Idi Amin

[[File:Idi Amin -Archives New Zealand AAWV 23583, KIRK1, 5(B), R23930288.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Idi Amin in 1973.]]{{politics}}
{{cquote|Idi Amin is a splendid type and a good [rugby] player... but... virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter.|||An unnamed British official's assessment of Mr. Amin's capacity for leadership<ref name="Beaumont2003">Peter Beaumont (17 Aug 2003). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/17/peterbeaumont.theobserver Idi Amin Dada, VC, CBE .. RIP]. ''The Observer''</ref>}}
'''Idi Amin Dada Oumee'''  {{lived|17 May 1928|16 August 2003}} was the ruler (although it might be better to say destroyer) of [[Uganda]] from 1971 to 1979. Like many batshit insane [[dictator]]s, he generated his own excessively aggrandizing title: '''[[Bullshit|His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular), Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas]]'''; however, ''Time'' has shortened this to '''The Wild Man of Africa'''.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918762-1,00.html Time - Amin: The Wild Man of Africa]</ref>

==<i>Idi</i>ocracy==
During his term as the unchecked [[Dictator|ruler]] of Uganda, he helped destroy the nation's economy and reduce its population. According to the estimates of exile organizations and [[Amnesty International]], approximately 500,000 Ugandans were murdered under Amin.<ref>Patrick Keatley,
 [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/aug/18/guardianobituaries Idi Amin obituary], 18 August 2003, ''[[The Guardian]]''</ref> He ordered the expulsion of Uganda's Asian<ref group=note>If you are an American reading this: Most of said Asians are/were of [[India]]n, [[Pakistan]]i, or [[Bangladesh]]i descent.</ref> population, numbering about 60,000, which resulted in the collapse of the economy as Uganda's Asian community made up a large share of its professional and middle classes. Amin's inept rule resulted in an influx of refugees into [[United Kingdom|Britain]], which led to increased racial tensions during the 1970s and rising support for the [[National Front]], and he also made the white community in Uganda into slaves, and further legitimized anti-white racism against the white minority in Uganda.<ref>https://ng.opera.news/ng/en/sports/c647890303d7976a381fd63005f96c50</ref>

His main policy for the country (outside of personal aggrandizement) was an attempt to convert the population to [[Islam]]. This attempt failed because of his methods, which included assassinating an archbishop, not normally considered a wise move in a [[Christian]] country. He also practiced [[polygamy]] and fathered an estimated 45 to 54 children, and there were persistent rumors he also engaged in [[cannibalism]], although nothing concrete was ever proven.

In 1976, he unwisely and bizarrely labeled himself "the last King of [[Scotland]]", dressed 
to kill
 in a kilt, and held lavish receptions, alienating many [[socialist]] African allies in the process. This would be crucial when his country attempted to annex the Kagera Region of neighboring {{wpl|Tanzania}} and was repelled. Finding his army outnumbered and outgunned, he was forced into a bloody retreat back to Kampala. It was during the advance on the city that Tanzanian forces with Ugandan exiles uncovered [[torture]] and execution cells and burial pits used by the Amin regime.

He fled from Uganda in 1979 by helicopter, first to [[Libya]] (where he was granted asylum by fellow megalomaniac [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]] until Daffy could stomach him no longer) and eventually wound up in [[Saudi Arabia]], where he lived on a strict halal diet of Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/the-eccentric-eating-habits-of-9-ruthless-dictators-a6735846.html The eccentric eating habits of 9 ruthless dictators]</ref><ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1439131/Idi-Amin.html Idi Amin obituary]</ref> until his death in 2003.

Amin's antics were depicted fairly accurately in the 2006 film ''The Last King of Scotland'' (although parts of the film, including the main character of the Scottish doctor, were fictional<ref>[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/hollywoodland/2007/01/based_on_true_events.html Based on True Events: What exactly is "true" about The Last King of Scotland?], Kim Masters, Slate, 26 Jan 2007</ref>). They were less accurately, but more hilariously, depicted by Richard Pryor in his skit showing Idi Amin posting a rebuttal to Western news stories.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20w3XY1uMVE As seen here.]</ref>

==Ideology, relations with Israel, and antisemitism==
Amin's ideology and regime has been classified by historians as part of the Afro-fascism phenomenon.<ref>https://www.jstor.org/stable/4361984</ref>

Amin's autocratic, ultranationalistic, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-communist rule was at various points supported by the US, the UK, the [[Soviet Union]], [[Chile]] under fellow brute and killer clown [[Augusto Pinochet]], and Third World socialist countries. He was initially supported by [[Israel]] as well, but by 1972 Amin expelled Israeli military advisors.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1166537 "Notes on the Civil and Political Strife in Uganda"] by Mamadou Tall (1982) ''Issue: A Journal of Opinion'' 12(1/2):41–44. doi:10.2307/1166537.</ref> In the same year, Amin sent a bizarre telegram to Kurt Waldheim, [[UN]] Secretary-General (and, hilariously, a closeted former [[Nazi]]), and [[Israeli]] Prime Minister Golda Meir, which said in part:<ref>[https://www.thoughtco.com/quotes-idi-amin-dada-43591 Quotes: Idi Amin Dada. Quotations from the President of Uganda 1971–1979] ''ThoughtCo.''</ref>
{{cquote|[[Germany]] is the place where when [[Hitler]] was the prime minister and supreme commander, he [[Holocaust|burned over six million Jews]]. This is because Hitler and all German people knew that Israelis are not people who are working in the interest of the world and that is why they burned the Israelis alive with gas in the soil of Germany.}}

Amin's overt hostility to Israel did not stop him from claiming in 1974 that he had the solution to bringing about peace in the [[Middle East]].<ref>''The Middle East Crisis: His Excellency the President Al-Hajji General Idi Amin Dada's Contribution to the Solution of the Middle East Crisis During the Third Year of the Second Republic of Uganda'' by Idi Amin (1974) self-published.</ref>

In 1976, an Air France flight from Paris to Tel Aviv was hijacked by [[Palestine|Palestinians]] and brought to Entebbe airport; this brought the wrath of the [[Israel Defence Force]], who mounted a commando raid to free the hostages. A 75-year-old female hostage, Dora Bloch, who had been hospitalized in Kampala and was not at Entebbe during the rescue, was executed in reprisal. Probably because he didn't have the means to retaliate against Israel itself, Amin decided to take out his anger by starting a {{wpl|Uganda–Tanzania War|war with Tanzania|.}} This irrational decision later led to a coup and his ousting of power as the leader of Uganda. He fled to Saudi Arabia where he sought refuge and spent the rest of his life there until his death in 2003.

==See also==
*[[Joseph Kony]]
*[[Robert Mugabe]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}
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[[Category:African politicians]]
[[Category:Anti-Christian bigots]]
[[Category:Antisemites]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Dictators]]
[[Category:Fascists]]
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Monarchs]]
[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Categories: African politicians, Anti-Christian bigots, Antisemites, Authors, Authoritarianism, Crimes against humanity, Dictators, Fascists, History, Military, Monarchs, Muslims, Racists, Totalitarianism