General Idi Amin Dada (Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait)

Where the Nile rises on the equator...

is the Africa of the great lakes.

Uganda is half the size of France.

Her ten million inhabitants have never known famine.

Her agricultural wealth, her exports of coffee,

cotton, copper and to developing industry...

allow her, for the most part, to be less and less dependent...

on the outside world.

It was shortly after the independence...

of this former British colony in 1962...

that Lieutenant Idi Amin Dada became interested in politics.

He rapidly became chief of staff..

And the right-hand man of President Obote,

whom he overthrew in 1971 by a coup d'etat.

Obote was unpopular,

and his fall was welcomed by the population.

He fled to Tanzania and a reward was offered for him,

dead or alive.

General Am in soon attracted attention on the international scene...

with his numerous telegrams to other heads of state.

"He called Nixon" my dear brother';..

And wished him a quick recovery from the Watergate affair.

He congratulated the Chilean junta when it took power.

He ordered the queen of England to send the Scottish guard...

to accompany him to the Commonwealth Conference.

Eighty-thousand Asians installed by the British in Uganda...

at the beginning of the century...

controlled 80% of the country's economy.

In 1972, after a dream,

General Am in declared the economic war,

which meant, on one hand,

giving 90 days to the Asians to leave the country,

taking with them the strict minimum,

and, on the other hand, distributing their business to Ugandans.

Today, the economic war has not yet been won.

Distribution chains and imports have been disrupted.

The country's foreign reserves are at their lowest.

In the capital, it is almost impossible...

to find sugar, flour, imported industrial products,

spare parts or matches.

Uganda holds the record for inflation in Africa.

In one year, prices have risen from 20 to 50%.

On February 10th, 1972,

to set an example and to combat budding guerrilla warfare,

General Am in organized 12 public executions...

at the same time in the country's main towns.

Most observers agree...

that several thousand Ugandans have disappeared...

since General Am in seized power.

Among the missing: the vice dean of the university,

the president of the high court, doctors and former ministers.

In 1973, the International Commission of Jurists...

published a report denouncing Uganda as a lawless country,

and it wrote about the missing personalities:

"There is every reason to think that they have been assassinated...

by members of the army immediately after their arrest."

The whole worlds are looking at General Amin...

and at Uganda as a whole.

What will be the future of Uganda?

The people are looking at this.

I would like to speak as the heavyweight champion here in Uganda.

Um...

I am sure I will be in position even to defeat or defend myself.

But I wanted to tell you this: As a boxer,

also I am very happy to receive this as a rugby player...

because I've been a member...

of the rugby team in Uganda.

And I used to play second row.

You know, pushing is very hard and also wing three quarter.

You should know that I used to run 9.8 second hundred yards.

This is- With my speed, with my weight...

of, of getting the ball...

and when you tackle me, you can harm yourself.

I think you should know this. But I wanted to tell the boxers...

that the only chance to defeat the referee...

who are against you...

or against the country, is to win by knockout.

This is the only thing.

And this is the most important.

You must do everything possible...

to win by knockout.

You must knock anybody who is sparring with you in the boxing ring.

This is my last. Thank you very much.

Fire!

- All the man in. - Excellent.

All in the heart.

Very good.

I come from very poor family.

I wanted to tell you this.

And when I became bigger,

my father has no money.

I am to work,

digging, and then people give me some money for food.

And some money I keep it and I pay my school fees.

And I study through hardship,

not just comfort.

And also I used to-

Then I was taken by force into the army...

here in Kampala during the war.

And... I went there. I did not want.

But later on, because of force,

during the second World War,

I was taken to Burma.

And I work there until now.

I went through difficulty.

I go to the rank, from my rank,

from the rank of lance corporal...

up to general now-I became general.

Your Excellence, guard all warmed up.

Formed up in two ranks, ready for inspection, Your Excellence.

And if they found that what you are saying, it is not truth,

then they will never listen for you again.

And that, you will lose confidence to the people.

But the people likes me very much.

The reason why I am very popular because I always speak to them truth.

And if I don't have anything to tell them, I keep quiet.

We see the paratrooper school.

On March 10th, 1974,

the general announced, "With the help of friendly countries,

"Uganda is going to arm to the teeth to reach...

an international combat level."

As a paratrooper, they know exactly to jump and be into sections.

This song they do before they jump.

It warm them completely.

I can't tell you, because it is confidential in any country-

cannot tell you the strength of the army.

Since I came in power,

automatically Uganda become revolutionary-

not only the armed forces,

but the whole police, prisons, the whole public.

You see, lion-

Um, lion-if you don't disturb lion,

it can't do any harm.

And also I like very much elephants...

because it is a sign of liberty...

freedom and it moves freely.

It wants a big space. This is the elephant.

And this is a sign you can see in Africa.

There is plenty of land where it can move freely.

It can eat completely without being disturbed.

And you find this only in Africa.

And that is why you find that the wild animal...

have got freedom mostly in Africa.

And, um-

And, uh, this is actually what I am trying to do...

here in Africa.

The reason why I am very popular,

my policy all over Africa and every African peoples...

wants freedom for their people.

They have requested me to tell their leaders...

to give them this freedom...

and same policy as I did here in Uganda.

Because here I gave...

a completely full economical independence...

to the people of Uganda.

How many crocodiles here?

Very many, yes.

And this is a very good area of the crocodiles.

It is a head quarter of the crocodile, you can see.

You see as it is running very fast.

I think this might be captain of crocodiles.

Yes. He understand me now. He's moving.

Very big. Yes.

Yes, very good. Yes.

And we are now going, actually, to the headquarters of crocodile,

where they lay more eggs- they produce more children.

We are going now. And it is very attractive.

And you can see here... hundreds of crocodiles.

Thousands of hippo, you see?

Guinea fowls, in there at the edge. You see?

Guinea fowls.

And this elephant is very big.

You see?

And here it is a place where you can found...

there is more crocodile than anywhere in the world.

This place.

We say, "How are you?"

Very good.

He is eating.

He is greeting me also.

And even this crocodile is looking at us.

Can I ask you to move?

Uh? Oh, we still want to watch it.

- You want me to ask it to move? - Yes.

Hey!

You see, it open this...

so that the... ants...

can go into the mouth and then it eats.

That's why it doesn't want to be disturbed.

He is sleeping.

And most of them, they lay their eggs under this places.

Down there.

You was telling us that you think the Nile...

is a link between your country, Sudan and Egypt.

But for ages, it has been the problem between the Arabs and the Africans.

The Negroes. What do you think of that?

Yes. It has been because the leaders of Arabs-

before, they were not revolutionary leaders.

But today,

during my time as a revolutionary leader,