Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda was born in the 1920s His original name was Idi Amin Dada Oumee. Amin’s early life is shrouded in ambiguity. His father Andreas Nyabire abandoned the family and so his mother brought him up. Originally, Roman Catholics, the family converted to Islam. Amin did not complete his schooling. He joined the British colonial Army in 1946. In 1961, he was commissioned and in 1962 appointed as the Deputy Commander of the Army. In 1966, when the Ugandan Parliament demanded an investigation into Prime Minister Obote’s role in the alleged smuggling of ivory and gold into Uganda, Obote abolished the Constitution and became the Executive President. Amin was appointed the army commander. In time, however the relation between the two men deteriorated. Amin seized power on January 25, 1971.
By early February 1971, Amin had introduced complete military rule. His military tribunals and military police put down any political dissent. Amin’s rule was characterized by the persecution of ethnic groups within Uganda. He purged the army of Obote supporters especially those belonging to the Chili and Lango ethnic groups. Amnesty International estimated that around 500,000 people were killed during the time. Indians were the target of his ire too. He declared an economic war against the country’s 80,000 Asians, ordered the expulsion of those who were not legally Ugandan. Their thriving businesses were taken over and distributed among his supporters.
At first welcomed by the international community, his policies made him unpopular among the nations of the world. Diplomatic relations between Uganda and countries like India, Britain and U.S and Israel worsened. Amin looked upon Muammar al Gadaffi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support. Idi Amin allowed an Air France plane hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to land at Entebbe Airport. 83 Jews and 20 others were held hostage with in the plane. A subsequent Israeli rescue operation freed most of the hostages. The incident sparked off ill will towards Uganda. With Kenya too, too Uganda’s relation was hostile and brought the countries close to open war. Meanwhile many Ugandan exiles with the support of Julius Nyere the Tanzanian President formed the Uganda national Liberation Army. Amin was forced to flee to Libya April 11, 1979. Attempts to regain power were thwarted . Idi Amin died on August 16, 2003 in Saudi Arabia.
Amin was eccentric in more than one ways. He was rumored to have married at least six women and fathered around 45 children. The various titles that he conferred on himself – Conqueror of British Empire, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji doctor Idi Amin Dada made him the laughing stock outside Uganda. Ascribed with many eccentric behaviors, this dictator came to be known by other by epithets like Big Daddy, Butcher of Africa; there were stories of cannibalism, of killing his enemies and feeding them to crocodiles, and of severed human heads stored in the freezer at his residents. As The Sydney Morning Herald described in an obituary, “he was confusion’s masterpiece”
