Wadelai was a boma at a narrow point on the Albert Nile in what is now northern Uganda. There were several shortlived colonial stations there, the first being the final chief station of Emin Pasha when Governor of Equatoria. Wadelai gives its name to a current Ugandan sub-county. History Wadelai lay about in a straight line north-northwest of Entebbe, and by river downstream from Butiaba (on Lake Albert), just north of Lake Rubi, a swampy broad of papyrus and ambatch. The local Ragem were a Jonam branch of the Alur people, who migrated northwest under pressure from the Lango. The Ragem were first visited by a European, Lieutenant H. Chippendall, in 1875. In 1876 Romolo Gessi, exploring Lake Albert in the service of General Gordon, named the Ragem area "Wadelai" after its chieftain, a vassal of Kabarega, king of Bunyoro. The chieftain's personal name was Fishwa or Pico; "Wadelai" ("Wat-el-Lai", Wo' Lei, or Walad Lāy) was a patronymic ("son of Lai") bestowed by the Sudanese. The region was annexed to the Egyptian Sudan and a site near Wadelai's village chosen as a government post. This post was on the western bank of the Nile, downstream (north) of the later British 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 established the Protectorate of Uganda after making treaties with regional chiefs, including the "sheikh of Wadelai". The British flag was hoisted at Wadelai, on both banks of the Nile, by Major E. R. Owen. The British built a government station at on the east bank on a hill above the Nile at a spot where the river narrows to and attains a depth of . Alur chief Uŋwec called this site "East Wadelai". At this place was a gauge for measuring the discharge of the river. The Lado Enclave of the Congo Free State controlled the west bank from 1894 and the Belgians occupied Emin's old fort. Ewart Grogan passed through in 1899, and wrote, "A tiny lake, scarce five miles wide, smothered with weed, two insignificant hills, over one of which the Union Jack flutters on a crooked pole, some gravitation-defying huts, a sad-eyed Englishman, such is Wadelai". Grogan lamented that the Royal Artillery officer manning the station had to spend his time "sorting mails and retailing beads