Chapter 7: The Amin Days

Enter President Amin

On January 25th, 1971, Major Idi Amin overthrew the government. My brother and guardian Sam, was away in Singapore and he was not to come back for nine years, having got political asylum in Tanzania. In 1971, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) held its summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Uganda sent two delegations, one from Kampala and another by exiles in Dar es Salaam. This angered Amin when both delegations got accredited. On Sunday March 27th, 1971, our mother passed away. I was called out of Chapel and taken home. The army laid a trap for Sam should he appear. Gertrude and Harriet, Sam’s two eldest daughters recall that period of the Amin Coup and the death of their grandmother.

The 1971 Amin Coup, was reported to have been relatively bloodless. However, those of us who knew some of the victims of the takeover and lived through or observed his nine-year rule, it was bloody. It is the news of grisly killings that made it imperative for Milton and Sam to find ways of getting their families out of Uganda as soon as possible. Sam discreetly contacted Dan and they drew up a plan to evacuate Rose and the children. Initially, Dan, Simon and myself were not under any immediate threat. I continued with my studies and they continued with their respective jobs. This freedom we enjoyed mainly because we were not considered a threat to the regime, which did not even know us to relate us to our brother in exile in Dar es Salaam. This could be because we did not share surnames as is now common. However, the Bananuka family was not that lucky.

Daudi The Fish Merchant

I had grown up knowing that my father was a smalltime fishmonger. However, in 2016, a village mate on home leave from Washington narrated to me about my father’s dhow, (a wind driven sailing trawler). He said that my father would sail to several islands and landing sites on Lake Victoria, such as Mwanza and Musoma, in Northern Tanganyika on expeditions to buy dried fish. My father was a fish merchant, who bought in bulk from source and sold all over the Eastern Province of Uganda.

While Idi Amin is demonized for many atrocities committed during his rule, he is increasingly being absolved from some of them. This semi-literate giant of a man did leave a legacy of solid achievements. After years of seeing alternative enlightened leadership in Uganda, the man I reviled most has proven to have been a true patriot, someone who loved and served his country and people. With the expulsion of the non-Ugandans of Asian extraction, the indigenous African had to manage the economic activities he had been locked out of, because they were dominated by Asians. British writer Clive Staples Lewis once said that, “education without values as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a cleverer devil.”