Idi Amin and the Last King of Scotland

Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia just three years ago; Amin fled Uganda in 1979 after murdering upwards of 300,000 souls of both Ugandans and foreigners. Larger than life physically and metaphorically, he was a former heavy weight-boxing champion with a brilliant sense of leadership as a performance, and his dictatorship ruling, the methods were brutally prehistoric. His public relations slyness was accomplishedly 20th century. Smiling into cameras, Idi Amin dropped provocations like bombs. ‘ I don’t like human flesh, its too salty for me’, he one lamented.

The queasily enjoyable new fiction film, ‘the last King of Scotland’, based on the novel written by Giles Foden and directed by Kevin Macdonald, creates a portrait of this famous Ugandan dictator from onside the palace walls. Furiously paced with excellent performances by forest, Whitaker as Amin and James McAvoy as the foolish Scotsman who became the leaders personal physician, the film has texture of intelligence to almost persuade you that it actually has something not to say. The last king of Scotland makes the case that Amin was rational enough to understand Uganda’s tangled relationship with the British imperialism. Amin was a merchant of death compared with the historic British monarchy. He once wrote: ‘ Dear Liz, if you want to know a really man, come to Kampala’. Clearly the last king of Scotland film means this journey to be as inwardly directed as externally bound. Though the message in this film is one that that might make you blanch after nod, the misery of other people makes unsettling entertainment, no matter how pretty the pictures and valuable the players.

Amin’s brutal regime left Uganda in total mess; expelling the Asians was a nightmare that shut down the country’s economy and economic activities. Besides during the period of 1960s –1970s, Uganda was one of the preferred tourism destinations in East Africa. In late 1970s and early1980s the number dropped miserably due Idi Amins dictatorial policy in Uganda.  Today Uganda has risen once again and the economy is booming and growing at a high rate. Tourism in Uganda can’t be left out; Uganda being one of the gorilla regions has attracted many visitors to view these amazing Apes.