Idi Amin

: Idi Amin

INTRODUCTION

Idi Amin never wrote an autobiography nor authorized any official biography to be written . There is some disagreement as to when and where he was born . Biographical sources usually hold that he was born in Koboko , West Nile Province , in 1924 or 1925 . According to the Ugandan researcher Fred Guweddeko of Makerere University , Idi Amin was born Idi Awo-Ongo Angoo in Kampala on 17 May 1928 , fathered by Andreas Nyabire (1889-1976 . Nyabire was an ethnic Kakwa and Catholic who converted to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to

Amin Dada . Other sources say that Dada was not his father 's name , but a nickname Amin acquired during his military career

Abandoned by his father , Idi Amin grew up with his maternal family . His mother , according to Guweddeko , was called Assa Aatte (1904-1970 , an ethnic Lugbara and a traditional herbalist who among others treated members of Buganda royalty . He joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941 , where he excelled in reciting the Qur 'an . After a few years he left the school , and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer

Amin joined the King 's African Rifles (KAR ) of the British colonial army in 1946 as part of the laundry and kitchen army staff whilst undergoing training . In 1947 as a private he transferred to Kenya for infantry service . Amin claimed to have served with the KAR regiment in the Burma Campaign during World War II , but this is disputed as records indicate he was first enlisted after the war was concluded

He served in the 21st KAR infantry brigade Gilgil , Kenya , until 1949 when his unit was deployed in Somalia to fight the Somali Shifta rebels who were raiding cattle . In 1952 his battalion was deployed against the Mau Mau . He was promoted to corporal the same year , then to sergeant in 1953

In 1954 , Amin was made effendi (warrant officer , the highest rank possible for a Black African in the colonial British army . Disputably his nickname "Dada " was acquired while serving in Kenya every time he was caught with a woman in his tent , he pleaded that she was his "dada (Swahili for sister , in to be let off the hook by his commanders

Amin returned to Uganda in 1954 . In 1961 , with Ugandan independence two years away , he became one of the first two Ugandans to become commissioned officers with the rank of Lieutenant . He was then assigned to quell the cattle rustling between Uganda 's Karamojong and Kenya 's Turkana nomads . It is alleged that in to disarm the Karamojong and Turkana , Idi Amin 's platoon threatened to castrate the nomads unless they revealed where they had hidden their spears

After independence in October 1962 , Milton Obote , Uganda 's first prime minister , rewarded Idi Amin for his loyalty by promoting him to captain in 1963 and deputy commander of the army in 1964 . In 1966 , Obote promoted Amin to general and...