In service of a dictator

HARRIET ALDRICH admires a thoughtful exploration of why ordinary Ugandans helped keep a monstrous leader in power despite his regime's horrific violence

- Harriet Aldrich

Idi Amin is a historical figure synonymous with evil. Branded 'Africa's Hitler' in newspaper headlines and immortalised in lurid books and documentaries detailing his regime’s many atrocities, Uganda’s most infamous dictator is remembered as a monster: irrational, bloodthirsty and larger than life.

While powerful, this framing has also been limiting. In both media and scholarship his rule has often been reduced to a spectacle of violence, obscuring the more complex social, cultural and political dynamics that allowed it to function for nearly a decade. Such narratives often foreclose deeper inquiries into how and why many Ugandans invested themselves in his government's projects, and their stories' unsettling lessons.