Dufile (also Dufilé, Duffli, Duffle, or Dufli) was originally a fort built by Emin Pasha, the Governor of Equatoria, in 1879; it is located on the Albert Nile just inside

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, close to a site chosen in 1874 by then-Colonel

Charles George Gordon Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Charles George Gordon Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum and General Gordon , was a British ...

to assemble steamers that were carried there overland. Abandoned by Emin's people in January 1889, Dufile being within the Lado Enclave was reoccupied and reconstructed by Belgian forces from 1902 to 1907. Today the name Dufile is applied to a nearby Madi village and sub-county in Moyo District to the east of Laropi. The name Dufile itself is a corruption of the Madi village name Odrupele. Emin and A.J. Mounteney Jephson were confined in the fort during a mutiny in 1888. There followed the Battle of Dufile when the former mutineers, after releasing Emin and Jephson, rallied to fight Mahdist forces. Dufile was visited by Alan Moorehead while he was researching his book ''The White Nile'', published in 1960. The fort was surveyed in July 1965 by a student team from Imperial College. The fort, where a ditch and bank enclose an area of 12 acres (4.8 hectares), can be reached by road or boat from Laropi. Archaeological work was done between December 2006 and January 2007 by an international team and recommendations on conservation of the site are on file. Emin's old harbour is now the departure point for passenger ferries to Nimule in

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

.Posnansky, M. ''Dufile, Moyo, Uganda. Research in 2006'', filed at Royal Geographical Society and the Uganda Museum,

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, 2007.

References

*M. Mugishu, ''Jewel of the Nile'', ''Sunday Vision'',

, 16 January 2005 *Dradenya Amazia, ''Archaeologists in Madi'', '' New Vision'', Kampala, 23 January 2006 * {{cite book , url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/be-inspired/exploration-board/public/Uganda1965.pdf#page=7 , pages=1–6 , author=Imperial College Exploration Board , title=Report: 1965 Uganda , publisher=Imperial College London Military history of Uganda Military history of Africa 1879 establishments in Egypt