Amin's Soldiers

Amin's Soldiers PDF

Author: John Pancras Orau

Publisher: Waterside Press

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1908162465

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Following the fall of African dictator Idi Amin, remnants of his army were rounded-up and thrown in jail. John Pancras Orau, a member of Amin’s Ugandan Air Force was one of these men. He saw first-hand the privations, isolation, hunger and humiliation in what were little more than concentration camps. In this book he describes the uncertainty and arbitrary punishments that—alongside fear that prisoners might just ‘disappear’ —were part of daily life. A true story of hope and belief, Amin’s Soldiers is a masterpiece of tragicomic writing falling somewhere between Catch 22 and Animal Farm as The Chieftan and his Brains Trust of fellow inmates try to govern themselves against a backdrop of prison gossip, rumour, misinformation and ever-changing rules. Yet it is not without a rich vein of humour as prisoners set up shops, cafes, entertainment, salvage teams and work on dubious escape plans. Equally comical are the ruses, subterfuge and corruption that become endemic as guards and prisoners seek to outwit each other. For more serious students of imprisonment, the book is about crime and punishment in a fluctuating political landscape – about ordinary people whose only real offence was being left on the wrong side of history. It is also a true story of belief and survival.The book came about as a result of links between the Anglican Diocese of Winchester and the Church of Uganda. ‘The last time I saw John Orau he was sitting in his tiny bookshop in Uganda wiling away his time reading. I asked how many he had sold today, he thought hard then answered, “None”. “And yesterday?” “None, either”. He was writing this book and his only ambition was to one day see it in print’: Reverend Gordon Randall.

In Idi Amin’s Shadow

In Idi Amin’s Shadow PDF

Author: Alicia C. Decker

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2014-11-15

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0821445022

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In Idi Amin’s Shadow is a rich social history examining Ugandan women’s complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship to Amin’s military state. Based on more than one hundred interviews with women who survived the regime, as well as a wide range of primary sources, this book reveals how the violence of Amin’s militarism resulted in both opportunities and challenges for women. Some assumed positions of political power or became successful entrepreneurs, while others endured sexual assault or experienced the trauma of watching their brothers, husbands, or sons “disappeared” by the state’s security forces. In Idi Amin’s Shadow considers the crucial ways that gender informed and was informed by the ideology and practice of militarism in this period. By exploring this relationship, Alicia C. Decker offers a nuanced interpretation of Amin’s Uganda and the lives of the women who experienced and survived its violence. Each chapter begins with the story of one woman whose experience illuminates some larger theme of the book. In this way, it becomes clear that the politics of military rule were highly relevant to women and gender relations, just as the politics of gender were central to militarism. By drawing upon critical security studies, feminist studies, and violence studies, Decker demonstrates that Amin’s dictatorship was far more complex and his rule much more strategic than most observers have ever imagined.

Child Soldiers in Context

Child Soldiers in Context PDF

Author: Artur Bogner

Publisher: Göttingen University Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 3863954556

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Long before “IS” and “Boko Haram”, the messianic “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA) in Uganda was considered as one of the most brutal rebel groups in Africa, or in the world, and as one which clearly specialized in the abduction, “recruitment” and deployment of children and adolescents as ombatants. This book presents the results of a research project on former child soldiers and rebels in northern Uganda and their “reintegration” into society after their return to civilian life. The authors investigate their biographies and the social figurations or relationships between them and members of the civilian population that emerged following their return, not least in their families of origin, and show which conditions facilitate or hinder their “(re)integration” into civilian life. The discussion also shows what distinguishes them from former members of rebel groups in the neighboring region of West Nile, in respect of their history and how they were recruited, as well as in their present situation and social position.

