Idi Amin made himself out to be the ‘liberator’ of an oppressed majority – a demagogic trick that endures today

By Derek R. Peterson, Ali Mazrui Professor of History & African Studies, University of Michigan

Fifty years ago, Ugandan President Idi Amin wrote to the governments of the British Commonwealth with a bold suggestion: Allow him to take over as head of the organization, replacing Queen Elizabeth II.

After all, Amin reasoned, a collapsing economy had made the U.K. unable to maintain its leadership. Moreover the “British empire does not now exist following the complete decolonization of Britain’s former overseas territories.”

It wasn’t Amin’s only attempt to reshape the international…

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