What the People Want

Things have not been going particularly well in Uganda lately. On top of the steady deterioration of the economy and continuing strife within the army, two of President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada's top civilian ministers turned up in Kenya within the past fortnight. Shortly afterward, Amin announced that he was giving the rest of his Cabinet a month's vacation--presumably a prelude to a major shakeup. "A human being is a human being," Big Daddy explained, "and like a car he needs refueling and fresh air after working for a long time."

Last week Amin offered another surprise. He suddenly invited a small group of foreign correspondents in Africa--including TIME'S Nairobi Bureau Chief Lee Griggs--to Kampala for a one-day visit that included a rare interview with the Ugandan dictator. Griggs' report:

In a three-hour tour of Kampala by bus and on foot, I saw not a single white face on the street, and only one Asian. Uganda's white population today is only a shade over 3,000, down more than half from that of last August. There are fewer than 1,000 Asians left, mostly skilled specialists who were exempted from the expulsion decree.

Some 4,000 Asian businesses are now in black hands, and the hardest-working people in Kampala seem to be sign painters replacing the names of Asian shopkeepers with those of Africans. As a result of the Asian exodus last year, the town has been left without a single locksmith, and some of the new shopkeepers have had to dynamite office safes to get at records. Many of the new proprietors still do not know how to reorder goods. And new orders will not be shipped by suppliers without cash in hand, but Uganda's import laws specify cash only on delivery. It remains to be seen whether Amin can step up his lagging policy of mafuta mingi (Swahili for fattening up) by forcing the banks to offer non-secured loans to shopkeepers so they can reorder.

There is a shortage of such staples as sugar, salt and soap, but Kampala appeared calm. Amin still seems to be popular with most Ugandans, who attribute the sporadic killings by the army to dirty work done by subordinates without his knowledge. Since 80% of the country's 10 million people live as subsistence farmers more or less outside the cash economy, the threat of a commercial collapse in the capital does not worry Amin inordinately. The coffee and cotton crops are earning foreign exchange, and Uganda's hard-currency position seems to be strong enough to permit Amin to order a $4,500,000 Grumman jet for his private use.

Amin received the press on the beautifully clipped green lawn of State House in Entebbe. He spoke softly and slowly, sometimes gesturing with the immense hands that once made him Uganda's heavyweight boxing champion. (He is 6 ft. 3 in. tall and weighs about 260 lbs.) "What I am doing," Amin insisted, "is what the people of Uganda want. Nobody today controls Uganda but Ugandans." The country was temporarily closed to tourism, said Big Daddy, until he could train his people in how to behave toward foreigners. "In future, Uganda will be one of the friendliest nations in the world."

Other comments in the two-hour interview:

ON THE STRIFE WITHIN HIS ARMY: "You should not say bad things about the Ugandan army. I have served at one time or another with the British, Italian and Indian armies, even with the

U.S. Army in Burma, and I can tell you that Uganda's forces are up to international standard. Of course, everyone can make a mistake from time to time, except God."

ON THE ECONOMIC SITUATION: "There is plenty of food. Sugar was short for a time, but now there is plenty of everything. This is a paradise country. The poorest man in Uganda is General Amin. It is better for me to be poor and the people richer."

ON RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES: Amin admitted that he has had his differences with neighboring Tanzania and Kenya but added with wide-eyed sincerity, "I have no time to think bad thoughts about Tanzania." As for Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta, Big Daddy boasted: "He is one of my best friends." Amin also paid curious tribute to Britain's Prime Minister Edward Heath, whom he described as "one of the best Prime Ministers. He is like Hitler, really tough. I admire him." As newsmen laughed, Big Daddy corrected himself, "I mean like Churchill."

ON HIMSELF AND HIS JOB: "It is very hard, but I like it very much. One must think and not be a coward. Very many Africans have written to me that I am a hero of Africa. This makes me very proud."

OF HIS PROPHETIC DREAMS: Amin recalled the famous one he had in 1952, when he was a lowly corporal, which advised him that he would some day lead the army and later the country. It also told how and when he would die, he says, but he has never revealed the details. Another dream, last August, inspired him to expel the Asians. Still another told him, somewhat irrelevantly, that Israel "must withdraw from the territories it occupied in the Six-Day War, or they will be liberated before the end of 1974." Asked if he dreams often, Amin replied solemnly: "Only when it is necessary."

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