Idi Amin Dada: Never A Dull Moment

Idi Amin was the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, and is considered one of the most brutal dictators. He was popularly known as the "Butcher of Uganda".

About 50,000 Asians were forced to leave the country in 1972, on the orders of Idi Amin, who accused them of “milking Uganda’s money”. At the time, the Asians owned 90% of the country’s businesses and accounted for 90% of Ugandan tax revenues. 

Idi Amin announced that God had visited him in a dream and issued a divine instruction: “Asians came to Uganda to build the railway. The railway is finished. They must leave now." 

Mo Amin documented the journey of 102 Ugandan Asians as they made their way back to India. They were to travel on the train from Kampala through Kenya to Mombasa, on the same railway that their ancestors had helped build, where they would join the SS Karanja to Karachi. 

He allowed Mo Amin unprecedented access in Uganda, and gave him the first ever interview when he fled to Saudi Arabia. 

"I came to know Idi Amin quite by accident. The day he overthrew the then president Obote, there were a number of us journalists trying to get into Uganda and we were sitting at this charter company's office who would not fly unless we had permission."

"The phone rang and I just happen to be next to the phone so I picked it up, and the guy on the other end said, “This is the command post,” so I said 'can I talk to General Amin' and he said, “ Who is calling?” and I said 'My name is Mohamed Amin.'"

"A couple of clicks and I was through to General Amin. I did not think for a second that the operator thought that I was some relative of his."

“So I was talking to General Amin and explaining to him that we were a group of journalists, and we wanted to come to Uganda. He sort of burst out laughing and he said, 'Yes you are welcome, everything is great, people love me, you can come over.'”