Idi Amin Dada, former dictator of Uganda is known as ‘Butcher of the country’ for his brutal and vicious rule. As he did not write an autobiography, the research about his background is partial.

Amin was born in 1923 in not sure between Koboko and Kampala. According to a research, it has stated that Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire, who converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and changed his name to Amin Dada.

Amin’s father has abandoned him and left him to grow with his mother in a small town. He was educated in an Islamic school and he studied until four before leaving. He later was recruited by a British colonial army officer. The stories of Idi Amin’s reign of terror are very well known by the Uganda people. He is called as Madman of Africa.

It was after a military coup that Milton Obote was deposed from power in 1971. Idi Amin Dada took the charge as a President on January 25, 1971. He is the most infamous of all Africa’s post-independence dictators. He seized power in a military coup in 1971 and ruled over Uganda for 8 years until Obote regained power.

Throughout his rule, Amin not only committed massacre within Uganda but also forcibly removed the Indian minority from Uganda, completely ruining the country’s economy. According to the estimates, there are around half a million people who were killed, tortured or imprisoned.

Taking a deliberate decision in the 1800s, the British administration brought South Asians into Uganda to serve as a shield between Europeans and Africans in the middle rungs of commerce and administration. Over 30,000 Indian laborers were brought over from British India to begin construction of the Uganda Railway of which many were dead during the executions that happened during his reign.

When Obote served his first term as president, he pursued a policy of Africanisation, which includes policies targeted at Ugandan Asians. Obote persecuted Indian ‘traders,’ as they were then stereotyped. They were also labeled as ‘Dukawallas’, that transitioned into an anti-Indian slur when Amin came into power. Some reports suggest that Amin would love human meat. He is a cannibal. It is said that he mutilated one of his wives.

In 1972, some 5000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared suddenly. The victims were members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, and students. Source say that they were killed and their bodies were dumped into the River Nile.

Though the exact number of people killed is unknown, the International Commission of Jurists estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. By 1978, the number of Amin’s supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly.

After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin’s ministers defected or fled into exile. After 8 long years, in 1979, Amin’s reign of terror came to an end and Tanzanians took control from then. Amin was forced to flee. He lived rest of his life in Saudi Arabia and died in 2003.

Amin expropriated all the businesses and properties and gave them to his own supporters. However, the businesses were not managed well at all, and industries began to collapse from lack of maintenance by the hardworking Asian community. The economy, already declining at this point, suffered an even bigger loss.

Yoweri Museveni, the current President of Uganda, came to power in 1986. He had inherited an economy that suffered the poorest growth rate in Africa.