First Kill Your Family

First Kill Your Family PDF

Author: Peter Eichstaedt

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2013-04-01

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1613749325

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&“Richard Opio has neither the look of a cold-blooded killer nor the heart of one. Yet as his mother and father lay on the ground with their hands tied, Richard used the blunt end of an ax to crush their skulls. He was ordered to do this by a unit commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has terrorized northern Uganda for twenty years. The memory racks Richard's slender body as he wipes away tears.&” For more than twenty years, beginning in the mid-1980s, the Lord's Resistance Army has ravaged northern Uganda. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered, and thousands more mutilated and traumatized. At least 1.5 million people have been driven from a pastoral existence into the squalor of refugee camps. The leader of the rebel army is the rarely seen Joseph Kony, a former witchdoctor and self-professed spirit medium who continues to evade justice and wield power from somewhere near the Congo~Sudan border. Kony claims he not only can predict the future but also can control the minds of his fighters. And control them he does: the Lord's Resistance Army consists of children who are abducted from their homes under cover of night. As initiation, the boys are forced to commit atrocities—murdering their parents, friends, and relatives—and the kidnapped girls are forced into lives of sexual slavery and labor. In First Kill Your Family, veteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt goes into the war-torn villages and refugee camps, talking to former child soldiers, child &“brides,&” and other victims. He examines the cultlike convictions of the army; how a pervasive belief in witchcraft, the spirit world, and the supernatural gave rise to this and other deadly movements; and what the global community can do to bring peace and justice to the region. This insightful analysis delves into the war's foundations and argues that, much like Rwanda's genocide, international intervention is needed to stop Africa's virulent cycle of violence.

Idi Amin

Idi Amin PDF

Author: Mark Leopold

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 0300154399

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The first serious full-length biography of modern Africa's most famous dictator "Sharply written, forensically researched. . . . A meticulous re-examination of Amin's life, producing a narrative packed with original evidence, and one that strives at all times to be scrupulously well balanced. "--Paul Kenyon, The Sunday Times, London Idi Amin began his career in the British army in colonial Uganda, and worked his way up the ranks before seizing power in a British-backed coup in 1971. He built a violent and unstable dictatorship, ruthlessly eliminating perceived enemies and expelling Uganda's Asian population as the country plunged into social and economic chaos. In this powerful and provocative new account, Mark Leopold places Amin's military background and close relationship with the British state at the heart of the story. He traces the interwoven development of Amin's career and his popular image as an almost supernaturally evil monster, demonstrating the impossibility of fully distinguishing the truth from the many myths surrounding the dictator. Using an innovative biographical approach, Leopold reveals how Amin was, from birth, deeply rooted in the history of British colonial rule, how his rise was a legacy of imperialism, and how his monstrous image was created.

Uganda’s Political Turmoil Post Idi Amin

Uganda’s Political Turmoil Post Idi Amin PDF

Author: Mica Kiribedda

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2009-12-22

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1467006734

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A young man is excited as he joins the Ugandan army to serve his nation and better his life. Little did he know that the regime he is serving in is one of the greatest dictators to be known to the world. Mica takes us through his hard childhood, training and dedication to the army. His biggest obstacle is the tribalism that is infesting Ugandan politics now as it was then. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand Ugandan and indeed African politics.

Recollections of Uganda Under Milton Obote and Idi Amin

Recollections of Uganda Under Milton Obote and Idi Amin PDF

Author: Noel O'Cleirigh

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 1412024404

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In this book the writer describes life in Uganda as seen through the eyes of an expatriate civil servant employed by the Ministry of Education. He gives the reader an insight into a newly independent country transforming its colonial style education system through its Africanization policies, some of which he inaugurated and helped to implement. A former member of Professor George Eogan's Excavation Team at Knowth in The Boyne Valley, he continued his interest in this discipline while living in East Africa and presents vivid pen pictures of some of the archaeological field trips and surveys he carried out on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of the Uganda Museum. The book also deals with the history and tribal customs of the Baganda and Langi people as well as describing some of the memorable people encountered by the author..........the veteran CMS Missionary Phebe Cave-Brown-Cave........Jacobo Obote, the father of Uganda's President Milton Obote.......the saintly Archbishop Luwum.....the formidable Mrs Enim,mother-in-law of the infamous Idi Amin......... The events recounted by Noel O'Cleirigh throughout the pages of this book are set in East Africa amid a backdrop of President Obote's brand of African Socialism and General Idi Amin's Military Coup d'Etat and subsequent Reign of Terror.

The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget

The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget PDF

Author: Andrew Rice

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2009-05-26

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9780805079654

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From Rwanda to Sierra Leone, African countries recovering from tyranny and war are facing an impossible dilemma: to overlook past atrocities for the sake of peace or to seek catharsis through tribunals and truth commissions. In this work, Rice reports on Idi Amin's legacy and the limits of reconciliation.