A State of Blood

By Henry Kyemba

Book Overview

The brutal rule of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, as told by one of his cabinet ministers. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0441785344
• ISBN13: 9780441785346
• Release Date: September 1977
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Another sad tale in the sad history of what seems to be a hopeless continent

My fiancé and I recently went to see the Academy Award winning movie, "The Last King of Scotland." In it Forest Whitaker gives a vivid and accurate portrayal of Idi Amin, the brutal former dictator of Uganda. Although some of the characters in the movie are fictitious, the general plotline is accurate. Amin was basically an uneducated thug who managed to take control of a nation and destroy it. I had read this book when it first came out and the movie prompted me to read it again. In a continent where brutal, murderous dictators are the norm, Amin was one of the worst. He created a cadre of brutal henchmen whose only purpose was to terrorize the population into submission and grow rich in the process. They were allowed to steal anything from anybody with killing their victims largely acceptable. Under his reign, the Ugandan economy collapsed, what should have been a prosperous nation was turned into one of the poorest performing economies. His expulsion of the Asian merchant class was quite possibly the greatest single economic blunder made in the history of the continent. Kyemba documents the rise of Amin, how at first he seemed to genuinely want to improve the lives of Ugandans. However, in the time worn tradition of tyrants, who only seem capable of becoming even more tyrannical, that soon changed. The latest estimates were that 300,000 Ugandans were killed under Amin's rule, many in as brutal a form as possible. As Kyemba notes, eyes were gouged out, organs removed, limbs chopped off, and all for no reason other than to make sure that Amin's rule was absolute. Thousands of people were rounded up to witness executions so that there was no doubt in the mind of the people what would happen to them if they resisted. This is a sad book about a sad state of affairs in a continent that seems forever doomed to be ruled by petty, brutal tyrants. After the movie was over, my fiancé asked me how accurate it was and she was surprised when I said it was very accurate. Amin did indeed do most of the things seen in the movie and once again, the rest of the world did nothing to stop it. That also seems to be part of the "forever doomed" scenario.

Terrifying insight into one of the cruelest dictators of the 20th century

This book, written by Idi Amin's former Minister of Health in 1977 just a year before his downfall, was supposedly the book that helped transform the world opinion of Idi Amin. He went from being considered a comical dictator (like the late Turkmenbashi) to a murderous madman who found no position or law sacred. (like the late Saddam Hussein) Henry Kyemba opens the book with a short narrative of Ugandan history, and then explains how a man like Idi Amin could come to power so easily. Most interesting is a passage in which we find out Idi Amin could have been removed from the scene before he had any political will: "Ugandan troops had been sent to the northern part of Karamoja on one of their regular trips to clamp down on cattle raiding...The information received in the Prime Minister's office was that a lieutenant had massacred a number of people in his search for arms. The British were considering prosecuting him...the decision was referred to Obote. He decided not to prosecute. I later learned that the officer involved was Idi Amin." (pg 22) After Obote, the Prime Minister of Uganda, dissolves parliament and takes over power, Idi Amin is granted the highest army position. Finally, while Obote and much of his cabinet were away on a diplomatic mission in Singapore, Idi Amin led a coupe that put him in power. At first, all seems well. Idi Amin enjoys the popular support (Obote was an unpopular ruler) and he allows political enemies to return home. Later on, however, his reign of terror grows as he becomes more and more paranoid. He took foreign tribes (Nubians and Sudanese) and puts them in high positions, and gradually puts more Muslims into his cabinet. (Muslims are a large minority in Uganda) Any one considered an enemy was killed and dumped into the Nile, where they were expected to be fed to crocodiles. During all this, one wonders why Kyemba and many others did not simply flee. He answers that he was not yet ready to simply get up and leave, as that was really only optional for higher positions - he also explains that, early on, many people believed they could sincerely control Amin or change Uganda from the inside with their own influence. As Amin took greater control and Uganda descended into chaos, that idea became only a dream. Granted, as I read I began to wonder how much was true. It's not that I don't think Amin was a terrible ruler, but often stories told by survivors - especially regarding Amin - get exaggerated. My fears were calmed a good bit near the end of the fourth chapter when Kyemba discusses a popularized atrocity that, in fact, never happened. "The reports of this incident in the international press spoke of up to 700 dead...this is absolutely untrue...One girl, who was listed as dead, was in fact at her parents' house, where I found her fit and well. Another, who reportedly had a breast cut off, I also found, uninjured...Gross misrepresentation of this kind does nothing to aid the cause of justice in Uganda. The tru

a mouth watering book

MR,KYEMBA HAS TURN OUT A VERY POWERFULL BOOK ABOUT AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AND THE INTRIGUES THAT WENT ON DURING MR.AMIN TERM IN OFFICE.IT IS VERY ACCURATE SINCE THE AUTHOR WAS A MEMBER OF MR.AMIN INNER CIRCLE.I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL LOVERS OF POLITICS AND AFRICAN HISTORY.

A peek into the attrocities commited by Idi Amin

I read this book a few months ago and it gave me an idea just how terrible it must have been to live under Amin's rule. The Author who was one of Amin's ministers had a good look into Amin and his government and how it worked. This book is deffinatly a good book to read if you want to know about Idi Amin and his regime.