Sunday 13 May 2012

Grasshoppers and a Ugandan History Lesson

Yesterday evening till yesterday, I was bed-ridden with God-knows-what bacteria that I had ingested from eating too many grasshoppers, a Ugandan delicacy sauteed with onions and served in small paper bags on the streets of Kampala (so so so scrumptious, but apparently not good for the gastrointestinal system!). This morning, I woke up feeling like a million bucks and, after eating a huge breakfast, decided I must take advantage of my good health and see at least a bit of Kampala on this rare day off.
After a bit of Google-ing, I decided on the Royal Palace of  "the Buganda King," formerly the President of Uganda (Pres Mutesa). The palace belonged to the Ugandan royal family up until 1971 when then Colonol, Idi Amin (under the auspices of then PM Obote), seized the royal palace and forced the Buganda king (or, "King Freddy" as he was affectionately referred) into exile. King out of country, PM Obote pronounces himself the new President of Uganda and promotes the infamous Idi Amin to General and Chief of Staff. This seems to have been the near end of Idi Amin and Obote's friendship however, as Amin thereafter decides to strengthen his position via smuggling and arms sales to S Sudanese rebels and by strengthening his ties to UK and Israeli agents. These actions apparently anger Obote and he demotes Amin to a more non-executive role. When Obote is off in Singapore at a Commonwealth meeting, Amin calls up Obote and tells him (according to my taxi driver, that is), "not to bother returning to Uganda." Amin then declares himself, and I quote, "His Excellency, the President for Life, Field Marshal, Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VD, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in General and Uganda in Particular." Quite the eccentric guy, wouldn't you agree? Amin then goes on to become the paranoid, monic-depressive monster that we all learnt about through Hollywood's "The Last King of Scotland." He proceeds to kill off those around him, starting first with political opponents seen to be loyal to Obote and then on to the ethnic Acholi and Lango who were imputed Obote loyalists.

Phewwww, anyway, back to the Royal Palace I visited today. Below the palace grounds lie chambers built by the Israelis. These chambers were built by the Israelis under the assumption that they would be used as storage facilities for weapons. Little did they know however, that soon after their construction, the chambers would instead be utilised by Amin (and later on, Obote after his return from exile) as torture chambers for perceived political opponents. On the way over to the palace, my taxi driver told me that  Amin's political opponents were given two choices as to how they would be murdered - either they could choose death by execution, or they could be thrown into the torture chambers where they would die of suffocation and starvation.
Above is a photo of the chambers. As you can see, there are three in number. Upon close inspection, these chambers could maybe fit 100 people each, if everybody stood standing up straight and close together, but apparently victims were thrown in on top of each other because my guide was telling me that hundreds of people were thrown into the chambers at once. With no other means of making their suffering known to the outside world, these victims marked the walls of the chambers with their blood and feces (see photo to the right), either with hand and foot prints, or eerie messages declaring their killer (Amin and later, Obote) by name.

A step down from the chambers was a pool of water of about a foot or two deep. Under this water were electrocution devices that would, when turned on, mean instant death for any poor soul caught inside that pool's shallow depths. According to my guide, Idi Amin used to find great amusement in telling the prisoners that they would be granted freedom if they could only run from the chamber they were incarcerated in to the "safe" grassy area outside. Amin would then watch (with great amusement) as the prisoners would topple over each other in their panicked effort to reach the grass. Amin would then switch on the electricity and kill all those who had decided to make that desperate dash towards freedom. As if that weren't a gruesome enough murder, Amin would then order their bodies to be dumped into Lake Victoria or the neighbouring man-made lake to be then gobbled up by the eagerly awaiting crocodiles.    



          

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