Everything about Idi Amin totally explained
Idi Amin Dada (mid-1920s –
16 August 2003), commonly known simply as
Idi Amin, was a
military dictator and the
President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the
British colonial regiment, the
King's African Rifles in 1946, and advanced to the rank of
Major General and
Commander of the Ugandan Army. He took power in a
military coup in January 1971, deposing
Milton Obote. His rule was characterized by
human rights abuses,
political repression,
ethnic persecution,
extra-judicial killings and the
expulsion of Indians from Uganda. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is unknown; estimates from human rights groups range from 100,000 to 500,000.
From 1977 to 1979, Amin titled himself as "
His Excellency,
President for Life,
Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC,
DSO,
MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the
British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." Despite opposition, Amin became head of the
Organisation of African Unity, a
pan-Africanist group designed to promote solidarity of the African states, in 1975.
Dissent within Uganda, and Amin's attempt to
annex the
Kagera province of
Tanzania in 1978, led to the
Uganda-Tanzania War and the fall of his regime in 1979. Amin fled to
Libya, before relocating to
Saudi Arabia in 1981, where he died in 2003. Amin and his regime have been the subject of films and documentaries including (1974),
Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) and
The Last King of Scotland (2006).
Early life and military career
Amin never wrote an autobiography or authorized any official account of his life. There are discrepancies as to when and where he was born. Most biographical sources hold that he was born in either
Koboko or
Kampala around 1925. According to Fred Guweddeko, a researcher at
Makerere University, Idi Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire (1889–1976). Nyabire, a member of the
Kakwa ethnic group, converted from
Roman Catholicism to
Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada. Abandoned by his father, Idi Amin grew up with his mother's family. Guweddeko states that Amin's mother was called Assa Aatte (1904–1970), an ethnic
Lugbara and a traditional
herbalist, who treated members of
Buganda royalty, among others. Amin joined an Islamic school in
Bombo in 1941, where he excelled in reciting the
Qur'an. After a few years he left school and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer.
Colonial British army
Amin joined the
King's African Rifles (KAR) of the
British Colonial Army in 1946 as an assistant cook. but records indicate he was first enlisted after the war was concluded. He was transferred to Kenya for infantry service as a
private in 1947 and served in the 21st KAR infantry battalion in
Gilgil,
Kenya, until 1949. That year, his unit was deployed to
Somalia to fight the Somali
Shifta rebels who were
rustling cattle there. In 1952 his brigade was deployed against the
Mau Mau rebels in Kenya. He was promoted to corporal the same year, then to sergeant in 1953..
In 1954 Amin was made
effendi (
warrant officer), the highest rank possible for a
Black African in the colonial British army of that time. Amin returned to Uganda the same year, and in 1961 he was promoted to
lieutenant, becoming one of the first two Ugandans to become
commissioned officers. He was then assigned to quell the cattle rustling between Uganda's
Karamojong and Kenya's
Turkana nomads. In 1962 he was promoted to captain and then, in 1963, to
major. The following year, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Army.
Army commander
In 1965
Prime Minister Milton Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle
ivory and
gold into Uganda from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The deal, as later alleged by General Nicholas Olenga, an associate of the former Congolese leader
Patrice Lumumba, was part of an arrangement to help troops opposed to the Congolese government trade ivory and gold for arms supplies secretly smuggled to them by Amin. In 1966,
Parliament demanded an investigation. Obote imposed a new constitution abolishing the ceremonial presidency held by
Kabaka (King)
Edward Mutesa II of
Buganda, and declared himself executive president. He promoted Amin to
colonel and army commander. Amin led
an attack on the
Kabaka's palace and forced Mutesa into
exile to the United Kingdom, where he remained until his death in 1969.
Amin began recruiting members of
Kakwa,
Lugbara,
Nubian, and other ethnic groups from the
West Nile area bordering
Sudan. The Nubians had been residents in Uganda since the early 20th century, having come from Sudan to serve the colonial army. In Uganda, Nubians were commonly perceived as Sudanese foreigners and erroneously referred to as
Anyanya (Anyanya were southern Sudanese rebels of the
First Sudanese Civil War and were not involved in Uganda). Because many ethnic groups in northern Uganda inhabit both Uganda and Sudan, allegations persist that Amin's army consisted substantially of Sudanese soldiers.
Seizure of power
Eventually, a rift developed between Amin and Obote, worsened by the support Amin had built within the army by recruiting from the West Nile region, his involvement in operations to support the
rebellion in southern Sudan, and an attempt on Obote's life in 1969. In October 1970, Obote himself took control of the armed forces, reducing Amin from his months-old post of commander of all the armed forces to that of commander of the army.
Having learned that Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, Amin seized power in a
military coup on
January 25,
1971, while Obote was attending a
Commonwealth summit meeting in
Singapore. Troops loyal to Amin sealed off
Entebbe International Airport, the main artery into Uganda, and took Kampala. Soldiers surrounded Obote's residence and blocked major roads. A broadcast on
Radio Uganda accused Obote's government of corruption and preferential treatment of the
Lango region. Cheering crowds were reported in the streets of Kampala after the radio broadcast. Amin announced that he was a soldier, not a politician, and that the
military government would remain only as a
caretaker regime until new elections, which would be announced as soon as the situation was normalised. He promised to release all
political prisoners.
Amin was initially welcomed both within Uganda and by the international community. In an internal memo, the
British Foreign Office described him as "a splendid type and a good
football player". He gave former king and president Mutesa (who had died in exile) a state burial in April 1971, freed many political prisoners, and reiterated his promise to hold free and fair elections to return the country to
democratic rule in the shortest period possible.
Presidency
Establishment of military rule
On
February 2,
1971, one week after the coup, Amin declared himself President of Uganda,
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Army
Chief of Staff and Chief of Air Staff. He announced that he was suspending certain provisions of the
constitution and soon instituted an Advisory Defence Council composed of military officers, with himself as the chairman. Amin placed
military tribunals above the system of
civil law, appointed soldiers to top government posts and
parastatal agencies, and informed the newly inducted civilian
cabinet ministers that they'd be subject to
military discipline. Amin renamed the presidential lodge in Kampala from Government House to "The Command Post". He disbanded the General Service Unit (GSU), an intelligence agency created by the previous government, and replaced it with the State Research Bureau (SRB). SRB headquarters at the Kampala suburb of Nakasero became the scene of torture and executions over the next several years. Other agencies used to root out political dissent included the
military police and the Public Safety Unit (PSU).
Persecution of ethnic and other groups
Amin retaliated against the attempted invasion by Ugandan exiles in 1972 by purging the army of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the
Acholi and
Lango ethnic groups. In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers were massacred in the
Jinja and
Mbarara Barracks, and by early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared. The victims soon came to include members of other
ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In some cases entire villages were wiped out. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will. Bodies floated on the River
Nile in quantities sufficient to clog the
Owen Falls Hydro-Electric Dam in Jinja on at least one occasion.
The killings, motivated by ethnic, political and financial factors, continued throughout Amin's eight-year reign.
In 1977,
Henry Kyemba, Amin's health minister and a former official of the first Obote regime,
defected and resettled in Britain. Kyemba wrote and published
A State of Blood, the first insider exposé of Amin's rule.
In August 1972, Idi Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans. Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly
Indians born in the country, whose ancestors had come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, that formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy. On
August 4,
1972, Amin issued a decree ordering the
expulsion of the 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens (most of them held
British passports). This was later amended to include all 80,000 Asians, with the exception of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers. A plurality of the Asians with British passports, around 30,000, emigrated to Britain. Others went to
Australia,
Canada,
India,
Sweden, and the
U.S. Amin expropriated businesses and properties belonging to the Asians and handed them over to his supporters. The businesses were mismanaged, and industries collapsed from lack of maintenance. This proved disastrous for the already declining economy. Accordingly, the United States closed its embassy in
Kampala.
In June 1976, Idi Amin allowed an
Air France aeroplane hijacked by two members of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two members of the
German Revolutionäre Zellen to land at
Entebbe Airport. There, the hijackers were joined by three more. Soon after, 156 hostages who didn't hold Israeli passports were released and flown to safety, while 83 Jews and Israeli citizens, as well as 20 others who refused to abandon them, continued to be held hostage. In the subsequent Israeli rescue operation, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (popularly known as
Operation Entebbe), nearly all of the hostages were freed. Three hostages died and 10 were wounded; six hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers, and one Israeli soldier,
Yoni Netanyahu, were killed. This incident further soured Uganda's international relations, leading Britain to close its
High Commission in Uganda.
Uganda under Amin embarked on a large military build-up, which raised concerns in
Kenya. Early in June 1975, Kenyan officials impounded a large convoy of
Soviet-made arms en route to Uganda at the port of
Mombasa. Tension between Uganda and Kenya reached its climax in February 1976 when Amin announced that he'd investigate the possibility that parts of
southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, up to within of
Nairobi, were historically a part of colonial Uganda. The
Kenyan Government responded with a stern statement that Kenya wouldn't part with "a single inch of territory". Amin backed down after the Kenyan army deployed troops and
armored personnel carriers along the Kenya-Uganda border.
