Newspaper Page Text
PANTHER FEBRUARY ,1978
Page 6
Amin’s Uganda
( A State Of Blood’
By Suleiman Abdul-Azeez
‘‘A Stale Of Blood - The
Inside Story of 1DI AMIN” by
Henry Kyemba.
Is Idi Amin using black
Americans to improve his image
in America? Is he a cannibal?
How does he treat his women?
How many Ugandans have been
killed during Amin’s regime?
Henry Kyemba
(pronounced ‘‘Chemba”),
former Minister of Health in the
Amin government (1974-1977),
answers these and other
questions about Uganda and
Amin, whom he has known for
20 years in his book "A State of
Blood: The Inside Story of Idi
Amin.”
Kyemba - a graduate of
Makerere University, fled
Uganda in May 1977.
The author writes that the
response of black Americans to
Amin's propaganda amazed
him.
He relates how Roy Innis of
the Congress of Racial Equality
had suggested to Amin in 1972
tha' he recruit black Americans
to fill the gaps in Ugandan
society left by the expelled
Asian professionals.
Kyemba says he and other
cabinet members were able to
discourage Amin from accepting
Innis’ plan even though Amin
liked it.
Amin is a cannibal by his
own admission. Kyemba quotes
Amin as having said during a
conversation about eathing
habits, "I have eaten humar
meat. It is very salty, even more
salty than leopard meat.”
Kyemba describes Amin’i
relationship with his five wives
and some 30 mistresses as a
story which is “by turns bizarre,
comic and brutal.”
Kyemba’s tone throughout
the book is that of an educated
former minister who is con
temptuous of his “Illiterate”
chief of state.
He attributes much of
Amin’s “reign of terror” to the
latter’s lack of education in
governmental operations.
Kyemba writes with
righteous indignation of the
atrocities which he alleges Amin
has committed against his
countrymen
Much of the book is
documented, and much of the
bitterness which was ac
cumulated during five years of
service under Amin shows
through in Kyemba’s account of
Uganda today.
After a “Forward” by
Godfrey Lule, former minister of
Justice and solicitor general of
Uganda, Kyemba dedicates the
book to 100 friends whom he has
known personally and who have
died at the hands of Amin.
He claims that 150,000
Ugandans have been killed by
Amin's “thugs” since he came
to power in January 1971.
If such terror exists in
Uganda, how does Idi Amin
maintain his reign? Kyemba
says that Amin’s rule depends
upon the effectiveness of the
Southern Sudanese, whom
Amin recruits, his own Kakwa
tribe and Nubian recruits
throughout Uganda.
“Amin’s thugs, who must
now number more ihan
15,000,” says Kyemba, "are
placed at every level in the army
and administration.”
Kyemba says that without
widespread hunger and suf
fering (Ugandans still eat well) a
spontaneous uprising is remote.
Assassination, despite
Kyemba’s claims of non
violence. seems an acceptable
solution to him.
However, he would most
like to see an international
boycott undermine Amin’s
regime.
After reading the book I
have no doubt that some
atrocities do occur in Uganda.
However, Henry Kyemba
served Amin for five years and it
is likely that he might srill be
serving Amin had not the latter
warned his cabinet that no one
was immune from punishment.
Kyemba says he left
because he decided that he
would never be able to make the
changes needed in the Uganda
government.
This book is insightful
reading as long as one
remembers that it is written by
an exile under tight security
with perhaps conscience pangs
and a burning frustration over
Amin's survival in power.
AMIN NOW SHUNS DANGERS OF HIS CAPITAL
Prefers to Stay at Lodge Overlooking Lake Victoria
Fugard’s The Blood Knot’ Coming
The Clark College
Academy Theatre Arts-In-
Education Program will host a
special performance of Athol
Fugard’s play, "The Blood
Knot.” on Feb. 11 at 8p.m.
