Mahmood Mamdani, the anthropologist and father of New York's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, has written a book that offers a revisionist perspective on Ugandan history, particularly regarding the rule of Idi Amin. In Slow Poison, Mamdani challenges what he calls 'media-driven preconceptions' about Amin, urging readers to see the dictator as an anti-colonial moderniser rather than a brutal despot.
Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, argues that Amin's expulsion of 80,000 south Asians in 1972 was aimed at the British, not Indians, and that he 'did everything in his power to spare Asian lives'. He also credits Amin with destroying landlord power and making black rule 'meaningful', even claiming that Amin 'outwitted Israel and Britain'. However, the book acknowledges that Amin was a military despot under whose rule hundreds of thousands died.
The author's own life story is intertwined with this history. Raised in Kampala's Indian community, Mamdani returned to Uganda in 1972 after studying in the US, only to be expelled by Amin. This personal experience may explain what some critics see as a touch of Stockholm syndrome in his attempt to rehabilitate Amin.
Mamdani also targets the 'preconception' that Yoweri Museveni rescued Uganda from Amin's wreckage. He claims that while Amin united Ugandans, Museveni revived tribal politics and kowtowed to neoliberalism and the IMF. The book presents Amin as a patriot who spurned western tutelage, in contrast to Museveni's technocratic pragmatism.
Critics note that Mamdani over-eggs his corrective, and that Amin's expulsion of Indians left Uganda short of milk, meat and medics. They also point out that Museveni's rule has been marked by anti-gay laws, vote-rigging and dynastic succession. Whether readers find Slow Poison enlightening or exasperating will likely depend on their political views.
