Uganda Becomes Independent
Yet a ‘wind of change’ was blowing through Africa in the early 1960s and Uganda became independent from Britain on 9 October 1962. The first constitution was federalist. The first president of Uganda was Mutesa, King of Buganda and the first prime minister was Milton Obote. However Milton Obote had no intention of sharing power with the president. In 1966 he staged a coup and the president fled abroad. Obote became dictator. However in January 1971 when Obote was in Singapore attending a meeting Idi Amin staged a coup.
Amin turned out to be one of the worst tyrants of the 20th century. The number of people he murdered was at least 100,000 and possible many more. Apart from those Ugandans who were shot others were tortured to death or bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers or iron bars. Amin also decided to help himself to the Ugandan Asian’s wealth. There were about 70,000 Asians in Uganda in 1972 many of them shopkeepers and businessmen. Amin gave them 90 days to leave the country. They were forced to leave most of their property behind and it was shared among Amin’s cronies.
However as a result of the loss of the Asian’s skills and the murders of many professional Ugandans the economy collapsed. Infrastructure such as roads and water supply deteriorated. In order to distract attention from the terrible economic situation in Uganda Amin decided to invade Tanzania on 30 October 1978. However the war turned into a disaster for Amin. Early in 1979 the Tanzanians invaded Uganda and Amin’s forces fled.
Unfortunately Amin was never brought to justice for his terrible crimes. He fled abroad and died in 2003. After the war elections were held and Obote became prime minister again. However the election was rigged so Obote’s opponents formed a guerrilla army to fight him. It was called the National Resistance Army and soon it controlled a large part of western Uganda.
Meanwhile Obote attempted to make himself a dictator once again. He introduced a repressive regime, imprisoning anyone who opposed him and muzzling the press. Western journalists were expelled from Uganda. However the National Resistance Army took more and more territory. Finally in 1986 they entered the capital and took over all of Uganda apart from parts of the north. Yet Obote’s supporters in the north were eventually persuaded to lay down their arms. With the return of political stability economic growth began again in Uganda and during the 1990s Uganda prospered. Many of the Asians who had fled to Britain were persuaded to return to Uganda. However Yoweri Museveni the new president refused to allow political parties until 2005.
Uganda in the 21st Century
Today Uganda is still mainly an agricultural country and its main export is coffee. Yet the economy of Uganda is growing steadily and there is every reason to be optimistic about its future. Today the population of Uganda is 39 million.
