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Military Rule in Uganda: The Politics of Survival

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

F. J. Ravenhill
F. J. Ravenhill*
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Government, Norfolk College
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Extract

A considerable amount of attention has recently been focused upon the performance of military governments. (See, for example, Bienen 1971, Feit 1973, Welch and Smith forthcoming, Decalo 1973, Pinkney 1973.) The brief period in which military regimes have been in power in Africa has precluded the accumulation of sufficient data to verify some of the hypotheses presented in this literature. This article analyses the performance of the Amin regime in Uganda in its first thirty months in power. It suggests that the failure of the regime to make progress towards the economic and political development of the country is the result of (1) the disintegration of the government into a personal dictatorship, (2) the increasing reliance by the government upon coercive and diversive policies to maintain itself in power, and (3) actions of the government, particularly within the military itself, which have exacerbated ethnic divisions within Ugandan society in general.

The Amin coup of January 1971 was achieved with surprising ease given the deep divisions existing within the military subsystem in Uganda. After only a few hours of fighting, troops announced over Radio Uganda at 3.45 p.m., 25 January 1971 that Obote's government had been overthrown and that they had invited Idi Amin to head the new government. Amin's followers had outmanoeuvred troops loyal to Obote and presented them with a fait accompli. However, this relatively smooth transfer of power was to prove deceptive—Amin's government subsequently faced greater resistance to its acceptance, both internally and internationally, than was anticipated.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , April 1974 , pp. 229 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974

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