1. Early days

Idi Amin Dada was born in Koboko, West Nile, in 1925. He had very little formal education. He joined the King’s African Rifles in 1946.

He was a rough field soldier with the King’s African Rifles (KAR) before independence in 1962.

His dressing description: Untidy dresser -- pants too tight, shirts bulging out of trousers, total uniform never fitting properly.

Amin is the favorite of high and low British officers: They love his desire to please them, his exertions and efforts to secure whatever they desire, such as women, drink, cheap goods and illicit companionship.

Amin’s  persona: Huge body, bulging muscles, big face, enormous smiling mouth with large white teeth.

Mannerisms: Playful, cruel but gets along well with fellow soldiers.

Amin as a boxer is always looking for a way to advance. Fights for the attention of the audience.

Knows how to put on a show, pleasing would-be friends by unmercifully smashing opponents...while himself laughing.

 

2. The boxer

“Amin is a big burly boxer who won bouts at the European club in Nairobi and Kampala.”

He is asked by British officers to remain after bouts in the non-integrated European club for drinks and jokes and he allows them to feel his big muscles.

He is the central favorite of some when drinking. They tell off-color jokes about him, in his presence.

As a boxer, he crushes and humiliates opponents -- Africans from other tribes. He uses these cruel tactics to get promoted to sergeant.

Takes suggestions from superiors that make his uniforms neater. He begins to have his clothes tailored to fit. His decoration ribbons for boxing and marksmanship are worn smartly across his huge chest.

 

3. Officers needed

He speaks with his officers of education deficits. He answers with boxing exploits: “bring somebody to challenge me.”

They bet money on bouts and win big.

Amin crushes opponents and earns big purses for officers.

They talk about his education. “Nothing positive there!”

Another British commander talks of “leaving the bloody KAR,” because there will be no future after independence: “It’s an army of blacks.” The KAR needs African officers.

“None of the blokes are trained.” In conversation they consider Amin as officer material, but his educational level deters them. He went only as far as to senior 1? Not even verifiable records there.

 

4. No harm done

The British officers need someone to leave in charge of the KAR units.

They need someone with training. They have a meeting, drink and talk of Idi Amin.

They give him a kind of half-fun ethics test of what-if’s. He fails, miserably, but they vote to send him for training in the UK.

They voice the opinion that training and association in the military academy will somehow rub off his rough edges. In connection with this, they complain of the soft  African University-trained officers above him.

Will they keep him in check, bring him along, bring him up through the ranks in time?

Their ambitious maneuvering will keep him in check. Moreover: “It’s a lark” and “We know he will fail in the elite Military Academy.” They feel that there’s no harm done in their attitude.

 

5. In the right place

Does everything up to standard at the military school. Observes. Surprises everyone concerned.

He has learned his military manners, knows ordinary field ordinance and protocol of officers and enlisted men.

They consistently waive his education requirements. They note that he has no training in ethics or psychology, but yet vote to send him to a higher military school. The need for African officers in the KAR is crucial.

They get notes from field officers that they are badly in need of officers who know major weapon systems as well as vehicles and troop positioning. They should have the training that other African countries have provided their officers which they have previously neglected in Uganda's KAR.

He is in the right place. They send him to the top military training academy in Britain,  Sandhurst, comparable to West Point in the USA.

 

6. Into Congo

He receives the full knowledge and capability of military ordnance without knowledge of ethical  requirements to that level and type of training.

He returns to Uganda and is sent into combat in the Congo as an officer.

Rumors of discord between President Obote and General Amin.

Gold and diamonds disappear from coffers where the president and his generals are dealing with the Congo. Whispers about Amin being implicated.

 

7. Rumors

News report of Amin having slipped away for a secret meeting with Gaddafi in Libya.

That he signed a secret deal.

Overhead every day there is a lot of activity. Fast fighter planes zooming loud and low through the sky over Kampala.

Pilots from Israel are training Ugandan pilots.

There is a picture in the Uganda Argus showing pilots with their instructors.

President Obote prepares to attend Commonwealth conference.

People say the president should not absent himself at this time.

 

8. Disfavor

There is a shake-up in the military ranks.

Amin is passed over for promotion while other senior officers are elevated over and beyond him.

New high-ranking officers are without battalions but are now in charge of the army.

Common rumor: Amin in disfavor.

President Obote leaves for the trip to the Commonwealth Conference.

Amin shows up at Makerere University graduation exercises standing in full military attire. We are all wearing academic regalia. He is totally alone. No one approaches him. He is without his honor unit.

 

9. Terrible things

Reports by Uganda Television and Uganda Argus:

Generals and their wives are killed in the North.

Rumors and questions: Will the president return from the Commonwealth Conference? Who is in charge now?

No answer.

The coup sirens sound through the night. Gunfire sounds far and near.

Loud joyous shouting in the streets and roadways amid loud shrieks of gunfire and zooming vehicles on the roadway below Kyamboga.

Some are hiding in fear in their houses under beds.

From a Kyamboga school building, we watch.

I see terrible things.

Later I am face down in the murram dirt with gun barrels very near overhead.

These were not distant happenings at all.

 

10. All is confused

Rumor: there has been a coup.

Unanswered questions: What about the president? Will he return? Was he killed abroad?

Soldiers  -- ‘regular by their uniforms’ -- are seen fleeing uphill near the college across the road near a reservoir. They throw off their uniforms and fling away their weapons, their guns, among the cassava plants. Some servants sneak down and retrieve weapons, then disappear in the nearby forest.

 

11. Checkpoints

Next day on TV it is announced that the CID chief is missing.

His wife and family are still at Kyamboga in the house opposite mine. His talented children in the yard are banging on drums and blowing on make-believe horns.

On the roads, checkpoints are set up at all roundabouts.

Soldiers are commandeering Mulago Hospital medical transport vehicles and agriculture vehicles for transport of large groups of soldiers who hang from the sides of vehicles -- with guns. They rush to checkpoints through town and countryside.

People report seeing bodies.

Schools are on holiday as the country holds its breath.

 

12. Power shifts

Then on Uganda Television two nights later the murky water clears.

There is the new president doing his duty: General Idi Amin Dada interviewing Mr. Oryema, Inspector General of Police.

Another coup: the criminal interviewing the police chief.

The police chief  is under klieg lights squirming and sweating trying to say the ‘right’ answers to his ‘crime’ of not arresting the killers of the generals in that northern city.

Mr. Oryema tries to appear not guilty of the crime committed by the generals.

And he tries not to say the truth. But his condition -- his unconditional surrender to his questioner -- is apparent. He demonstrates his powerlessness.

Should it be the other way around?

The head of the CID is now dead.

The county holds its breath! The rest is…Horrible!