These are from Time Magazine.
The Press
Asking for ItMonday, Aug. 23, 1971
Many governments chronically complain about press criticism, but Uganda has the opposite problem. No newspaper will attack the regime of General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada—and Big Daddy is worried about it. Tamed to a whisper for eight years under President Apolo Milton Obote, the papers have still not made a critical peep since his ouster seven months ago.
Attorney General P.J. Nkambo-Mugerwa went on television last week to declare that Uganda's press is "like a dog that has been chained too long. It does not know what to do now that it is free." The newspapers, he complained, are "playing the role of court jester. Constantly singing a government's praises is the surest way of toppling it." Earlier he had declared: "We know we are not infallible. How can we be assisted if we never receive constructive criticism from the press?"
The press was stung to criticism all right, but of Nkambo-Mugerwa. In an angry editorial about the sword being mightier than the pen, the Uganda Argus announced boldly that it would not be bullied into "reckless criticism. A newspaper plays an ambassadorial role, only it is accredited to its own country and is charged with promoting the interests of the country." Furthermore, said the Argus, "freedom of _expression_ is a cliché phrase."
The World
Coup of ConvenienceFriday, Mar. 04, 1966
The strange goings-on in Uganda last week presented a variation on Africa's current crop of coups. Uganda's gov ernment was overthrown all right, but not by military men. It was Prime Minister Milton Apollo Obote himself who seized full powers, and he did it, so he said, only to prevent another coup which was being planned against him.
Obote has long nursed an ambition to do away with the political opposition and run Uganda on a one-party basis under the domination of his fellow Nilotic tribesmen of the north. Trouble is that a split recently began developing even in his own Uganda People's Congress, caused by a group of Bantu Cabinet ministers determined to resist control by the northerners. The split widened last month when the anti-Obote faction supported the charge in Parliament by an opposition party leader that the Prime Minister, two of his ministers, and the deputy army commander had illegally shared a $325,000 windfall that was captured from Simba rebels by Uganda troopers during the 1964-65 Congo rebellion.
At first, Obote agreed to set up a judicial panel to investigate the charge. But before the judges could convene, Obote took matters into his own hands.
Ordering the arrest of five of his ministers, Obote had them dragged screaming and kicking from a Cabinet session by members of his personal 500-man police force. Next he suspended the constitution and began broadcasting wild stories about internal intrigues and the threat of invasion by foreign troops.
Obote's actions caused deep divisions among Uganda's 8,000,000 people. His political opposition refused to be intimidated. "It is the duty of all Ugandians to protect the constitution and to die for it, if necessary," cried Kabaka Yekka Party Leader Daudi Ocheng. "Once the constitution is broken, the rule of the jungle takes over." Actually, whether there was to be any dying appeared to be up to the four-battalion army. So far, its loyalty seemed badly split between Obote and the figurehead chief of state, Sir Edward ("Freddy") Mutesa, 42, who is the Kabaka, hereditary ruler of Buganda kingdom, most powerful of Uganda's four regions.
Ps: Also see these Times Magazine stories
The Battle of Mengo Hill, Time Friday, Jun. 03, 1966
King Freddie Comes Home,Time Monday, Apr. 12, 1971
Tough Shepherd, Time, Friday, Oct. 13, 1967
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