Obote's Out Amin's in

Garrigan has woken up in Kampala, the capitol city of Uganda, he has spent the night before at the banquet with the fellow Englishman, and Amin. He strolls around town in the late morning with nothing specific to do, just taking in all the new sights and sounds of Africa. Almost out of nowhere the trees start to rustle and the animals start to move as mass amounts of people come into the streets. It has become official, Amin has overthrown Obote to seize power and claim himself as president for life. While Obote was away in Kenya Amin staged a coup, which is the overthrowing of a government using military force. The oddest part about this isn't the fact that a coup was staged; which tends to happen rather often in Africa, but in fact was that the people were rejoicing that it has happened. The masses of people stroll down the streets in machine guned jeeps and tanks, people on the sides of the streets burn Obote posters and smash melons painted as Obote's head. To me it is very clear that the people of Uganda have become entranced by there new head of government. They firmly beleive that this is god's will and that he will bring Uganda into prosperity. Garrigan points out that never before has he seen some many people so happy to have a man head their government who took over by force.

The Start

The Last King Of Scotland Starts out with the young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan moving into the newly administered position as personal physician to his excellency, Amin. Garrigan is excited about his position because previously he has been working in a run down village, helping out the already sick and administering vaccines, the pay is poor and the conditions are awful. Before he really gets a chance to settle in he encounters Idi Amin, the rising military leader who, is in the process of staging a coup to get rid of current President Obote. Amin, has fallen and coincidently Garrigan is first to attend to him. Soon after Garrigan is invited to a state dinner, where we begin to see Amin as a very charasmatic man, but also the potential to be downright crazy. There is one instance where Amin overhears his guests talking about the meat, he shouts out that he has eaten monkey meat and even human meat, to prove his point. "I have also eaten human meat." "It is very salty, even more salty than leopard meat." Although Amin quickly coveres this up with a bit of a joke, we get a tiny glimpse of what this man is actaully capable of. This is Garrigan's first couple days in Uganda, he has been drawn to Amin, and although he has met some fellow Brits, he seems to side closer with Amin, who him self has taken Garrigan under his wing.

The Last King Of Scotland

The book that I have choosen to read that relates to the events that happened in Uganda is, The Last King Of Scotland, by Giles Foden. This book is about a man who travels to Uganda in order to work as a doctor, he becomes entangled with The leader of Uganda in the worst way possible. The Book does a good job in relaying acutual circumstances and events that occured from first hand sources. This was Foden's first book, so not a lot is known about his writing, however it seems he was the perfect man to write a novel about the events in Africa, becuase he lived their for much of his younger life. Foden originally from England moved with his family to Afric when he was very young. His family became farmers, and ended up moving quite often. Foden even lived in Uganda for a few years. His experience in the country at times of unrest are what allowed him to create a convincing seen of what was happenning. Foden also met with personally Bob Astles, the man whom the main Character in the novel is based on. Atsles was Amin's closest advisor, This is probably where Foden gained much of Amin's details from. The tiny manurisms that someone as close to Amin as Astles, would remember, and could create a convincing character.

In summary

Uganda is a country divided up into many different ethnic groups and tribes, this in itself makes it a very unstable country. Each group may be fighting for their man in power or the man that favors them the most. The same takes place in the reverse, the government feels the need to rid themselves of the groups that oppose them, for fear that the feeling will spread through different groups. This effect has been taking place in Uganda since its Independence in 1962. The country has never really been stable until perhaps now. It seems like every decade or less a coup has taken place and one tyrant has only been replaced by a worse one.

Idi Amin Dada

Idi Amin's exact birthdate is not known, it is said that he was born sometime around 1925 in either Kampala, or Koboko, Uganda. Amin was abandoned by his father, he grew up with his mother's family, Amin attended a Islamic school, but soon abandoned his schooling because he was recruited by the British Colonial Army. Amin joined the King's Afrian Rifles in 1946 as an assistant cook. Amin served as a private in Kenya for the KAR until 1949. Amin faught in Somalia for the KAR and in 1953 he was promoted to sergeant. The next year Amin was appointed warrant officer, the highest rank for a person of his color in the British Colonial Army. In 1961 he was appointed lieutenant, making him the first Ugandan comissioned officer. Soon there after he was appointed deputy commissioner of the army. Amin was also a very athletic man, he was 6'4'' and a light heavyweight champion boxer of Uganda, he also swam and played rugby. In 1965 Amin was invovled with prime minister Obote in a gold smuggling incident, it was alleged that he had smuggled gold to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in exchange for guns. The guns were given to forces opposed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's government. As a result of this incident, Obote would take over as ruler of Uganda and Amin to take over as chief of all armed forces. Amin's control of the military would prove to be very important in eventually helping him seize power from Obote. Idi Amin, was a very brave and loyal leader in his early life, this explains for his quick succession to the head of the British Colonial Army. Amin was a very big and intimidating man, his stature and leadership qualities made him a very charismatic man. He would use these tools, as well as him commanding influence in the army to eventually bring about a reign of terror in Uganda that would last all of 8 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin

Apollo Milton Obeto Obote

Milton Obote was born to a village chief in Northern Uganda in 1925. Obote was able to attend school at a protestant missionary school in Lira, Uganda, he then moved on to secondary as secondary school Busuga College. He was fortunate to attend Makerere University, there he focused mainly on his public speaking skills. Obote was expelled from school for protesting. Obote then moved to Kenya where he worked construction for a local engineering firm. Upon returning to Uganda in 1956 he joined the Uganda National Congress, which was a political party in Uganda. Obote was elected to the colonial legislative council, this would mark his first major role in politics. In 1959 his party split into two factions, Obote would head the new Uganda People's Congress (UPC). From this position Obote would be elected prime minister in 1962 of the newly independent Ugandan country. Also at this time King Mutesa became the ceremonial King of Uganda and president. As prime minister Obote was involved in many scandals, he was heavily corrupted with most of the government officials at this time. One scandal that become public was Obote's involvement in gold smuggling. Obote, accompanied by his cammander of Ugandan Armed Forces, Idi Amin were to be investigated by parliament, with the dismissal of Amin to be expected. Upon news of this Obote suspended the consitution and declared himself president in 1966. He called for a state of emergency, which allowed him to allocate power. Obote had members of his own cabinet arrested without charge for being members of the opposing political faction. Although Obote had many oppositions jailed without being charged, life for a normal citizen was the best it would be in roughly the 20 years that would follow. Obote published the "Common Man's Charter", which was his view on socialism and how he felt it would benefit his Country. Obote was against tribalism, and put in affect a government controlled system of banking and corporation ownership. Obote's power came from his military, which at this time was controlled by his friend Idi Amin. It would turn out that the two would grow apart, wich would eventually lead to Obote's exile in 1971.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Obote

Start of conflict

Uganda became an idependent country in 1962, previous to this Uganda was controlled by the British, who in 1890 set out to develope the area that is now Uganda. In 1962 Sir Edward Mutesa the previous King of the Bugandas ( previous Kingdom in Uganda ) was elected the first president of Uganda, also ruling as prime minister was Milton Obote. Four years later Milton Obote took power from Mutesa with the help of Idi Amin, who at the time was a young army officer. This was the first time in Uganda's short existence that military power was used on Ugandan's themselves. The military bobarded King Mutesa's palace with firepower and heavy artillery. Mutesa was not killed, though he was forced out of office and into exile. Obote quickly gained power, he through out the old constitution and wrote a new one that proclaimed himself as president, although he was better known as a dictator.

http://www.buganda.com/crisis66.htm