Wadelai lay about in a straight line north-northwest of
Entebbe, and by river downstream from
Butiaba (on
Lake Albert), 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 Europeans in 1875, an expedition from
Dufile sent by
Gordon of Khartoum and led by Lieutenant William Harold Chippindall of the
Royal Engineers, nephew of
Edward Chippindall. In 1876
Romolo Gessi, exploring Lake Albert in the service of Gordon, named the Ragem area "Wadelai" after its chieftain, a vassal of
Kabarega, king of
Bunyoro. or Walad Lāy) was a
patronymic ("son of Lai") bestowed by the Sudanese. 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 . 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 and yards of cloth", keeping him from "the really important work of inspecting the country and winning the confidence of the natives". The British government post was moved from Wadelai to
Fatiko in 1906 and then Koba in 1907. At the same time the Belgian post closed as part of a general withdrawal from Lado. In 1910 the
Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition was allowed to hunt
white rhinoceros.
Theodore Roosevelt described the native settlement in 1910: "thatched huts surrounded by a fence .. small fields of
mealies and beans, cultivated by the women, and a few cattle and goats; ... big wicker-work fish-traps".
Sleeping sickness was endemic. There remained a
weather station at Wadelai; According to the 1929
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
steamboats between Butiaba and
Nimule were still calling at the Wadelai "native village". Archaeological surveys were made of the remains of "Fort Emin Pasha" in 1935 by A. J. Rusk and in 1963 by Merrick Posnansky and the
Brathay Exploration Group. In 1972 it was scheduled as a historical cultural site. A journalist visiting the British fort site in 2008 found it deserted and overgrown. ==Modern sub-county==