| WITH AN EAGLE EYE: Where is Africa after Amin’s death? | Send to a friend |
| Thursday, 12 August 2010 23:22 |
 MOBHARE MATINYI, WASHINGTON, DCOn Saturday, August 16, 2003, at 8.20am, Idi Amin Dada, the most brutal military dictator in post-independence Africa, passed away at King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He was quickly buried on the same day. Amin, the semi-literate former President of Uganda, who denied his victims even a chance to get First Aid after what he called a “VIP treatment”, comparatively, died peacefully after hanging on a life-support machine for one month. The Saudi Kingdom had protected Amin for over 20 years. The International Commission of Jurists in Geneva estimates the death toll from Amin’s brutality at between 80,000 and 300,000. Amnesty International and Ugandan exiles put it at 500,000. Amin, who died aged 78, killed his real and imagined enemies. Most analysts agree on a modest figure of 300,000. During his rule between 1971 and 1979, this figure was nearly the total population of the three African nations – the Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principle, and Equatorial Guinea. He regarded himself as a “pure son of Africa,” but the man he deposed, Mr Milton Apollo Obote, saw him differently. Mr Obote once called Amin “the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life”. Founding President Julius Nyerere, whose military overthrew Amin in a classic counterattack, called Amin “a murderer, a liar and a savage" while the American president during Amin’s fall, Jimmy Carter, said that what Amin did “disgusted the entire civilized world”. Amin’s rule confirmed what the British army officers had worried about prior to Uganda’s independence in 1962: that Amin was a murderer. Truly, Amin’s regime literally became a synonym for barbarity as the British journalist, Patrick Keatley, recalled in 2003. Immediately after his bloody coup d’état, Nyerere, speaking in Swahili, posed a fundamental philosophical question: “Serikali ni nini?” Literally meaning: What is government? Surely, Amin insulted the cause of African nationalism. But what can we learn from Amin’s story? Has Africa changed from those eras of military dictatorships instigated by the Western powers under the pretext of the Cold War? Not much probably depending on the yardstick one uses. When Amin fell in 1979, Africa had three oppressed nations, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, while the newly independent Angola and Mozambique had become the de facto battlefields for the Cold War. Likewise, the other newly independent nations in the Indian Ocean, Comoro and the Seychelles, had to rely on Tanzanian troops to keep their governments in power. Furthermore, Western Sahara was under Moroccan disputed occupation but luckily Ethiopia and Eritrea were still a one country and Somalia under Dictator Siad Barre was still calm. Until 1979, exactly 24 African countries including Uganda had tasted the bitterness and sweetness of military rule. By the time Amin died in 2003, all African countries except Western Sahara were free, Eritrea had been born, Somalia was in shambles, and about ten Sub-Saharan African countries were experiencing civil wars or civil unrest, four under military rule while the North African Arab states were struggling with domestic terrorism. Today, military rule in Africa is largely unacceptable. However, Libya is still under military revolutionary rule for over 40 years now, Niger is the latest victim and the Mauritanian military junta somehow became democratic last year. A total 31 African countries out of 53 have experienced military rule at least once in the last five decades. Africa is waiting for the birth of a new nation, South Sudan, while Somalia is practically divided into three disputed states: Somaliland, Puntland and Somalia proper. At least one former murderous president, Liberian Charles Taylor, is defending himself before the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague but Sudanese President Omar Ali Bashir is still safe with African leaders confused on his issue. So sadly, right now the whole world is quietly witnessing the worst human disaster going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with foreign companies digging out minerals at will and dishing out weapons to poor Africans. Nobody cares! In other African countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Eritrea, still the dignity of human life is unprotected for political reasons. In Nigeria, religious beliefs are enough to take lives while in Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia the so-called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are causing instability while Somalia now exports terrorism. The Africa we have today is certainly better than the one we had during Amin’s life. However, compared to our original goals or to where others are, Africa is still far behind in many aspects such as democracy, good governance, the rule of law and development. Thanks to Tanzanian forces for helping Ugandans to get rid of Africa’s bloodiest despot ever. As we look back five-four-three decades ago, is this the Africa we envisioned then? If not, why? Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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