The drama involves two
brothers, one darkskinned and
one lightskinned w ho could pass
for white, living under apartheid
rule in South Africa. In “The
Blood Knot,” the playwright
deals with the tangled identities
of two brother who live in the
shadow of apartheid.
"The Blood Knot,”
stars J. Lawrence Smith and
Larry Larson and is directed by
Frank Wittow. Wittow founded
what is now Atlanta’s oldest
professional resident theatre
company 20 years ago.
The performance is made
possible through combined
efforts of both the Clark College
Education Department and the
Academy Theatre which, for
seven years, have enriched each
other in a unique Arts-In-
Education Program.
Faculty, students and staff
of the Atlanta University Center
are invited as guests. The
performance will take place at
the new Academy Theatre on
West Peachtree at 17th Street.
Coupons for free admittance are
required and are available at
these locations:
Clark College Education
Depar’ment and English
Department •
Clark College Library
Trevor Arnett Library
Spelman College Fine Arts
Building
Spelman and Morehouse
Reading Rooms
For further information,
contact Michele Rubin,
Education Department at Clark,
681-3080ext. 265.
Graduate
School :The Right Choice?
By Larry Lynn
Graduate School can be a
means towards a professional
end for some students, while
others see it as a means for
avoiding the end altogether, of
their education.
Consider the choices made
by three grad students between
the ages of 26 and 27 after they
received their B.A.’s:
Jerry graduated from a
school in Ohio after con
centrating in radio and
television. He labored in a
factory for two years with a stint
in a restuarant, saving money
for out-of-state tuition. After
receiving a master’s degree in
television, Jerry landed a cable
TV job. Disenchanted after a
year with the job, Jerry went to
work as a counselor in a
children’s home and now admits
that a degree in social work
would have been a better choice
than the one he made while in
college, and has decided not to
return to school until he is more
certain of his vocation.
Tom graduated from an Ivy
league school with a degree in
engineering and went to sea for
the U.S. Oceanography
Department in 1972. Tom
traveled for«ix years and began
his master’s in oceanography in
California this fall at the
government’s expense.
Abby split her four un
dergraduate years between two
schools, declaring several
majors until she decided or
religious studies four years ago.
She went to work as a secretary
on a university research project,
put in some time at the college
religious center and then
lobbied against world hunger.
The students have one
thing in common. They were
unsure about what to do after
college and all are passing
through the ‘trying twenties.’
In Passages, by Gail
Sheehy, the trying twenties are
the years in which individuals
move from stages of choosing
what they don’t want to do to
doing what they are supposed to
do. The role of graduate
students is ofien a safe and
familiar form for transition
during that period.
Currently, 20 percent of all
undergraduates “stop out” or
drop out of school temporarily to
experiment, test workday
situations and vocational in
terests. Graduate academicians,
counselors and employment
recruiters are advising potential
graduate students to take this
route.
Eugene Piedmont,
Graduate Registrar at the
University of Massachusetts at
Amerst, found that older
graduate students have definite
career goals.
Nevertheless, many
graduate students should not be
on campus, according to Dick
Leter, a personal and
psychological counselor at
Boston University. Leter found
dissatisifaction among younger
students because they are either
in a rush to get ahead or
postpone life’s decisions.
David Daillie, Director of
the Counseling Assistance for
Older Students at the
University of Massachusetts,
advises students over 25. Older
students are more motivated
and able to use their abilities
and resources to propel
themselves into other fields,
something younger students
fine difficult because they have
never ventured away from
school, according to Daillie.
Movie Schedule
Feb. 19 - “Story Weather”
and “Hallelujah”.
March 4 - “A Star Is Born”
March 12 - “Marathon Man.”
March 19 - “Blazing
Saddles”
March 26, “Silver Steak”
April 2 - - “Enter the
Dragon”
April 9 “Book of Numbers”
April 23 - “Demon Seed”
Movies and dates are
subject to change. Check weekly
posters to confirm dates and
times.