Photo: My mother Kay Amin (RIP) welcoming a guest at State House Nakasero (1974). Picture taken a month before she died.
I just watched "The Last King Of Scotland" for the first time. The highly acclaimed movie about my father. I had intentionally ignored the film because I already knew it was the same old smear campaign. Amin himself, while in Saudi Arabia, had previously been sent several copies of the book from which the movie was made. He read the summary at the back, then dumped it. My late mother features in the movie. Her role is played by African-American Hollywood star Kerry Washington. I remember the painful reality discovering my mothers death. I looked up at my father and saw tears in his eyes. She died on August 14th 1974. I wouldn't wish such an event to happen to any wife, any mother, any sister or any daughter. Or to anyone for that matter. My last memory of her was when she waved goodbye as I was being taken to boarding school. As a parent myself today, I know how she must have been feeling. My grandfather was a reverend. Together, we regularly visited her at the church cemetery where she was laid to rest. She had remained a devout Christian even after getting married to my Muslim father. And he had accepted her with her christian faith, partly as respect to her father being a notable man of the church. I found it quite extraordinary that the movie twists a painful family experience to cause mockery against my family. But to then insult a mothers dignity yet she suffered such a painful end is just heartless. The movie is malicious as they portray her in a secret relationship, that she died while trying to terminate a pregnancy. Yet the fictional white gentleman they show her with, actually never existed. Others have even come out to claim that the affair depicted in the movie was with a Ugandan. The reality is that 4 men abducted my mother from her home the day she died. That was the last time she was seen alive. This fact is problematic. Because then the whole movie story about her wouldn't make sense anymore. The world would then know that Kay Amin was simply abducted forcefully from her home by armed assailants and murdered. So what the film producers did was to try and cause disrepute to a respectable woman. The Ugandan rebels "covert operations" could maybe brief us how their men picked her from her flat opposite Kiseka market in downtown Kampala and murdered her. Someday I hope to have an amiable chat particularly with Mr. Amama Mbabazi (secret name: Ahmed Mbayo) who says in his 2016 Presidential candidature profile that he single-handedly coordinated their activities inside the country from 1972. However, for the British author who wrote the book, some say it must have been sheer vindictiveness to try and harm her reputation this way even in her death. They explained that there are certain events that were painful to the west. For example seeing a black African being carried shoulder high on a chair by white people. Seeing others kneeling before the same man. These were momentous images that remain so to this day. They still hurt some white people. As I watched the movie, I saw how Hollywood has excelled in Goebbelism (as in Joseph Goebbel who did the Nazi's disinformation campaigns). They then applauded themselves internationally. "An outstanding performance" critics said. As we know, "The Last King of Scotland" went on to win best movie, best actor and other movie industry perks. Glamour and paparazzi cameras filled venues as Hollywood celebrities attended the movie's premiers and cinema awards to enjoy my parents being maligned. Yet others had previously claimed that Kay Amin paid the ultimate price for the so-called Ugandan liberation. That her death helped gather international support against Idi Amin. We might all recall how they seemed to mourn her when she died. Calling my father a brutal murderer for her death. A butcher. Only for Hollywood to turn around unfairly against her today, and basically insult her as some unfaithful whore. I discovered that for a dysfunctional western society to get social harmony, they desperately need to denigrate someone together. They have suddenly done the same to Ghaddafi these days. Months before he was killed, Ghaddafi was enjoying their courtesy. But then suddenly, he also became "the most brutal dictator in Africa" after they killed him. But this time, while Ghadaffi is reviled in western writings, many Africans are adamant to see that his true legacy on the African continent and in his country remain alive. Idi Amin found out about my mothers death when he received a phone call at his office. Police accidentally discovered the crime, then contacted him to report the unbelievable finding. But the movie ignores some key criminal facts to try and violate a humble mothers integrity. A woman who was intelligent and caring about others. It is also a subtle insult to African women. Thanks Mr. Giles Foden! You say you grew up in Uganda. I can imagine what psychotic behaviour/attitude lingers in your mind towards African women. Kay Amin was a mother to four children. My youngest brother was still a baby when she died that he actually doesn't have any memory of her today. But in essence, the woman portrayed in the movie has nothing in common with the lady who did everything to raise her family and help her country. It was reported that Mr. Forest Whitaker had to substantially modify his script after researching heavily about my father whose role he was to play. He actually interacted with many locals to try and learn about the real Amin that they knew. Ugandans largely see Idi Amin as by far the most genuine and patriotic president Uganda ever had. Yet nobody will read about this anywhere in the public stories about him. The American actor is said to have then discovered all the efforts my father made for this country. Major initiatives that are somehow also nonexistent in any western literature about him. No wonder reviews said that Mr. Whitaker brought out the human side of Amin better than any other actor before him. It therefore isn't difficult to imagine what kind of Amin had originally been arranged for Forrest Whitaker to act. They probably had wanted a vile, idiotic, cannibalistic buffoon just as they say in all their accounts about my father. Yet these are people who entertain themselves with a respectable mothers death. I remember every year she would organize Christmas parties for thousands of school children. I was surprised to meet one gentleman a year ago who could recall this. He new the garden and entire compound at State House where kids were brought to celebrate and have fun. The gifts, the Christmas tree, the songs, the cakes, even the basketball court where my father played often. The gentleman was a young boy among the many children back then. First Lady Kay Amin is the person who encouraged my father to include women in senior government positions. An effort that led to Uganda's first ever female government Minister, Mary Senkatuka (RIP) who passed away in July this year 2015. My mother was actually very graceful in her role as First Lady. Her education in literature and her background as a broadcaster helped her in formal situations. She understood official courtesy, diplomacy and etiquette. She discussed governance, women emancipation and education. She met with women associations. She discussed with all sorts of dignitaries. She entertained their spouses while my father held state meetings with the gentlemen. I know that there are millions of individuals out there who somehow feel like experts about my family. Claiming we had peoples heads in the fridge. That we shot one Ben Kiwanuka in our living room. That my father ate one of his sons alive. That my father personally assassinated the late Archbishop Janan Luwum with a shot in the mouth. That we served people to crocodiles, or threw others out of helicopters from high altitude. Who creates these stories? Oh! I forgot. Giles Foden and his ilk. People whom we don't even know. Truth is, these impostors go around the news networks behaving as experts on Idi Amin. Yet I never saw them visit us one single day. I want to ask them to mind their own. Unfortunately that isn't something that trolls understand. We have grown up hearing their side of the story constantly from childhood. They say that the lies get half way around the world before the truth has put on its shoes. So discussing the father I knew as I regularly do, feels like it's me against the world. However, I genuinely never expected someone to go as far as trying to demonize my mother as well. >From the Almighty We Are, And To Him We Will All Return. Hussein Lumumba Amin. Kampala, Uganda. 15-11-2015
_______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
