The story of Idi Amin, the horiffic Ugandan dictator who killed thousands, and his personal aid, the english Bob Astels, has turned into a movie, The Last King of Scotland. The movie is based on Giles Foden’s novel with the same name, although Bob Astels is scottish and called Garrigan. Fiction is mixed with facts, just like the novel. But the truth about Idi Amin is still well told. Real events in Ugandan history such as when Amin expelled the Asians in 1972 and his constantly growing paranoia which led him to torture and kill thousands are not forgotten. Amin never wrote an autobiography nor any official account of his life, therefore what he did during some parts of his regime is still unknown. The movie follows the young scottish doctor Garrigan as he travels to Uganda seeking adventure. During his stay at a small hospital in the countryside general Idi Amin completes a coup on current president Milton Obote and by chance Garrigan, amazed by the coup and seduced by Amins heroic performance, ends up as Amins personal aid and closest confidante. Amin confides in Garrigan quickly, asking his advice on state matters and giving him a nice house with a new Mercedes, far away from the countryside he first came to Uganda to serve. Garrigans heroic image of Amin begins to fall apart and as Amins paranoia grows and the killings begin Garrigan start to question why he is here. He desides to go back to Scotland, but Amin refuses and confiscates his passport. As the movie continues Garrigan falls into an affair with one of Amins wives, Kay, and she becomes pregnant. This does not go unnoticed to Amin….
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As the years went on Amin became more and more outspoken, in 1977, after Britain had broken diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he had beaten the British and started calling himself Conqueror of the British Empire. He even renamed Lake Edward to Lake Idi Amin.
By 1978 Amins paranoia had driven his closest associates into hiding and he soon found himself alone. Later that year, after Amin’s vice president, General Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car accident, troops loyal to him mutinied. Some of the troops Amin sent against the mutiniers fled to Tanzania. He then accused the Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda and ordered an invasion of Tanzanian territory. But Nyerere counterattacked and had the help of many groups of Ugandan exiles. On April 11, 1979 Idi Amin was forced to flee into Saudi Arabia.
Amin said that Uganda needed him and never expressed any remorse for the abuses of his regime. He died in Saudi Arabia on August 16, 2003. In early 2007, when The Last King of Scotland was released, one of Amins sons, Jaffar Amin, announced that he was writing a book to counter his fathers reputation.
Visit the movie’s homepage here
– Kajsa, Admin Twende Twende
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The movie is very well played. And I do think think that Forrest made him justice. Cause that is probably exactly the kind of man he was. Like a kid with his own playground, Uganda. Scary, is the name for it! Very scary.. and at the same time, I must admit that he must have been a funny man. Cause I was laughing several times while watching the movie..
People tell the story of Amin in isolation of the roots of his Dictatorship. Truth is: it was the British, Israeli and CIA that organized to overthrow Obote and install Amin. The Briish press at first loved Amin so much and described him as a “gentle giant.” Read the The Making of Idi Amin By Pat Hutton and Jonathan Bloch, New African, February 2001. The story is too familiar to those who know how western interests have contributed to the destruction and underdevelopment of Africa.
Britain certainly has blood on its hands in this. I don’t find it particularly amusing that the same policy makers that created this havoc find it a thriller to watch in their living rooms.