I have always wondered why the western world has produced several movies on Idi Amin and none of Kwame Nkrumah.  However, reading through the February edition of Africa Watch.  ‘The Making of Idi Amin’, things have become very clear in my mind.

Throughout the late 1960s, Milton Obote was consolidating his personal power and introducing legislation that was to shake the colonial interest.  Although Obote was no Castro or Nyerere, his “Common Man’s Charter’, and the nationalization of 80 British companies were not welcome in London.

As one prominent commentator put it, “The Obote government was on the point of changing not only the constitution but the whole political system when (Amin’s) coup occurred.  A vital source of raw materials, Uganda was not about to be permitted to determine its own political development at the expense of the entrenched interests.  Soon, plans were being laid by Britain in combination with Israel and America to remedy the situation.

One of the features of Amin’s coup was its similarity to the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana on February 24, 1996.  Like Obote, Nkrumah had been putting forward nationalization measures and when on a visit abroad (like Obote), was toppled by a coup which had the hands of the CIA all over it.

Former CIA officers have since written books crediting the Agency with the Ghana coup.  Interestingly, Obote was a staunch support of Nkrumah, who during his exiles in Guinea after his overthrow, recorded in his letters the financial support he had received from Obote’s government for his upkeep in Guinea.