Idi Amin Dada (1924 -16 August 2003) was the military dictator and third President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military coup of January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. He later promoted himself to Field Marshal while he was the head of state.[Source]

Background

Idi Amin Dada

The British Government declared Uganda its colony in 1894. However, Uganda peacefully attained independence on October 9 1962. Because the rising conflicts between the country’s different ethnic groups made Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the kingdoms of the country. Ethnic tensions continue to grow and Idi Amin seizes power in a coup d’état in January 1971. [Source] 

Idi Amin’s Biography

Idi Amin Dada

Because Amin never wrote an autobiography nor did he authorize any official written account of his life, there are contrasting views regarding when and where he was born. Most biographical sources hold that he was born in either Koboko or Kampala in around 1925. Idi Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire who was a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada in which he named his first born son after himself. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Idi Amin grew up with his mother’s family in a rural farming town in Northwestern Uganda. His mother was called Assa Atte who belonged to an ethnic group called Lugbara. Amin joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941. He left school in fourth grade.[Source] 

Killings of Idi Amin

Idi Amin (1924-2003)

After rising to power, Idi Amin put the entire country in a hysteria and fear and as many as 300,000 people died during his reign.[Source]