Wednesday, April 15, 2009


Kagera War Part V

Uncertainty after

Amin overthrow


In part five of our continuing series on the fall of Idi Amin’s military government 30 years ago, Timothy Kalyegira reports on the developments immediately after the overthrow of Amin – some of which were used by different groups/individuals to create Amin’s legacy as we know it today: -

Amid the frenzied excitement that followed the fall of the Amin regime on April 11, 1979, there came a national pastime of lampooning Amin. A satirical 1977 publication by Trevor Donald titled Confessions of Idi Amin: The chilling, explosive expose of Africa's most evil man - in his own words, became extremely popular.

In this compilation of statements falsely attributed to Amin (like the common “Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea”), the image of Amin as a buffoon became fixed for all time.

To this day, millions of people around the world, including the most reputable universities and news organisations, unable to realise that Donald’s booklet was satirical, continue to believe that Amin uttered silly statements such as “Before I undress [meaning “address”] the Queen…click on for full text>>>>>


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