Derek Peterson does it again, taking a topic we thought we knewAmins dictatorshipand making us see it anew. Using provincial archives that he and his team saved from damp, insects, and mold, he tells a riveting tale of how clerks, curators, radio personnel, artists, priests, and teachers strove to make Amins government work. They were not the torturers and interrogators, of which there were many, but provincial patriots inspired by Amins anti-colonial message.Isabel Hofmeyr, author of Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House
This book is the impressive outcome of dogged and granular archival work over many years. Peterson has made a welcomeand timelycontribution to our understanding of this most complex period in Ugandas modern history.Richard Reid, author of A History of Modern Uganda
Peterson sheds light on the popular foundations of the flamboyant Idi Amins violent rule. Carefully researched, this book provides remarkable insights into how and why Amin inspired and mobilized ordinary Ugandans, with important lessons for understanding the appeals of contemporary demagogues. It contributes to a more nuanced perspective on this important and controversial figure.William Reno, author of Warlord Politics and African States
How did Idi Amins regime survive? Peterson shows how many people in Uganda were earnestly committed to what they saw as a project of liberationdespite the appalling atrocities of the time. This book is a thoughtful and timely account of the ability of demagogues to mobilize popular support.Justin Willis, coauthor of The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa: Democracy, Voting and Virtue
Do cartoonish political figures deserve revisions? Can anything be gained by looking for the worthy in the grotesque? This is a fearsome question for the twenty-first century but is one Derek Peterson meets head on with great skill and compassion. His book about Idi Aminthe postcolonial epitome of western ideas about Africa savageryis not a rehabilitation but a literal relocation, situating Amin in the places and populations in both the global spaces of Pan-Africanism and Uganda to which he gave a new and aggressive voice.Luise White, author of Unpopular Sovereignty: Rhodesian Independence and African Decolonization
