent or exploit a community or its practices. Our standards explain how we handle sensitive and restricted knowledge.

Some records are marked sensitive and are published only with the sign-off of the community concerned. Restricted knowledge is never published. Please do not try to obtain restricted knowledge through the site, and do not republish sensitive material in a way that removes it from its context or its credits.

8. Tourism listings

Our cultural tourism listings are for information only. We do not take bookings or payments, and we are not a party to any arrangement you make with a provider. Please check details, prices, safety and suitability with the provider directly before you travel. Any arrangement you make is between you and the provider.

9. Links to other sites

Pages may link to other websites, or show maps and videos from other services. We do not control those sites and we are not responsible for their content or how they handle your information. Their own terms and policies apply.

10. Availability

We work to keep Uganda Culture available and accurate, but we cannot promise that it will always be available, free of errors or uninterrupted. We may change, pause or stop any part of the site, for example for maintenance, security or to improve it.

Records may also be changed, hidden or removed after publication, for example when a correction is accepted, when consent is withdrawn or when a removal request is upheld. If you rely on a record, check the date it was last checked and its sources.

11. Limits of liability

Uganda Culture is provided free, for information. As far as the law allows, we are not liable for any loss or damage that arises from using the site or relying on its content, including loss arising from tourism arrangements you make with providers or from other websites we link to.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under the laws of Uganda. Our Disclaimer explains the limits of the information we publish.

12. Suspension and closing accounts

You can close your account at any time from your account page. What happens to your information afterwards is explained in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or close an account, or refuse a contribution, if we reasonably believe that it breaks these terms, our Content Policy or the law, or puts other people or communities at risk. Where it is safe and lawful to do so, we will tell you why. If you think we have made a mistake, contact us at [email protected].

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms when the site or the law changes. The date of the current version and a note of what changed are shown on this page. When the terms change, members are asked to accept the new version before they continue. If you do not accept the new version, you can close your account.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Uganda. Any dispute about them, or about your use of Uganda Culture, will be dealt with by the courts of Uganda. We would always prefer to resolve a concern with you directly first.

15. Contact us

If you have a question about these terms, email us at [email protected] or use our contact form. Answers to common questions are in our Help Centre and FAQs.