Where is Idi Amin? On violence, ethics and social memory in Africa

Abstract

The former Uganda dictator, Amin Dada, recently died in a Saudi hospital, after spending the last
twenty four years of his life in exile. Given Amin's brutal dictatorship and the notoriety of his regime in
Uganda one would have expected that there has been a lot of public discussion about Amin's legacy
and his continuing influence in Uganda. But this has not been the case. On the contrary there been an
almost total silence around the topic of Idi Amin. It is against this background that the Professor
Katongole explores the ethical and theological significance of memory in Africa. The silence around
Amin, Katongole argues, is just an indication that African societies are yet to realize the need, in fact,
necessity of confronting the memories with which they live. And yet, without facing the task of memory
both individuals and societies can neither understand the challenges that face them in the present nor
able to envision or imagine viable alternatives for the future. More specifically the author sets out to
show that because memory is so much something we have in our ‘minds' as a pattern of concrete
habits and practices, envisioning a different or more hopeful future requires the existence of other
practices, practices set within other memories. This is why, he argues, the ethical and theological task
of memory is not just one of displaying the memories with which we live, it is to point to other
geographies of memory through which our lives can be shaped in more promising directions.

Mtafiti Mwafrika Vol. 11 2004: pp. 1-30