Idi Amin: The Bloody Dictator Who Ate Human Flesh
"I've eaten human meat and it is very salty, even more salty than leopard meat"
In the year 1971, President Milton Obote was overthrown by a military coup led by General Idi Amin Dada. Although the former President's public perception had always been lukewarm and ambivalent, no side of the political spectrum would have ever been prepared for how bloody and tyrannical the next long years would be.
Nicknamed the butcher of Uganda, his reign saw the brutal killings of over 300,000 people, with some estimations reaching as high as 500,000.
His beginning
Idi Amin Dada Oumee was born in the northwestern part of Uganda near the borders of Congo and Sudan. Records place his date of birth to be around the year 1925 but that fact is still up for debate.
His parents belonged to different tribes: while his father was a farmer and an indigene of the Kakwa tribe, his mother was of the Lugbara tribe. Both tribes fell under a more encompassing ethnicity known as the Nubians.
His parents would eventually separate which would end up with him moving to the city.
He enrolled in a Muslim school but only reached fourth grade before dropping out.
Because he had very insufficient education, could speak the language of the natives fluently, and had a very impressive physique (6ft 4 inches), it was only natural that at the time, he would lean more into combat, fighting, and other physically challenging activities.
Idi Amin was very athletic and had a flair for martial arts. This, alongside his physique, got him noticed by the British colonial authorities, who saw him as the perfect fighting machine, someone who would make a great soldier.
"He wasn't well educated but he had a lot of natural intelligence which helped him maneuver his way to the complete amazement of those around him."
– Henri Kyemba, a minister under Amin
Idi Amin started as a kitchen boy but kept buffing up his repertoire. He was great at boxing, swimming, and rugby. He even won the amateur Uganda light heavyweight boxing championship in the year 1951 and defended it for 9 consecutive years.
Back in the army, Idi Amin was promoted from private to Corporal, a very notable move up the ladder.
Idi Amin fast became extremely power drunk and would build a reputation for himself as a ruthless soldier. He was deployed in 1949 to Somalia to stifle some rebels and was again deployed to do the same in Kenya. Idi Amin would torture prisoners of war and show his sadistic behavior at every turn.
"Idi Amin would cut off the genitals of the culprits and humiliate them"
–Henri Kyemba
Others also reported that he would cut off their genitals and choke the prisoners to death with them.
His behavior ruffled a lot of feathers among his British superiors, with many clamoring for his prosecution. However, instead of getting punished, he kept getting promoted until he was given the rank of "Effendi", which happened to be the highest rank available to native-born soldiers in Uganda. Eventually, Idi Amin would climb to the highest rank of any military official in the whole of Africa, at the time.
His rise to power
In the year 1962, there was a case of incessant theft of cattle, a case which Idi Amin was assigned to take care of. His orders were simple, capture them and bring them in for prosecution, but the bloodthirsty soldier had other things in mind.
Idi Amin and his men beat up the thieves mercilessly, tortured them, and then buried a lot of them alive.
However, due to the good relationship he had with the former President Milton Obote, he was able to avoid prosecution and instead got more promotion as well as a deployment to the UK for further training.
Due to Idi Amin's proximity to power, he was able to gain access to over $350,000 worth of ivory and gold from the Congolese forces he was tasked with supplying arms.
On the other hand, Obote also had dirty dealings under him, and his abuse of power offended a few Ugandan leaders, one of which was one of Uganda's precolonial leaders, King Mutesa of Buganda.
The king asked that Obote be probed, however, Obote responded by putting his own puppets among the people meant to probe him, essentially clearing him of all wrongdoings.
Obote placed Amin in charge of Uganda's military and police force, who then, at the behest of the president sent armored tanks to the palace of King Mutesa. The king ran away, making Obote rule unchecked, with Amin as his henchman.
In the year 1971, Jan. 25 to be precise, Obote went to a conference in Singapore, this further emboldened Amin to take over power, forcing Obote into exile. Now Amin had become the sole, supreme ruler of Uganda.
