Article by Batuhan (09.10.2025)

One of the most enduring facts of modern history is that soon after the end of World War II, many, if not all, European countries gave up their colonies by granting them independence. While it is true that direct control was given up, the effects of colonialism through favouritism and foreign interventionism still led to conflict in the now-independent and newly-formed countries.

The first figure in African politics that shows this trend is Idi Amin Dada (better known as the Butcher of Uganda). Uganda was a British colony that received greater autonomy than most British colonies of the time, gaining its independence on October 9, 1962. Idi Amin's rise can be traced to the Buganda Crisis (where the borders drawn around Uganda by the British led to conflict between the government and the Kingdom of Buganda), where he led assaults on Buganda's territory, which in turn led to his promotion to one of only two Ugandan officers in the British army. Due to his popularity in the army, along with his violent streak (such as the Turkana Massacre, where Kenyan civilians were tortured and killed on suspicion of cattle theft), President Obote had Amin investigated, which in turn led to a campaign by Amin against government officials. The rivalry between the two ended on January 25th 1971, when Amin led a coup with British and Israeli support against Obote while he was out of the country.

Shortly after Amin's rise to power, he began an immediate purge of all Obote supporters, including those who criticised him. This purge included people like Benedicto Kiwanuka (the first Ugandan prime minister and chief justice under Amin), who criticised Amin for his disregard for the rule of law and was in turn arrested, tortured, and burned alive. By 1972, it was estimated that two-thirds of the Ugandan army had been executed, and the two powers that set up Amin in the first place (Britain and Israel), as a means of balancing local politics, found him to be too erratic and unpredictable. A key point about Amin's rule was his correspondence with the UN and Queen Elizabeth II, where he requested the UN headquarters to be placed in Kampala (the Ugandan capital) due to its location on the world map. He also attempted to paint himself and his government as fighters against racism and imperialism. This lie allowed Amin's rule to maintain a shred of legitimacy despite the butchery that he conducted.

After Britain's demand to pay for its military hardware, Amin turned and deepened his ties with the Eastern Bloc and the USSR. This shift in alignment reached its peak in 1976, when a plane was hijacked by four terrorists and given permission by Amin to land in Entebbe Airport with 94 Israeli hostages. The event ended when elite commandos rescued 93 of the hostages, with the 94th, Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old, unfortunately needing hospitalisation after the landing at Entebbe and not being rescued. Amin retaliated against this rescue by removing Dora Bloch from her hospital bed and executing her, along with Kenyans living in Uganda due to Kenya's role in the rescue. Idi Amin is shown to have begun deteriorating mentally after this event at a surprisingly fast pace (which some historians credit to an untreated case of syphilis), with his later orders becoming more erratic than before. He expelled all Asians from Uganda in 1978, and in November of that year, multiple mutinies occurred along the Tanzanian border.

Idi Amin launched an invasion of Tanzania in order to recapture those soldiers, which resulted in a war between the two countries. Due to the executions of numerous military figures during Amin’s reign, Uganda's army was repelled by the Tanzanians, who pushed back the disorganised and brutalised army. The war came to an end when Kampala was captured in 1979, and Amin fled into exile in Saudi Arabia. While President Obote regained control, a civil war soon occurred between him and rebel leader Yoweri Museveni, which only ended in 1986 with a rebel victory. Amin perished in 2003 from kidney failure, with his fourth wife, Nalongo Madina, asking Yoweri Museveni to let Amin spend his final years in Uganda. Museveni responded by saying that Amin would “answer for his sins the moment he was brought back”. Amin's rule is remembered as one of the most brutal in all of African history due to the erratic and illogical nature of his governance.

While Amin was an example of foreign interventionism and how it bred violence in African politics, Jean-Bedel Bokassa is an example of foreign favouritism. The Central African Republic (abbreviated CAR) was a French colony modelled after King Leopold II’s Congo. This meant that private companies were encouraged to exploit the region, with conditions worsening. From 1890 to 1940, the region's population declined by half. Central Africa is also remembered as having the largest anti-colonial rebellion, known as the Kongo-Wara rebellion in 1928, which, while crushed, was also entirely hidden from the French public. In 1957, politician Barthelemy Boganda and his party (nicknamed MESA) won 97% of the vote and were granted independence, with Boganda as the first prime minister. The peaceful transition from colony to country did not last long, as Boganda died in a plane crash, and his successor, David Dacko, turned the country into a dictatorship. Dacko was eventually overthrown by his cousin Bokassa on New Year’s Eve, 1965, who then became president.