Erratic behaviour
As the years went on, Amin became increasingly erratic and outspoken. In 1977, after Britain had broken diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he'd beaten the British and conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire). Radio Uganda then read out the whole of his new title: "
His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor DSO, MC, CBE." Amin became the subject of rumours and myths, including a widespread belief that he was a
cannibal. Some of the unsubstantiated rumours, such as the mutilation of one of his wives, were spread and popularised by the 1980 film,
Rise and Fall of Idi Amin.
During Amin's reign, popular media outside of Uganda often portrayed Amin as an essentially comic figure. In a 1977 assessment typical of the time,
Time magazine article described him as a "killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet". For focusing on Amin's excessive tastes and self-aggrandizing eccentricities, the foreign media was often criticized for downplaying or excusing his murderous behavior. Other commentators even suggested that Amin had deliberately cultivated his reputation in the foreign media as an easily-parodied buffoon, in order to defuse international concern over his administration of Uganda.
Deposition and exile
By 1978, the number of Amin's close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from within Uganda. After the killings of Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled to exile. Later that year, after Amin's vice president, General
Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car accident, troops loyal to him
mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. In 1989, he attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to lead an armed group organised by Colonel
Juma Oris. He reached
Kinshasa,
Zaire (now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo), before Zairian President
Mobutu forced him to return to Saudi Arabia.
Death
On
July 20,
2003, one of Idi Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a
coma and near death at
King Faisal Specialist Hospital in
Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. She pleaded with Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni to allow him to return to die in Uganda. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his
sins the moment he was brought back." Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia on
August 16,
2003. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in
Jeddah.
Family and associates
A
polygamist, Idi Amin married at least six women, three of whom he
divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. The next year, he married Nora and then Nalongo Madina in 1972. On
March 26,
1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he'd divorced Malyamu, Nora and Kay. Malyamu was arrested in
Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. She later moved to
London. Kay died on
August 13,
1974, reportedly from an attempted
surgical abortion performed by her lover Dr. Mbalu Mukasa (who himself committed
suicide). Her body was found
dismembered. In August 1975, during the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, Amin married Sarah Kyolaba. Sarah's boyfriend, whom she was living with before she met Amin, vanished and was never heard from again. According to
The Monitor, Amin married a wife a few months before his death in 2003. Until 2003, Taban Amin, Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of
West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of
Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered
amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the
Internal Security Organisation. Another of Amin’s sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (for example mayor) of
Njeru Town Council in 2002 but wasn't elected. In early 2007, the award-winning film
The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin, to speak out in his father's defense. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to counter his father's reputation.
On August 3, 2007, Faisal Wangita, one of Amin's sons, was convicted for playing a role in a murder in London.
Among Amin's closest associates was the British-born
Bob Astles, who is considered by many to have been a malign influence, and by others as a moderating presence.
Isaac Malyamungu was an instrumental affiliate and one of the more feared officers in Amin's army.
[
]Portrayal in media and literature
Film dramatisations
- Victory at Entebbe (1976), a TV film about Operation Entebbe. Julius Harris plays Amin. Godfrey Cambridge had originally been cast as Amin in the production, but died of a heart attack on the set.
- Raid on Entebbe (1977), a film depicting the events of Operation Entebbe. Yaphet Kotto plays Amin.
- Mivtsa Yonatan (1977) (also known as Operation Thunderbolt), an Israeli film about Operation Entebbe. Mark Heath plays Amin.
- Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980), a film recreating Idi Amin's atrocities. Amin is played by Joseph Olita.
- Mississippi Masala (1991), a film depicting the resettlement of an Indian family after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. Joseph Olita again plays Amin.
- The Last King of Scotland (2006), a film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 fictional novel of the same name. For his portrayal of Idi Amin in this film, actor Forest Whitaker won a Golden Globe award, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Documentaries
(1974), directed by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder.
(1997), a television documentary directed by Greg Baker.
Books
State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin (1977) by Henry Kyemba
Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) by George Ivan Smith
The Last King of Scotland (1998) by Giles Foden (fictional)
(1977) by Thomas Patrick Melady
General Amin (1975) by David Martin
The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin (1974) by Alan Coren, portraying Amin as an amiable, if murderous, buffoon in charge of a tin-pot dictatorship
I Love Idi Amin: The Story of Triumph under Fire in the Midst of Suffering and Persecution in Uganda (1977) by Festo Kivengere
Impassioned for Freedom: Uganda, Struggle Against Idi Amin (2006) by Eriya Kategaya
Further Information
Get more info on 'Idi Amin'.
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