The people were initially excited about Amin taking over, I mean, why won't they be? He was charming, charismatic, shook hands with the public, danced with the commoners, and had quite an informal disposition towards the people. He also married different wives from different ethnic groups, giving the people the illusion that he was part of each and every one of them.
Eventually, when King Mutesa died, Amin made sure he was buried in Ugandan soil, this boosted his popularity even more.
Idi Amin's atrocities and his brutal reign
Aside from the conventional army of Uganda, with which he had nearly absolute control, Amin had also trained over 18,000 secret soldiers tasked with doing his dirtiest work, kind of like his mercenaries. These mercenaries were responsible for brutally executing more than 6,000 soldiers thought to be loyal to Obote.
Idi Amin was known to be very arrogant and hot-headed, even when it involved his dealings on an international scale. A good example was when he requested financial support from Israel as well as arms in order to fight Tanzania. His request was turned down and in retaliation, Amin ordered the expulsion of 500 Israelis as well as over 50,000 Asians.
These people were very pivotal to the economic wellbeing of Uganda so their absence adversely affected the Uganda economy. This didn't bother Amin one bit.
Another example of his rash and arrogant decision-making was in the infamous Entebbe airport raid. You see, in June 1976, the Ugandan dictator aided rogue Palestinian militants that hijacked a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris.
The hijacked plane landed in Entebbe airport and instead of arresting them, Amin provided the hijackers with troops and the logistics required to hold all 258 hostages.
Israel on the other hand sent in their best men to rescue the hostages in a covert operation. Most of the hostages were rescued and while an Israeli soldier was killed 20 Ugandan soldiers as well as all the hijackers lost their lives in the operation.
A furious Amin ordered the execution of one of the remaining hostages, a 74 yr old woman. She fell ill during the hostage situation and was being treated in a Ugandan hospital. The woman was dragged from her hospital bed, shot to death, dumped in the back of a car, driven 19 miles to a sugar plantation, and burnt.
Idi Amin was also very corrupt and plundered his country. He had a knack for collecting luxury cars and spent a lot of his time at his villa with his many mistresses.
"He had so many wives. Most of the homes must have had a wife there"
— Babi Salama Shida, the daughter of one of his 3 legitimate wives
Amin had at least 40 children, and even Babi couldn’t remember exactly how many siblings she had.
Amin had a very strong resentment for white people, especially the British, and would often brag about how he set his country free from their colonialism.
"You said you wanted to teach Britain a lesson, President. Why is that? Does this mean the end of your friendship with Britain?"
"That’s now the lesson I’m teaching them", replied Amin
This conversation was from an interview a British journalist had with the dictator.
He always found different ways to humiliate them. For example, he ordered British businessmen to kneel and swear allegiance to him. He also had a throne which he went out of his way to ensure is always carried around by white people.
Idi Amin also gave himself official British army medals.
"In order to make it absolutely clear to you, I have been honored by the highest order of the conquerer of British imperialism in Uganda"
— Idi Amin
He gave himself titles like President for life, King of Scotland, and
"His excellency president for Life, field marshal Alhaji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of all the beasts of the earth and fishes of the sea and conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in general and Uganda in particular"
Yes, that's not a sentence you just read but one of his many titles. You had to mention all of them when addressing him.
One fateful day, Amin found out that his wives were partying with their bodyguards and it made him furious. They wanted to punish him for not giving them attention.
Amin rushed to the radio station to report the horrific behavior to the whole country
"My wives are unfaithful, they have betrayed me and destroyed my political work. I repudiate them and divorce them this very day, they must leave my house"
The women took off running before he got back home to avoid his wrath. The first woman managed to flee to London for refuge, the second woman was spared for political reasons but the third wasn’t so lucky.
A year later, the third was butchered to pieces and found in the trunk of a car. Amin then ordered his minister of health to stitch the butchered body back together.
Her children were made to see the body, none of them were more than 10yrs old, it was truly traumatizing for them.
