Product Description
Traces the political career of twice-president Obote before and after Amin's dictatorship, arguing that his achievements in Uganda have been underestimated.
From the Back Cover
Unlike most other former African dependencies, Uganda developed as a British Protectorate in a manner that made it virtually impossible for any indigenous politician to emerge as unchallenged leader of the country.
Obote: a political biography describes the efforts of one man to find apragmatic solution to that problem, and in doing so to create a united, democratic Uganda. Kenneth Ingham makes the first attempt to trace the political career of Obote through the ups and downs of his two presidencies and his time in exile during the military dictatorship of Idi Amin. The book challenges the accusations of tyranny often levelled against Obote and argues that his political and economic achievements have been underestimated. It addresses the key issue of why a country so well endowed with human and material resources should have suffered so grievously from shortages and internal strife. Obote's contribution emerges as unique, and yet in many significant ways the problems he encountered were representative of those facing the leaders of Africa's emergent nations.
In
Obote: a political biography, Kenneth Ingham considers the contribution of one ofAfrica's most controversial leaders towards establishing a united and democratic Uganda. Ingham argues that many of Obote's aims have been misrepresented by his political opponents. He has been criticized as a tyrant and a dictator - no better than Amin himself. Ingham reveals that in fact he suffered because he lacked a strong ethnic power base, which left him vulnerable to attack from the powerful kingdom of Buganda. He was eventually betrayed by his hitherto loyal military commander, Idi Amin. The second half of the story details Obote's return to power. His subsequent second overthrow resulted from organized sustained terrorism by opponents who believed that Uganda could only be united by military force and who blamed Obote for all of the country's ills. It emerges that although Uganda was one of the best endowed African countries in terms of climate and natural resources, it suffered grievously because of the profound cultural and constitutional differences between the ethnic groups which made up the population of the country. This book will be of great value to anyone interested in recent developments in Africa and will be especially useful to undergraduates studying African history and politics.