Bokassa was born in February 1921 to a village headsman in the modern-day Central African Republic, where he attended school. He joined the French army in 1939 and rose due to conflict in Indochina, becoming a captain in 1961 before leaving to become the head of the new CAR army at the behest of David Dacko. Jean-Bedel Bokassa is well known for his narcissism, which was highlighted throughout his reign, such as when he declared himself president for life in 1972. Only four years later, Bokassa held a coronation for himself, styling himself as Emperor Bokassa I, where he spent one-third of the country's entire budget on the event. He also rechristened the Central African Republic as the Central African Empire. Many historical comparisons prove him to be cruel even when compared to his counterparts on the continent.

Bokassa was known for bringing criminals (often only accused rather than convicted) to his personal villa and feeding them to his pet crocodiles and lions. Various rumours surrounding Bokassa even claim that he himself ate human flesh, including a French minister who claimed that at the coronation Bokassa leaned in and stated, “You never noticed, but you ate human flesh.” In terms of political favouritism, France considered Bokassa a friend and had a special relationship with him specifically. This changed soon after the coronation, when Bokassa made it mandatory for all school uniforms to display his image. While his citizens did not have a problem with this change socially, they did have a problem with it financially, as it made all school uniforms more expensive. Parents and primary school children protested against this change and were soon met with police under orders to arrest not the parents but the children. It is estimated that over 50 children (the oldest being only 12) were beaten to death by police, with many witnesses in the nearby prison claiming Bokassa himself took part and even partially blinded a 12-year-old boy with his sharpened cane.

Soon after this affair, France dropped the special relationship with Bokassa and overthrew him by supporting a coup under the leadership of David Dacko in September 1979. Dacko was then overthrown in another coup by Andre Kolingba, whose reign was cut short by elections that brought Ange-Felix Patasse to power, who was in turn overthrown in another coup. This soon turned the Central African Republic into a battlefield between the government and two separate factions. Bokassa fled back to France, where he settled, while in the CAR he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1980. Bokassa chose to return to the CAR in 1986, where he was arrested and put on trial. In 1987 he was sentenced to death again after being proven guilty of murder and other crimes (cannibalism was not one of these crimes, as he was acquitted of it). He was freed in 1993 and died three years later. Most recently, in 2010, he was posthumously pardoned.

In conclusion, foreign interventionism and favouritism have shown in both cases how bloodshed begins through those methods. Idi Amin would not have even risen to the rank to challenge Obote if he had been charged with his crimes during the Turkana Massacre. Instead, he was shielded by his nationality of being a Ugandan and a British officer. Jean-Bedel Bokassa would not have remained in power for as long as he did had it not been for his so-called special relationship with France, which led to the deaths of over 50 schoolchildren. However, while favouritism caused bloodshed through the risings of dictators, interventionism would also do the same, such as when the CAR devolved into chaos due to France only intervening to depose Bokassa and not stabilising the region. Overall, foreign favouritism and interventionism will continue to cause bloodshed in African politics, as shown through Bokassa in the CAR and Amin in Uganda, who are only a few of the dictators that ruled in Africa through this foreign system.

Sources:

Source 1-Peterson, Ali Mazrui Professor of History & African Studies, D. R. (2025, July 18). Idi Amin made himself out to be the “liberator” of an oppressed majority – a demagogic trick that endures today. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/idi-amin-made-himself-out-to-be-the-liberator-of-an-oppressed-majority-a-demagogic-trick-that-endures-today-256969  

Source 2-Wright, M. (2022, November 19). The African Tyrants: Revolutionary DIctators. YouTube. The African Tyrants: Revolutionary Dictators 

Source 3-of encyclopedia Britannica, T. editors. (2025, April 2). Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Bedel-Bokassa 

Source 4-Wakeford, S. (2025). Africa’s napoleon: The coronation of Jean Bedel Bokassa. New Histories. https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2010-11/volume-2/issue-3-festivals-and-celebration/africas-napoleon-the-coronation-of-jean-bedel-bokassa 

Source 5-Wright, M. (2020, November 1). The African tyrants: Stories of the continent’s worst dictators. YouTube. The African Tyrants: Stories of the Continent's Worst Dictators