The body was then displayed in front of the hospital for thousands to see and in front of everyone, Idi Amin shouted
"Your mother was a loose woman and look at what happened. This is how those who blaspheme against Allah are punished"
Rumors kept spreading about his psychotic, almost ritualistic methods of killing. He reportedly kept human heads in his refrigerator and ordered disabled people to be thrown into the Nile River to be eaten by crocodiles. Amin once confessed to cannibalism
"I have eaten human meat and it is very salty, even more salty than leopard meat"
As is typical of most dictators, the fear of an uproar and revolution began to eat him up. He started becoming extremely paranoid.
Amin slept very little, as reported by his children. Night always brought out his worst fears because he was always having nightmares of the people he killed coming out to haunt him. He could have a bad dream and it would end up in the arrest and execution of hundreds of people on that same day.
"People were scared of him, he was scared of them"
— his daughter
"Everybody in Uganda is responsible for my security. If anybody hears anybody making subversive activities, or try to plan anything against me, report that person to the police straight away"
— A nervous Idi Amin
Suspects were often clubbed to death or shot while wearing white aprons to show the blood. Their bodies then burned in the savannah or thrown in the Nile.
Amin’s house was located a few meters away from where his victims were tortured. A tunnel was built from his house to the site to avoid being seen. This was to ensure he participated in the torturing himself, finishing off his victims with a sledgehammer, his signature method.
Taking care of family business
Amin was suspicious of everybody and trusted nobody, and he had good reason to be afraid. His own cousin was planning to overthrow him.
Charles Arube, his cousin grew up with Amin and they were more or less brothers, Amin even promoted him to brigadier general of his army. This made Arube have a lot of leverage in the army, something that terrified the dictator.
One morning, Amin decided to invite his cousin to his office to confront him. He wanted to look him in the eyes and detect the betrayal. Arube was a very intelligent and educated man who was schooled in England.
Amin accused him outright but his cousin remained calm. He kept threatening him and instead of Arube to deny it, he confronted Amin about all the havoc he's wreaked on the people of Uganda.
Amin blew up with rage and threatened to execute him instantly if he uttered another word. Arube remained calm.
Amin realized how calm his cousin was regardless and followed suit. They exchanged pleasantries and bid each other farewell.
Amin quickly summoned the leader of his mercenaries and ordered him to organize an assassination. Unfortunately for him, the men that were sent after Arube were ambushed and killed.
Arube then took it a step further by arranging for his people to take over different government houses, and other vital infrastructure. This gave Arube the illusion of power, which made him relaxed and complacent.
Meanwhile, Amin was launching a counterattack. He ordered his men to surround the building where Arube was and then await his orders before killing them.
Everything worked according to plan. Amin's men spread out around the area without Arube's men knowing, and then one by one, the men who were standing guard were neutralized by Amin's men. They then stood where Arube's men were all standing.
They informed Amin they were ready for the assault but he told them to wait and that he was going to try to reach Arube through the phone first.
Amin's son narrated that his father was in tears while he was on the phone with Arube. He said, "My mother gave you to me and told me to look after you and after all this you betray me?"
Arube answered "It is good for an educated Christian to rule"
Amin told his cousin to look out the window and to his greatest surprise, none of his (Arube's) men were at their duty posts, in fact, it was Amin's men that were outside.
Amin put down the phone and then a few seconds later got a call from his men that they had heard a gunshot from inside the house where Arube was staying. Arube had shot and killed himself.
According to the kakwa tradition, if brothers fight and spill blood, there had to be a cultural cleansing. In the morgue where Arube was kept, Amin, honoring a warrior ritual, walked into the room, stuck a knife into his cousin, and drank his blood in order to appease his spirit and prevent his ghost from haunting him.
Nobody was in the room with him when it happened but it's highly probable he did that because that was the culture.
His fall
The Tanzanian army invaded Uganda in 1979 in collaboration with the rebel groups. Idi Amin, who was overwhelmed, fled to Saudi Arabia where he lived in exile. He admitted in an interview that he felt no remorse, only nostalgia.
He died in 2003 aged 75, of kidney failure, facing no punishment for his atrocities.