Waragi derives its name from "war gin", as the British expatriates in the 1950s and 1960s referred to the distilled spirit known in Luganda language as "enguli". The pronunciation with the hard sound is more common; those who are aware of the English origins of the word often favor a "j" sound for . Its appearance first came about when the British were first starting to establish control over East Africa. They used brigades of Sudanese colonial soldiers to help with the feat, and they concocted the alcohol to help keep up good spirits amongst the troops. It then spread throughout Uganda as a well-known drink. Another theory is that the name is a corruption of "Arak" the North African spirit with which the Nubian soldiers would have been familiar.