Idi Amin Dada Oumee is widely regarded as one of the cruellest despots in world history. He was responsible for the killing of more than 300,000 political rivals and ordinary Ugandans, and the destruction of the country's economy.
He was born around 1925 in the remote town of Koboko, in north–western Uganda, close to the borders with Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Sudan. In 1946, he joined the King's African Rifles of the British colonial army, and being both a big man physically and a good sportsman – he was Ugandan heavyweight boxing champion from 1951 to 1960 – he attracted attention among his superiors. Amin was one of only two Africans who received army commissions during colonial rule. He was notorious for brutality and torture during the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya from 1952 to 1956, but he was rewarded with promotion rather than prosecution. This made him a member of the ruling elite that was able to move into positions of power when independence was declared – first as a crony of President Milton Obote, who made him chief of the army and air force, and then as his sworn rival.
He staged a coup against Obote on 25 January 1971, while the President was out of the country, and proclaimed himself head of state. He began his reign of terror by slaughtering Obote loyalists, but the killing quickly spread from the barracks to the entire country, and included an Anglican archbishop, a chief justice and several cabinet ministers. He is reputed to have fed the remains of his victims to the crocodiles in Lake Victoria, and kept the heads of decapitated political rivals in his refrigerator.
Amin also expelled about 80,000 Ugandans of Asian origin, saying that God had commanded him to do so in a dream. He distributed their vast businesses to his cronies, whose mismanagement led to a disastrous economic meltdown.
Because of Obote's pro–communist leanings, many in the West – including the UK – at first embraced Amin's putsch. His reputation as a buffoonish butcher did not prevent him from strutting on the international stage bedecked with medals and braid. He once addressed the UN General Assembly – in the local Lugandan tongue rather than in English, which he said was the language of colonialists.
At the height of his reign, his fellow African leaders overlooked Amin's blood–drenched rule and supported his opposition to imperialism. He became head of the Organisation of African Unity in 1975. The following year, when Palestinian commandos seized a French airliner carrying Israelis and forced it to land at Entebbe, Amin sided with the hijackers and allowed them to keep their hostages at the airport. The hostages were rescued in a daring raid by an elite Israeli assault force, in which several Ugandan soldiers and all of the hijackers were killed.
The one leader prepared to stand up to Amin was President Julius Nyere, of neighboring Tanzania. In 1978, when Amin made the mistake of invading Tanzania, Nyere counter–attacked with a force of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles, culminating in the capture of Kampala after seven months. Amin was forced to flee in April 1979.
Leaving his country in economic ruins, Amin first sought refuge with Moamer Kadhafi (Gaddafi) of Libya, and then in Saudi Arabia, where he lived in luxury among the oil sheikhs with several wives and some of his estimated 50 children. He died in Jeddah on 16 August 2003, aged 78.
Amin's claim to have conquered the British Empire arose after the UK broke off diplomatic relations with his regime in 1977. I could find no reports of his reasons for calling himself the uncrowned King of Scotland.
His final self–bestowed title was, in full: "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, 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". 'VC' stood for the Victorious Cross – an honour he created himself – and 'CBE' stood for (did you guess it?) Conqueror of the British Empire. I could find no reports of what DSO or MC was supposed to stand for.
Much of the above – except for the last two paragraphs – is an edited version of this article from News24.com (written in 2003, shortly before Amin's death), which is archived on The Wayback Machine and referenced by Wikipedia.
© Haydn Thompson 2020