Podcast Summary: History Extra – "Idi Amin’s Willing Helpers"

Date: December 8, 2025
Guest: Derek R. Peterson (Professor of History and African Studies, University of Michigan)
Host/Interviewer: Rob Attar

Episode Overview

This episode digs into the history of Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda, questioning commonly held perceptions of Amin as merely a "cartoonish tyrant" and examining why many Ugandans actively participated in his government. Drawing from his recent book, Derek R. Peterson discusses the political, social, and economic factors that enabled Amin’s rise and legacy, including the roles of ordinary Ugandans, racial liberation rhetoric, and the complex aftermath of his regime.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Political Context and Amin’s Seizure of Power

[02:18 – 05:07]

• Ugandan Independence and Early Politics

  • Uganda gained independence in 1962 under Prime Minister Milton Obote, described as "probably the weakest prime minister in independent Africa" (Peterson, 02:25).
  • Obote’s rule involved tense partnerships with the region’s hereditary kingdoms, which the British colonial government had empowered.
  • In 1966, Obote sent the army (led by Idi Amin) to crush Buganda’s palace, killing about 1,000 and abolishing the kingdoms, making loyalty to them illegal.

• Idi Amin’s Ascendancy

  • Amin, a career soldier and one of the first black officers in Uganda, rose to national prominence after the palace assault.
  • In 1971, seizing Obote’s absence abroad, Amin orchestrated a coup and established the “Second Republic of Uganda.”

"When in 1971 Milton Obote went off to Singapore for a conference, Idi Amin led his men to the airport, closed it down, attacked army units loyal to Milton Obote, and overthrew Obote’s government." (Peterson, 04:37)

2. Amin’s Early Rule & International Relations

[05:07 – 08:01]

• Initially, Amin was not motivated by ideology but by pragmatism and opportunity.
• He was close to Israel and the United Kingdom at first, enjoying their support and presenting himself as "a bluff, confident Anglophile" (Peterson, 05:32).
• After a pivotal 1972 visit to Mecca (where he was criticized for his closeness to Israel), Amin shifted alliances: he expelled Israelis, embraced anti-colonial rhetoric, and allied with Libya and other revolutionary movements.

3. The 1972 Expulsion of Ugandan Asians

[08:01 – 12:29]

• Motivation:

  • The expulsion was part of Amin’s attempt to "make the argument that Uganda was at the front lines of a global war against imperial supremacy in the economy and in culture" (Peterson, 09:10).
  • 50,000 South Asians, many long-established in Uganda and holding British passports, were given three months to leave.
  • It was dubbed the “war of economic liberation”—later simply “the economic war”—targeting “outsider minorities” to uplift the Black majority.

• Impact:

  • Although some Ugandans opposed the expulsion, anti-Asian sentiment was longstanding.
  • The economy suffered as businesses were handed to people "with very little expertise," leading to widespread inefficiency and hardship.
  • "Uganda’s industrial output had largely ground to a halt as factories languished, both because of lack of spare parts but also because of lack of expertise" (Peterson, 11:43).

• On Expelled Asians:

  • The process was largely non-violent, with most departing safely but stripped of possessions and livelihoods.
  • Host countries included the UK, Canada, and (to a lesser extent) the US.

"It's important to say very few people were actually physically harmed. The expulsion ... was carried off generally without physical violence." (Peterson, 12:33)

4. Economic Purges and Widespread Violence

[14:01 – 18:09]

• After the Asian expulsion, Amin expanded his economic purges—now against Black Ugandans, especially traders accused of “economic crimes” like smuggling or hoarding.

• The 1975 “Economic Crimes Decree” made such offenses punishable by death, leading to numerous executions in military tribunals.

• Peterson emphasizes: "The harms were most serious for Black Ugandans… a kind of social terror, as opposed to a genocidal machine, that shaped Ugandans’ appraisal of the dangers of the 1970s" (Peterson, 16:52).

• Death Toll Debates:

  • While outsider estimates put the number of deaths at 300,000–500,000, Peterson believes these figures are inflated and prefers the concept of "social death"—the destruction of dignity and the inversion of traditional social hierarchies.

5. Willing Collaboration and the Appeal of Liberation

[18:09 – 20:41]

• Many Ugandans, including intellectuals, museum workers, clergy, and artists, genuinely bought into Amin’s vision for Black empowerment.
• Notably, even international civil rights leaders and Black American delegations sought alliance with Amin, at least for a time.

"Black Americans found reasons to support Idi Amin’s government for a time, and as I describe in the book. Civil rights leaders in the United States formed a kind of close relationship with Idi Amin’s government" (Peterson, 19:35).

• Peterson’s argument: Those who collaborated were not naïve or duped but often sincerely believed in the ideals of Black self-determination and economic emancipation that Amin espoused.

6. Archival Research and Local Stories

[20:41 – 23:20]

• Peterson’s research is grounded in newly rehabilitated Ugandan provincial government archives, digitized and catalogued over 15 years.
• These sources allow the stories of "commoners"—people in the provinces, not just elites at the regime’s center—to come to light.

“The book… is about people in the provinces… who found reasons to invest themselves in supporting Idi Amin’s government, and who saw in Amin’s regime a means of realizing their own aspirations for racial and cultural liberation.” (Peterson, 22:44)

• Memorable anecdote: Peterson describes spraying insecticide at wasps for weeks to retrieve local government papers (22:51).

