Classic Screening – The Man Who Stole Uganda

Screening Friday 28th August, 2009

When most of the British media was welcoming Idi Amin after his January 1971 military coup, the conventional line being “Thank God we’ve seen the back of that awful drunken socialist Milton Obote, now Amin’s the kind of chap we can deal with (pity about the coup, but hey, that’s Africa).”  World in Action’s investigative reporter Alex Mitchell found a rather different picture, and obtained the first post-coup interview with the ‘Conquering Lion of the British Empire’.  

The programme proved an uncomfortable shock to the complacent, and was a correct augury of the appalling years that lay ahead for the country.  Alex Mitchell will be accompanied on the platform by his minder (Producer) John Sheppard.