Then there's General Bazooka, who is the poster child of Idi Amin's new government. He's corrupt, cruel, greedy, petty, revengeful and seems totally devoid of empathy, a conscience or any moral values. Wine, women, power, money, tribal revenge and magic white powder (cocaine) seems to be all he's interested in. Finally, there's a British expatriate, mercenary Robert Ashes, who is Amin's right hand man and who intends taking over General Bazooka's anti-smuggling forces, making a deadly enemy of the general in the process.
The social portait that the author presents of Idi Amin's rule makes depressing but compelling reading. Some of the incidents described makes you wonder if it is even possible for human beings to possess so much evil. But it must be, because, according to factual reports, after Idi Amin After seized power in 1971 (he was initially helped by the British and the Israelis), he expelled thousands of Ugandan Asians, and undertook a campaign of imprisonment, torture, and murder that eventually cost between 300,000 and 500,000 lives, out of a population of ten million. An imprudent grab at Tanzanian territory aroused Julius Nyerere's fury against Amin, and Tanzanian regular forces, with some help from Ugandan dissidents, overthrew the tyrant in 1979. The country was in a state of economic collapse.
There are no heroes in Moses Isegawa's book---just evil rulers and victims. It's a sad read, but compelling because it is written by one who was there.