7. The Role of Radio as an Instrument of Dictatorship

[24:51 – 28:39]

• Uganda’s extensive radio infrastructure, built by Obote, was inherited and expanded by Amin.
• Radio Uganda allowed Amin to “beam his voice and his politics to far distant places,” not just to disseminate information but to issue orders directly to civil servants across the country.
• This circumvented the need for paper-based bureaucracy, making “listening to Radio Uganda… effectively mandatory for lower-level civil servants” (Peterson, 27:58).
• Analogy: Just as Twitter was central to Trump’s presidency, radio was "the core instrument of government communication" for Amin.

8. Amin’s Downfall and Uganda After

[28:39 – 35:45]

• Amin was ultimately overthrown not by internal dissidents but by Tanzania after Ugandan troops invaded Tanzanian territory in late 1978.

• The Tanzanian army entered Kampala in April 1979, installing a provisional government.

• Post-Amin regimes did not continue his radical program and were beset by violence and instability, culminating in Yoweri Museveni’s rise to power in 1986.

• On the fate of popular energies:

  • The idealism and patriotic energy of those years migrated into culture, art, and music in the decades that followed, particularly among Uganda’s highly youthful population.
  • “It’s not a mistake that the most serious contender in the opposition party in Uganda’s public life today is a musician—Bobby Wine.” (Peterson, 35:30)

9. Rethinking Idi Amin’s Reputation

[35:45 – 39:52]

• Western portrayals of Amin are often exaggerated, conflating rumor with fact and ignoring the genuine popularity of his cause among some Ugandans.
• Peterson flatly denies rumors—particularly cannibalism—calling them "an inflation of critical rumors about Amin’s regime" (36:35).
• He argues Amin was sincerely committed to anti-imperial, racial liberation causes and sought to place Uganda at the forefront of global affairs, sometimes in grandiose ways.

“He refused to accept the premise that Uganda, or Africa, was a kind of afterthought in global affairs. ... The whole premise of Amin’s diplomacy was partly driven by a desire to kind of command people’s attention… but it was also driven by a kind of earnest sense that the racial order of things was unjust.” (Peterson, 37:57)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Obote's Overthrow:
  “Thus bringing in, on the 25th of January, the Second Republic of Uganda.” (Peterson, 04:48)

• On Amin’s Lieutenants:
  “The violence of the 1970s was largely carried off by men who spoke what for many Ugandans was a foreign language—that is, Swahili—who had been enlisted into the Uganda army…” (Peterson, 16:20)

• On Aspirations of the Collaborators:
  “Amin’s government pursued objectives that many of us today would find laudable. The idea that Black people should command the heights of the economy was widely attractive in the 1970s.” (Peterson, 18:43)

• On Archival Recovery:
  "One of them involved me standing in the attic of a disused government building outside Fort Portal in the west, spraying cans of insecticide at hordes of wasps that had camped in the local government papers..." (Peterson, 22:51)

• On Amin's Media Savvy:
  “It's as though Amin saw the radio service as something like a loud hailer. And he regarded Ugandans as kind of soldiers on the march, who could be given orders in all their specific locations about how they ought to act.” (Peterson, 27:19)

• On Amin’s Global Vision:
  “He wanted the United Nations to be located in Kampala. He offered to take over the leadership of the British Commonwealth ... The whole premise of Amin’s diplomacy was ... a kind of sincere and laudatory posture of resistance against a kind of racialized international order…” (Peterson, 38:30)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:18 – Setting the political scene: independence, Obote, and the path to Amin
• 05:07 – Amin’s initial relationships with Israel and the UK; realignment after 1972
• 08:01 – 1972 expulsion of Ugandan Asians: rationale and process
• 10:31 – Local reaction and economic consequences of the expulsion
• 12:29 – The traumatic experience for expelled South Asians
• 14:01 – Escalation of internal repression and economic "crimes"
• 16:01 – Rethinking the scale and type of Amin-era violence
• 18:09 – Willing participation: why many Ugandans supported Amin’s regime
• 20:41 – The challenges and rewards of researching “ordinary” collaborators
• 24:51 – The pivotal role of state radio as Amin’s tool of rule
• 28:39 – The events leading to Amin’s downfall and aftermath
• 33:15 – The fate of post-Amin idealism and its transformation into culture
• 35:45 – Western myths vs. the complex reality of Amin’s rule

Tone & Language

Derek R. Peterson speaks in a clear, reflective, and scholarly manner, carefully unpacking complex historical realities with empathy and nuance, resisting easy moral binaries. Humorous and humanizing anecdotes pepper his analysis, especially regarding archival research and the colorful (if troubling) personality of Idi Amin. The interviewer maintains a neutral, curious tone, drawing out the expertise and perspective of the guest.

Summary

This episode offers a multifaceted, research-driven examination of Idi Amin’s regime, challenging conventional Western narratives and focusing on the Ugandans—both collaborators and victims—who shaped and were shaped by Amin’s rule. Peterson shows that Amin’s regime cannot be understood merely as a reign of terror from the top but involved complex processes of popular participation, ideology, and opportunism, with lingering effects on Ugandan society and self-conception to this day.