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PAGE 14
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 16, 1985
privilege they had enjoyed under the British•••• Other Ugandans,
led by the nation's first president, A. Milton Obote, other
members of his Langi tribe from the northeast and Acholis from
the north began chopping them down after the British left.
In 1971, President Obote was overthrown by Idi Amin, a member of
the Kakwa, a small tribe considered backward by many Ugandans.
Idi Amin lasted until 1979, when he fled the country in the face
of invading Tanzanian forces and Ugandan rebels. In 1980, Mr.
Obote returned from exile and again took over the presidency. He
soon resumed his campaign against the Baganda••••
This is a fertile land--"Throw down one seed and four plants
grow,�runs an often-cited saw--with enormous potential for cof
fee, cotton, tea and food crops. But today only coffee, which
earns about $8 million a week in foreign exchange, is prosper
ing••••
And now, Ugandans have been "liberated" a second time from Mr. Obote.
Ironically, Idi Amin, from exile, has offered to extend his good services
to the nation, which is gripped in a war between the new military government
of Lt. Gen. Tito Okello and a rebel force called the National Resistance
Army (NRA).
The British newspaper DAILY MAIL, in its July 29 edition, ran an article
titled "Curse of the Terror That Never Ends." In it the author, Paul John
son, proposed what he recognized is an unacceptable solution to Uganda's
agony:
Africans were told by their nationalist leaders that the end of
Colonialism would bring freedom and happiness.
For the vast
majority it has brought military dictatorship, for many millions
hunger and even death by starvation.
Uganda has a long history of sectarian violence•••• But at least
the British ended the violence and imposed equality under the
law. Colonialism at its best had one outstanding merit. It was
impartial•••• The British were harsh but just•••• Because they
kept the peace they brought prosperity. Uganda became in the
view of many travellers the most delightful country in Africa.
But when independence was rushed through in 1963, ·the patadise
turned into a nightmare of monsters•••• The country was so badly
governed that when, in January 1971, Idi Amin staged a military
coup and expelled Obote, most people inside and outside Uganda
were overjoyed. The nightmare soon returned however. Amin was
the son of a tribal witch-woman. And though a Moslem for politi
cal purposes, he revived the fearsome magic which had flourished
before British rule••••· He murdered the Governor of the Bank of
Uganda, the Foreign Minister and the head of the university. He
personally beat to death the local archbishop and two of his own
Cabinet Ministers. He slaughtered his wife and dismembered her
body. On the advice of a witchdoctor, he ate the heart of his
son, whom he had also murdered. He kept selected organs of his
victims in the fridge. He was the first refrigerator-cannibal
ruler of Africa••••
•