Milton Obote

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Milton Obote (1960)

Apollo Milton Obote (born December 28, 1924 in Akokoro , Lango District , Uganda ; † October 10, 2005 in Johannesburg , South Africa ) was first Prime Minister, then President of Uganda from 1966 to 1971 and from 1980 to 1985.

Life

childhood and education

Milton Obote was the child of Stanley Opeto, a village chief, and the housewife Puliska Opeto. He was the third of a total of eleven children.

Obote spent his primary school years at Ibuje Primary School in Lira and then went to Jinja , where he attended the well-known Busoga College (in Mwiri Hill ) until he finished secondary school. Obote later studied at Makerere College (now Makerere University ) and studied economics there, but without obtaining a degree. There are various traditions about the cause of this. According to his own statements, he wanted to study law and not economics. According to other information, he had to leave college because he was involved in political activities. As a result, he took up odd jobs for Mowlem , a then well-known construction company.

Political career

Obote began his political career together with Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya after he was denied a law degree in the USA by the British colonial government. On his return to Uganda in 1955 he founded the Ugandan National Congress (UNC) and was elected to the colonial legislature in 1958. In 1959 the UNC split and Obote became chairman of the Uganda People's Congress, which was newly created in 1960 (German: Ugandan People's Congress). After a few years as leader of the opposition , Obote established a coalition with the Baganda Royalist Party and was elected Prime Minister in 1961. He took office on April 25, 1962. With Obote as Prime Minister and Sir Edward Mutesa , the leader of the Baganda, as president reached Uganda in October 1962, the independence .

As Prime Minister Obote was involved in a gold smuggling together with Idi Amin , then deputy commander of the Ugandan armed forces. When Parliament requested an investigation into the incident and Amine's impeachment, Obote suspended the constitution and arrested some members of his cabinet . Obote was acquitted of the allegations, but tension arose between him and Mutesa, who criticized him for repealing the constitution. Obote responded with a coup against Mutesa and declared himself president on March 2, 1966 .

In 1967 Obote promulgated a new constitution and declared Uganda a republic. The previous constitution from 1962 was replaced here. Obote was now Uganda's second president in the country's post-colonial history.

Obote's reign was an autocratic dictatorship. During his tenure, political opponents were persecuted, discriminated against and tortured. The secret police was led by Obote's cousin and was responsible for a number of atrocities. During a UPC congress in 1969, Obote was the target of an assassination attempt in which he was shot in the head.

Between 1969 and 1970 Obote published many propaganda texts, which announced that it would take more care of the fight against poverty and move more to the left ( The Common Man's Charter ). Obote nationalized a number of companies. He also persecuted and discriminated against Indian traders who lived in Uganda. As these gradually left the country, their exodus had a serious impact on Uganda's economy.

On January 25, 1971, the army took advantage of Obote's visit to a Commonwealth meeting in Singapore for a coup and Army Chief Idi Amin came to power. In the two years before that, relations with the West had gradually deteriorated. The suspicion arose that the West was involved in the coup or had been informed about it.

In October 1978, Amin started a risky war against Tanzania. This struck back and with the help of Ugandan guerrillas succeeded in the Ugandan-Tanzanian war, the complete victory of Tanzania and the expulsion of Idi Amins in April 1979.

In March 1979, Obote and other Ugandans in exile had founded the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) (English for: National Liberation Front of Uganda). This organization temporarily took over power in Uganda. Obote prevailed in a controversial election in September 1979. Shortly afterwards, conflicts arose again. Many members of the UNLF left and fought against them. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 people died as a result of fighting between Obotes Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) and various other military groups, most notably Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's NRA. Obote was born in 1985 by Lt. Gen Bazilio Olara Okello overthrown. A military council headed by Tito Okello was established. Within a year, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni took political control of Uganda.

exile

After his fall, Obote fled to Tanzania and last lived in Lusaka ( Zambia ), where he received political asylum. He died of kidney failure at the age of almost 81 in a Johannesburg clinic. His supporters at the time saw him as a “democrat” and “hero of the liberation of Africa”.

His widow Miria Obote returned to Uganda after his death to have him buried there and to take on her husband's political inheritance. She ran as a candidate for the presidential election in February 2006, but only won 0.82 percent of the vote.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b The State House of Uganda: President Apollo Milton Obote. on www.statehouse.go.ug (English)
  2. ^ A b South African History Online: Milton Obote (81), Uganda's former dictator, dies in a South African hospital. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  3. ^ South African History Online: Ugandan premier Apollo Milton Obote is shot in the head by a gunman. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  4. ↑ Phares Mukasa Mutibwa: Uganda since independence: a story of unfulfilled hopes. C. Hurst & Co., United Kingdom 1992, ISBN 1-85065-066-7 , pp. 65-70. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  5. ^ South African History Online: General Idi Amin Dada overthrows Ugandan President, Milton Obote. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  6. ↑ George Ivan Smith : Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin. (1980)
  7. ^ GSK Ibingira: African Upheavals since Independence. Westview Press, ISBN 0-89158-585-0 .
  8. ^ South African History Online: Yoweri Kaguta Moseveni becomes president of Uganda. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  9. ↑ BBC News: Former Ugandan leader Obote dies. News from October 10, 2005 on www.news.bbc.co.uk (English)
personal data
SURNAME Obote, Milton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Obote, Apollo Milton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ugandan politician, President of Uganda
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Akokoro , Lango District
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 2005
Place of death Johannesburg , South Africa