Idi Amin

[LordShiva]

Today's his death anniversary.

Everyone knows he expelled teh ethnic Indian population, expropriated British assets in Uganda, declared himself King of Scotland, awarded himself teh Victoria Cross, attended funerals in kilts, banned hippies and mini-skirts, and killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.

His troops also killed thousands of elephants. I watched a show on National Geographic about "Rogue Elephants" which would gore humans and cattle. It's hypothesized that these are teh elephants that were calves when their parents were killed, and who grew up with these traumatic experiences in their memories. With their intricate social structures messed up and teh not-quite-fond memories they had of humans, they'd become violent and carry on Idi Amin's legacy of death long after his ouster.

[LordShiva]

Of course, teh guy who replaced Amin wasn't very nice, either

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Of course, teh guy who replaced Amin wasn't very nice, either

Milton Obote? About whom there were fairly high hopes?

Its amazing that civil society in Uganda has recovered as much as it has (despite the LRA, etc) A sign of hope for many such places, I think.

[Nostromo]

There were fairly high hopes about Amin, too. TIA. This is Africa.

There's a movie about him, The Last King of Scotland. Forest Whitaker plays Idi Amin. He's excellent, as usual.

There are more and more movies about Africa. Maybe we're slowly opening up, taking our heads out of our asses?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by nostromo
There were fairly high hopes about Amin, too. TIA. This is Afrika.

There's a movie about him, The Last King of Scotland. Forest Whitaker plays Idi Amin. He's excellent, as usual.

There are more and more movies about Afrika. Maybe we're slowly opening up, taking our heads out of our asses?

correction, more and more movies dealing with contemporary africa and its real problems. There have been films about Africa for a while.

The biggest one was about a beautiful white woman, and her romantic misadventures. "I had a farm in Africa ......"

[Nostromo]

Right you are, Sir

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by nostromo
Right you are, Sir

I just wish I could let you hear my impression of Meryl Streep doing a Danish accent. But perhaps its just as well.

Anyway, you were being serious, lets get back to that.

[Nostromo]

Good idea. But to put yourself in character, put on a whig, a dress and some lipstick. And while you're at it film yourself doing your impression and post it on Youtube.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Idi Amin

Originally posted by LordShiva
Everyone knows he expelled teh ethnic Indian population, expropriated British assets in Uganda, declared himself King of Scotland, awarded himself teh Victoria Cross, attended funerals in kilts, banned hippies and mini-skirts, and killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.

My favorite attrocity is when he had one of his wives killed, her arms and legs chopped off and then sewn back on backwards, and then showed her corpse to their children. What a sweet guy.

Entebbe is another great Idi Amin movie.

[VetLegion]

Re: Idi Amin

Originally posted by LordShiva
Today's his death anniversary.

Everyone knows he expelled teh ethnic Indian population,

I can't help but wonder - why? The Indians came with the white man, but didn't wield political power. They were shop owners, artisans and professionals. Not some big exploiting capitalists.

If Uganda let them stay it would probably be more economically developed today.

BTW if anyone has some good link about the fates of Indians in central and east Africa, let's hear it, I'd love to read some more about it. How they came, what they did, were they all expelled or are there some left today...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Of course, teh guy who replaced Amin wasn't very nice, either

He also, IIRC, preceded Idi Amin.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

And the bloke who replaced Obote (Tito Obello) wasn't much fun either. Uganda has an impressive track record in horrible rulers.

[Dr Strangelove]

Re: Re: Idi Amin

Originally posted by VetLegion


I can't help but wonder - why? The Indians came with the white man, but didn't wield political power. They were shop owners, artisans and professionals. Not some big exploiting capitalists.

If Uganda let them stay it would probably be more economically developed today.

BTW if anyone has some good link about the fates of Indians in central and east Africa, let's hear it, I'd love to read some more about it. How they came, what they did, were they all expelled or are there some left today...

It was primarily jealousy. As a class the Indians were fairly comfortable whereas the native Africans were not. Feeling slighted by this disparity Amin and his ilk explained their success as being due to some sort of cheating, similar to the way that Germans in the 1930s explained the relative success of the Jews as being due to unscrupulous practices.

Most of the Indians of Uganda emigrated. Many wound up in Kenya or Tanzania, others found their way to Europe or America. I knew some students of Indian ancestory whose families had been forced to leave Uganda. Few of them returned to India.

[germanos]

Re: Re: Re: Idi Amin

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


It was primarily jealousy. As a class the Indians were fairly comfortable whereas the native Africans were not. Feeling slighted by this disparity Amin and his ilk explained their success as being due to some sort of cheating, similar to the way that Germans in the 1930s explained the relative success of the Jews as being due to unscrupulous practices.

Where the indians threated differently in British colonial times?

Where they given preferential treatment by the colonial administration in comparison to the indiginous black population?

Where they thus victim to the 'cheats' the colonial administration allowed them? Probably 'cheats' along the line of 'devide and conquer'?

[lord of the mark]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Idi Amin

Originally posted by germanos


Where the indians threated differently in British colonial times?

Where they given preferential treatment by the colonial administration in comparison to the indiginous black population?

Where they thus victim to the 'cheats' the colonial administration allowed them? Probably 'cheats' along the line of 'devide and conquer'?

Im sure you could find someone claiming the above, and it probably varied from place to place. I doubt thats the real basis for the resentment though, a resentment that is parallel to that for Chinese in Southeast Asia, and for certain other folks in Europe.