Bloody tyrant, now a good sort

NO ONE cried when Idi Amin died, except in Uganda, the country he terrorised into penury in the 1970s. Amin, who passed peacefully away on August 17th, after 24 years of comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, presided over the deaths of between 100,000 and 300,000 of his countrymen. But hundreds of mourners attended memorial services at a mosque in Kampala, the capital, and in his home town, Arua. His ethnic brethren and fellow Muslims eulogised him as “a great man”.

AP

He had his good points, apparently

This was the dictator whose secret police used to roam the streets in sunglasses, stuffing people into car boots, never to be seen again. On seizing power in a coup in 1971, he promised a swift return to democracy, but instead set about murdering all perceived or potential opponents, including Uganda's Anglican archbishop, its chief justice, and a huge chunk of the army. When an army of Tanzanians and Ugandan exiles overthrew Amin in 1979, they found bodies stacked in the basement of his euphemistically-named Bureau of State Research.

Amin's economic management was erratic, too. In 1972, he announced that God had told him to expel some 40,000 Ugandans of Asian origin, the country's traditional merchant class. He confiscated their homes, shops and factories and gave them to his cronies, declaring that this would create “black millionaires”. But his cronies mostly had no idea how to run their new businesses, so the economy collapsed. By the end of his regime, store shelves were bare and Ugandans were forced to scrounge even for simple goods.

Besides murdering and impoverishing his people, Amin also made his country a laughing stock. Among other antics, he sent taunting telegrams to Britain's queen, declared himself king of Scotland, challenged the Tanzanian president to a boxing match, and staged a mock invasion of South Africa on an island in Lake Victoria.

On his home turf of north-western Uganda, however, Amin is remembered as a black leader who stood up to whites, as a rugby-playing man of the people, and as a preacher of African economic empowerment. “People were happy when he chased out the Asians,” said Haruna Imaga, 61, a former member of parliament. “Amin had his good points and his bad points,” conceded Major-General Isaac Lumago, 63, an ex-army chief of staff. “He was approachable...If he saw people dancing local dances, he would join in.”

It is perhaps not surprising that his ethnic kin prefer to remember the less bloody aspects of Amin's rule. His victims were mostly from rival tribes, and he showered his own people with patronage. What is odd is that many others give him the benefit of the doubt. “It's just the nature of African governments: torture and killing,” said Adams Wasswa, a young electrician.

It has taken Uganda a long time to recover from Amin's legacy. The mayhem continued even after he fled into exile. Rebel armies made up of his former soldiers plagued the government of his successor, Milton Obote, whose forces probably ended up killing as many people as Amin's had. Mr Obote was overthrown by a military junta, which was toppled in turn by Yoweri Museveni, the current president, in 1986. By this time, average incomes were 40% lower than in 1971.

Mr Museveni, however, took bold steps to mend matters. He offered the Asians their assets back, and evicted some of the black Ugandans who had grabbed them. About 40% of the property confiscated by Amin was eventually returned to its original owners. Uganda is one of only a handful of African states to have seen a substantial reversal of the flight of capital and skills. Asians, 15,000 of whom now live in Uganda, have invested an estimated $1 billion in the last decade or so.

Uganda's tribes now coexist, mostly peacefully. Mr Museveni has urged reconciliation. He has invited many of Amin's henchmen home from exile, promising them amnesty. One of Amin's former generals is now a deputy prime minister. In a way, the reconciliation has worked too well. Schoolchildren learn little about Amin, and revisionism is rife. Since the median age is about 14, most Ugandans have no memory of the Amin era.