The founder of
Zionism,
Theodor Herzl, was concerned about giving the
Jews of the world a homeland so the could escape the horrors of
pogroms and the like. Negotiating with the British Government, someone suggested that Uganda might be a good place for the
world's Jews. Accordingly, the
Uganda Proposal was formed.
"...At the Sixth Zionist Congress at Basle on 26 August 1903, Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as a temporary refuge for Jews in
Russia in immediate danger. By a vote of 295-178 it was decided to send an expedition ("investigatory commission") to examine the territory proposed.
While Herzl made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, a Jewish entity in the Land of Israel, the proposal aroused a storm at the Congress and nearly led to a split in the Zionist movement. The Jewish Territorialist Organization (ITO) was formed as a result of the unification of various groups who had supported Herzl's Uganda proposals during the period 1903-1905.
The Uganda Program was finally rejected by the Zionist movement at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905, but Nahum Syrkin and Israel Zangwill called an alternative conference to continue the plan of the Uganda scheme."
(Jewish Virtual Library, www.us-israel.org)
As far as I understand it, they actually moved quite a few
Jews into Uganda, and there are still some scattered and confused
Ugandan Jews floating around.