Kampala, Uganda
One of the sons of Idi Amin has launched a campaign to improve the image of the late Ugandan dictator. Jaffar Amin, 40, said he was speaking out now because the film The Last King of Scotland, which depicts some of Amin’s sadistic atrocities, recently opened in Uganda. “Dad is the only person that has ever been accused and sentenced, incarcerated by opinion, without it ever reaching any courthouse,” Amin said. The family doesn’t deny that people were killed during the dictator’s reign, but it does dispute the numbers, as well as the widespread belief that Idi Amin was a psychopathic maniac. Amin said Oscar winner Forest Whitaker actually got most of his father’s mannerisms right, but botched his stride. “Whitaker is knock–kneed,” Amin said. “My father was bowlegged.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind,’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
-
‘Not all news is bad’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide
