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News, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
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Ex-Ugandan Strongman Idi Amin Dead
John R. Bradley • Managing Editor
Arab News
JEDDAH, 17 August 2003 — Idi Amin, the former president of Uganda, died here yesterday morning after lying for weeks in a coma and suffering multiple organ failure in King Faisal Specialist Hospital, a medical source at the hospital told Arab News.
Amin had settled in Saudi Arabia after being overthrown in 1979.
He was buried in Jeddah last night before sunset, in accordance with Islamic custom.
Amin was born in janury.1st-1925, in kiwuliriza kampala suburb on Iddi day. thats why he was given the name. Iddi. mainly Muslim Kakwa tribe at Arua in Uganda’s remote West Nile district.
A former boxing champion and British-trained soldier, he rose rapidly to the top of the Ugandan Army after independence in 1962, and seized power in 1971.
Ugandans initially welcomed Amin. His taunting of Britain, the former colonial power, made him one of Africa’s most popular leaders.
In 1972, Amin expelled asian british citizens in uganda who refused to apply for uganda citizenships after uganda recieve Independence in 1962. as the law changed. the supreme law of uganda. the constitution.
He himself was driven from Uganda in 1979 by forces from neighboring Tanzania and Ugandan exiles.
Amin, who was in a near-death condition for weeks, had received death threats by telephone, prompting hospital managers to post guards at his bed in the intensive care unit.
Some said he practiced cannibalism, a charge Amin dismissed as absurd.
In a rare interview here in 1999, Amin told a newspaper he spent his time playing the accordion, fishing, swimming, and reciting the Qur’an.
Yesterday, Amin’s widow in Saudi Arabia, Nalongo Madina Amin, called the private Ugandan radio station, Central Broadcasting Service, to announce his death. In Kampala, one of his sons, Ali Amin Ramadhan, 40, said: “I am very sad and confused.”
Earth, a planet hungry for peace
The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).
The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).
Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.
editor@aljazeerah.info
The Making of Idi Amin
By Pat Hutton and Jonathan Bloch, New African, February 2001
[Pat Hutton and Jonathan Bloch's account originally published by Peoples News Service in 1979 was adapted for Zed Press in May 1979 and published in 1980 as part of the book, Dirty Work 2—The CIA in Africa. New African reproduces it here by kind permission of the publishers.]
British government documents, recently declassified under the 30-year rule, have supported earlier accounts by the journalists Pat Hutton and Jonathan Bloch which said the rise of Idi Amin was engineered by outside interests to stop President Milton Obote's nationalisation drive in which the state had taken 60% interest in all foreign and Ugandan-Asian-owned businesses. Sky News, the London-based satellite TV channel, recently quoted from one of the British documents in which the Foreign Office in London had said Amin was reliable.
That Idi Amin was a brutal dictator of extraordinary cruelty is well-known and becomes more so as the tally of his victims, according to conventional accounts, topped over 100,000 between 1971-75. What is less known is the role of the British government and its allies not only in maintaining Amin's machinery of repression but in actually establishing him in power. Although Amin later became alienated from his Western friends, we can show here that the break between him and Britain became complete only when his fall (on 10 April 1979) was imminent, and that regarding him as the least evil option from the point of view of British interests, London actively helped keep him in power.
The tale of how the Western powers took measures to reverse the decline of their fortunes in Africa during the 1960s is complex in detail but simple in principle. In Uganda, once dubbed the Pearl of Africa by Winston Churchill, huge British financial, industrial and agricultural interests were under threat from the Obote government.
Unease about Obote's intentions was combined with attempts by outside interests to ingratiate themselves. Obote accepted aid from the Israeli government, which was desperately trying to avoid total diplomatic isolation while being used as a proxy by America in countries where its own reputation was tarnished.
The Americans and Israelis worked in very close co-operation in Uganda, particularly through their respective intelligence agencies, the CIA and Mossad. America provided some development aid while Israeli troops trained the Ugandan army and airforce. The British economic and political presence was always predominant and this was one of the situations that Obote hoped to change.
Throughout the late 1960s, Obote was consolidating his personal power and introducing legislation that was to shake the colonial interests. Although Obote was no Castro or Nyerere, his Common Man's Charter and the nationalisation of 80 British companies were not welcome in London.
As one prominent commentator put it: The Obote government was on the point of changing not only the constitution but the whole political system when [Amin's] coup occurred. A vital source of raw materials, Uganda was not about to be permitted to determine its own political development at the expense of the entrenched interests. Soon, plans were being laid by Britain in combination with Israel and America to remedy this situation.
The grand plan
The first task was to choose Obote's possible successor, and Idi Amin proved an obvious choice. Known by the British as a little short on the gray matter though intensely loyal to Britain, his qualifications were superb. He had started his career as a non-commissioned officer in the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles, and later served in the British suppression of Kenyan nationalists in the late 1950s (mistakenly known as the Mau Mau rebellion).
In Uganda itself, Amin had helped form the General Service Units (the political police) and had even chosen the presidential bodyguard. Some have said Amin was being groomed for power as early as 1966 (four years after Ugandan independence on 9 October 1962), but the plotting by the British and others began in earnest in 1969 when Obote started his nationalisation programme.
The plotting was based in southern Sudan, in the midst of a tribe that counted Amin among its members. Here, the Israeli government had been supporting a secessionist movement called the Anya-Nya against the Arab-leaning Sudanese government, in an effort to divert Arab military forces from Israeli's western front with Egypt during the no peace, no war period of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
One of those helping the Anya-Nya was Rolf Steiner, a German mercenary veteran of several wars, who told of his time there in a book published in 1978, The Last Adventurer.
Steiner said that he had been introduced to representatives of the giant Roman Catholic charity, Caritas International, and referred by them to two British men who would help him provide assistance to the Anya-Nya. They also suggested that Steiner keep in touch with a British mercenary called Alexander Gay.
Steiner had made Gay's acquaintance when they were both serving as mercenaries on the Biafran side during the Nigerian civil war. A former bank clerk, Gay had fought in the Congo from 1965 to 1968 and then in Nigeria, where he met the famous novelist Frederic Forsyth, then a war correspondent.
Forsyth had stood bail and given character references for Gay in November 1973 when Gay was tried for making a false statement to obtain a passport and for possession of a pistol, ammunition and gelignite (a type of dynamite).
On conviction, Gay was sentenced only to a fine and a suspended sentence. One of the factors leading to this leniency may have been that the British Special Branch had praised him in court and testified that he had provided information which was great and considerable help to Western powers.
However, back in East Africa, Gay, Steiner and their British mercenary friends established themselves in southern Sudan with a radio link to their other base in the Apollo Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. But Steiner said he did not know of the real intentions of his British colleagues until he heard Gay had been casting aspersions on him to the Anya-Nya leadership.
In a confrontation over this, Steiner forced Gay to tell him what his real task was—to overthrow or assassinate Obote. The British government had no interest in supporting a southern Sudanese secession and was only using the Anya-Nya as cover for its plans for the future of Uganda.
Steiner said that he wanted to know more, so he made Gay come with him to Kampala to search the room of one of their British colleagues at the Apollo Hotel, Blunden (a pseudonym Steiner uses for this former British diplomat now turned mercenary). They came away with a mass of coded documents detailing the British plot that had been transmitted to London by the British Embassy.
Steiner says in his book that Gay explained to him why Obote's successor had been chosen, saying: Blunden told me that the British knew Idi Amin well and he was their first choice because he was the stupidest and the easiest to manipulate. As Steiner remarks: Events were later to prove who was the most stupid.
Little more is known about this episode except that Steiner claims that Blunden was operating an airline called Southern Air Motive, and had planned the 18 December 1969 assassination attempt on Obote. It has since been independently confirmed that Gay and Blunden were working for British intelligence, and also that Steiner found British intelligence code books at the Apollo Hotel.
The Israeli connection
That it was the Israelis who were providing so much help to the Anya-Nya while the Britons plotted against Obote lends support to the allegations of a former CIA official in March 1978 that Amin's coup was planned by British intelligence in cooperation with Israeli intelligence. Amin was known to have visited southern Sudan at least twice in 1970, once in disguise, and was in constant touch with the Anya-Nya rebels.
One of Amin's Israeli friends has spoken of his role in the coup and how he helped Amin. The friend who was a colonel in the Israeli army, said that Amin approached him, saying he feared that people loyal to Obote would be able to arrest and kill him before he could secure Kampala. The friend said he told Amin that troops from Amin's own tribe in southern Sudan should be on hand, as well as paratroopers, tanks and jeeps.
Bolstered by the Israeli assistance and the greater power of the Ugandan tank corps, Amin was able to overwhelm the majority of the armed forces loyal to Obote on 24 and 25 January 1971. The Anya-Nya troops were a core of the forces in the Amin coup, and thousands of them later joined the Ugandan army and carried out many of Amin's early bloody purges which saw more than 100,000 Ugandans killed between 1971-75.
The Israelis had clearly been cultivating Amin for some time through their military presence in a manner consistent with their role as American proxies. These times were the heyday of the CIA's worldwide efforts to subvert radical regimes and in Africa to assert the predominance of America as far as possible. Active in Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria, the United States was also seeking to gain influence in Uganda, especially by means of intelligence officers of the navy and airforce based in Kampala, together with the CIA agents working under the cover of USAID.
One of the features of Amin's coup was its similarity to the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in February 1966. Like Obote, Nkrumah had been putting forward nationalisation measures and, when on a visit abroad (like Obote), was toppled by a coup which had the hands of the CIA all over it. Former CIA officers have since written books crediting the Agency with the Ghana coup. Interestingly, Obote was a staunch supporter of Nkrumah who, during his exile in Guinea after his overthrow, recorded in his letters the financial support he had received from Obote's government for his upkeep in Guinea.
The Amin coup
Just a few days before the coup, 700 British troops arrived in neighbouring Kenya. Although they were apparently scheduled to arrive long before, The Sunday Express speculated that they would be used to put down anti-British riots following the decision of the British Conservative government to sell weapons to apartheid South Africa, remarking that the presence of the troops, seemingly co-incidental—could prove providential. The paper added that the British troops would be used if trouble for Britons and British interests starts.
The report was followed two days later, still before the coup, by strenuous denials.
When the coup took place, Obote was attending the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore. He was aware that the internal situation in Uganda was not to his advantage and went to the conference only because President Nyerere of Tanzania had impressed on him the importance of being there to help present effective opposition to the British government's arms sales to South Africa.
The African members of the Commonwealth were piling the pressure on the British government. At a meeting with Presidents Kaunda, Nyerere and Obote, the British prime minister, Edward Heath, was threatened with the withdrawal of those countries from the Commonwealth should the South African arms decision go through. During this tempestuous meeting, Heath is reported to say: I wonder how many of you will be allowed to return to your own countries from this conference.
When Amin finally struck, the British press claimed that a Ugandan sergeant-major operating a telephone exchange had overheard a conversation concerning plans by Obote supporters in the army to move against Amin. Upon hearing the news, Amin moved into action, quickly seizing all strategic points in Uganda. Apart from the fact that the army would not have attempted to remove Amin in the absence of Obote, this version ignores the British and Israeli plans.
On Amin's accession to power, all was sweetness and light between him and the British establishment. Britain very quickly recognised Amin's regime, exactly one week after the coup. And he was hailed as a conquering hero in the British press. But even the US government considered the British recognition of Amin as showing unseemly haste.
In London, The Times commented: The replacement of Dr Obote by General Amin was received with ill-concealed relief in Whitehall. Other British press comments included, Good luck to General Amin (The Daily Telegraph); Military men are trained to act. Not for them the posturing of the Obotes and Kaundas who prefer the glory of the international platform rather than the dull but necessary tasks of running a smooth administration (The Daily Express); and more in the same vein.
Not surprisingly, Amin supported Edward Heath's stand on selling arms to apartheid South Africa, breaking the unified opposition of the states at the Singapore Commonwealth Conference.
Amin also denationalised several of the British companies taken over under Obote, and in July 1971 came to London where he had lunch with the Queen and meetings with Heath's cabinet. But the seeds of discord between Britain and Amin were being sown as he began to fail to live up to their expectations of servility.
After the coup, Uganda was granted o10m in economic aid (to be administered by Britain), in addition to 15 Ferret and 36 Saladin armoured cars, other military equipment and a training team for the Ugandan army.
However, Amin resented the fact that Britain would not give him fighter aircraft and other sophisticated equipment to help his expansionist ambitions. In particular, Amin had plans for an invasion of Tanzania, so that he could have a port on the east coast of his own.
For help in this project, which was becoming an obsession, Amin then turned to Israel. He asked for Phantom jet fighters and other sophisticated weapons, permission for which would have been required from the American government.
Saying that the request went beyond the requirements of legitimate self-defence, Israel refused Amin, which probably was a factor in the expulsion of the Israelis from Uganda in April 1972.
Although short of the hardware necessary, Amin was well supplied with strategic advice. This came from another collaborator with British intelligence, a British Major who lived on the Kagera River, on the border with Tanzania, where Amin used to come to visit him frequently by helicopter.
This former officer in the Seaforth Highlanders had been a member of the International Commission of Observers sent to the Nigeria civil war to investigate charges of genocide, but he was sacked amid allegations that he had offered his services to the Nigerian federal government as a mercenary.
But at a National Insurance Tribunal in England, where he was protesting his dismissal and claiming compensation, the Major explained that his real role in Nigeria was to collect intelligence for the British government and offer strategic military advice to the Nigerian federal forces. In spite of strenuous denials from the Foreign Office, the Tribunal accepted the Major's story and described him as a frank and honest witness.
It is not known whether the Major's activities on behalf of Amin were officially sanctioned by the British government, or parts of it, but his role seems to have been similar to the part he played in Nigeria. At any rate, the Major took Amin's invasion plan of Tanzania seriously, undertaking spying missions to Tanzania to reconnoitre the defences and terrain in secret.
He supplied Amin with a strategic and logistical plan to the best of his abilities, and although lack of hardware was an obstacle, evidence that Amin never gave up the idea came in the fact that the invasion of Uganda by Tanzanian and exiled Ugandan anti-Amin forces in late 1978 which eventually brought his rule to an end on 10 April 1979, was immediately preceded by an abortive invasion of Tanzania by Amin's army.
In the manner which characterised the Major's behaviour after the Nigerian episode, he did not maintain discretion when back in England. He wanted to publish his story of cooperation with Amin in The Daily Express, but this was scotched by an interesting move by the British government - a D-Notice banning the story on grounds of national security.
The American support
Beginning with his purges of the army, later extending them to those who had carried out the purges, the ferocity and cruelty of Amin's rule increased steadily—most of it performed by the dreaded Public Safety Unit, the State Research Centre and various other bodies. These received training assistance and supplies from Britain and America.
In July 1978, the American columnist Jack Anderson revealed that 10 of Amin's henchmen from the Public Safety Unit were trained at the International Police Academy in the exclusive Washington suburb of Georgetown. The CIA-run academy was responsible for training police officers from all over the world until its closure in 1975.
Three of the Ugandans continued their studies at a graduate school, also run by the CIA, called the International Police Services Inc. Shortly after the Amin coup, the CIA had one full-time police instructor stationed in Uganda. Controversy raged in the United States in the use of equipment sold to Uganda. Twelve of these were police helicopter pilots for American Bell helicopters that had been delivered in 1973.
Security equipment of various types also found its way to Uganda from Britain, and most of them came as a result of the groundwork done by another collaborator of British intelligence, Bruce Mackenzie, an ex-RAF pilot and long-serving adviser to President Kenyatta of Kenya.
Mackenzie also doubled as the East African agent for a giant British electronics firm, based in London, dealing in telecommunications. Trade in radio transmitters and other devices continued right up to Amin's fall from power. Though Mackenzie had died when a bomb planted by Amin's police exploded in his private plane, the trade with the electronics firm continued nonetheless.
Several times a week, Ugandan Airlines' planes would touch down at Stansted Airport in Essex, England, to unload quantities of tea and coffee and take on board all the necessary supplies for Amin's survival.
In spite of all the revelations of the nature of Amin's dictatorship and his dependency on the Stansted shuttle, it continued right up to February 1979, when the British government ended it in an extraordinary piece of opportunism. The chief advantage of the shuttle to Amin was that it obviated the need for foreign exchange, for which Uganda had virtually none.
In June 1977, The Sunday Times revealed that the Ugandan planes to Stansted were picking up Land Rovers (28 were delivered), one of them specially converted and bristling with sophisticated electronic equipment for monitoring broadcasts, jamming and other capabilities.
The cargo spotlighted by The Sunday Times also included a mobile radio studio, which is almost certainly whence Amin was continuing to assert over the airwaves that he was in control long after he had been ousted from Kampala.
At the same time, an extensive relationship between Uganda and the Crown Agents, the trading agency with strong links in Britain's former colonies, was exposed. Crown Agents had arranged a deal for Amin to buy 120 three-ton trucks made in Luton. The trucks were thought to have been converted for military purposes before being shipped out. The British firm that supplied the electronic equipment and another firm in the same field had also supplied Amin's State Research Centre with telephone-tapping equipment, night-vision devices, burglar alarms and anti-bomb blankets.
When the Liberal MP, David Steel (now Sir David), questioned Prime Minister Callaghan about this, all that the prime minister had to say was that the devices were intended to track down television licence dodgers. To add to this, it was said that after the Entebbe raid by Israeli troops, the radar damaged there was sent to England for repair.
The principal value of the Stansted shuttle was to maintain Amin's system of privileges, vital for retaining the allegiance of the Ugandan army. His power elite, consisting of army officers not subject to the stringent rationing imposed on the rest of the population, depended on the goods brought in on the Stansted shuttle.
During times of the frequent and widespread shortages of basic commodities linked to inflation of around 150%, the officers could use the British goods to make their fortunes on the black market.
A further aspect of the Stansted shuttle involved British, American and Israeli intelligence: this was in the provision of the planes. According to the Washington Post's Bernard Nossiter, Pan Am was instructed by the CIA to sell several Boeing 707s to a New York-based Israeli company with former US Defence Department connections. The company was owned by an Israeli multimillionaire with a vast commercial empire.
The company sold one of the Boeings to a small firm based in Switzerland, which passed the plane on to Amin in May 1976. The function of the Swiss-based company was to act as a laundry for the financing of projects backed by Israeli intelligence.
In 1977, the Israeli company which had originally bought the plane from Pan Am, wanted to sell another Boeing to Uganda Airlines, but with the notoriety of Amin's regime getting worse, the company feared losing the US State Department approval it had won for the first deal.
The plane was thus sold to another company housed in the same building in New York as the Israeli company, which then leased the plane to Uganda Airlines. The two companies had close ties, and the purpose of this extraordinary generosity was to spy on the Libyan military airfield in Benghazi, where the planes always refuelled before going on to Stansted.
Both Israeli and American intelligence provided navigators for the planes to spy on the airfield and make reports which were shared out among Israeli, American and British intelligence. The information was probably of very little use, since the Libyans almost certainly knew of the presence of the navigators on the planes. But Amin was getting a very cheap service for the coffee and tea bound for London and the other goods that returned. The Americans also provided pilots for the planes. A California-based company supplied the pilots acting as a subcontractor.
Britain, a friend to the last
In general, the British government's attitude to Amin's regime was neatly summed up by The Times when Amin had just expelled the Ugandan Asians on 9 August 1972: The irony is that if President Amin were to disappear, worse might ensue, The Times said.
In a similar comment, exemplifying the relationship with Amin as being the devil you know, The Economist stated: The last government to want to be rid of Amin is the British one.
This attitude persisted even beyond the break in Ugandan-British diplomatic relations in July 1976, as shown by the fact that the Stansted shuttle continued. Important political commentators in the British press believed that London would not impose sanctions on Uganda under Amin, since this might set a precedent for sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Britain plainly considered the bad image consequent on maintaining links with Amin not as serious as the consequences of breaking links with South Africa.
Nonetheless, as the body count of Amin's victims—former friends, members of the clergy, soldiers and mostly ordinary people—mounted daily, stock should have been taken of those who helped Amin stay where he was and turned a blind eye to the amply documented brutality of his regime.
Thirty years on, no such stock has been taken and Amin continues to be cast as the demented dictator who had no friends.
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M2: People, Places | September 8, 2008
Mosque changes Kampala’s skyline
Talk of Kampala’s fast changing skyline and what comes to mind is the splendour of a mosque with an imposing presence. The Gaddafi National Mosque is a wonder in its own class, writes John K. Abimanyi.
In mid 2006, the Kampala skyline received a new member; one that has added irresistible allure, and splendour to its appearance. Today, the Gaddafi National Mosque stands out as one of Kampala’s leading eye-catching sites.
With its bronze and shiny minarets raised up on high and uniting with the sky, the mosque makes a unique addition to the Kampala list of architectural wonders. By day, it stands imposing, not hidden out of sight from any part of Kampala, while at night, it’s a lighthouse of sorts, beaming and adding an exclusive illumination to the Kampala penumbra.
The mosque, with all its grandeur, stands in of all places, Old Kampala; a hill that is customised with structures crafted out of antique architecture and ailing with decades of age, on the higher side of the half century.
Being the first administrative centre for colonial Uganda, the Old Kampala hill is home to some of the country’s oldest architecture and buildings still standing in Kampala. It is on this hill in 1890, that the then governor Fredrick Lugard raised the Union Jack and declared Uganda a British Protectorate.
Many buildings on the Old Kampala hill are peeling and stand on the very boundaries of rot, while others have been deserted and left as play fields for mice and bats, and, now look like cavities in an otherwise perfect dental line-up. It is against such a setting that the new wonder of a mosque now sits. The paradox is evidently visible for all to see. When these 1930 and even older buildings are struck against the prime and fresh new mosque, the irony comes alive.
The mosque does not stand alone on this list of “out-of-place architecture” in Old Kampala. On the southern side of the mosque are the modern looking offices of Diamond Trust Bank and Uganda Revenue Authority, and to the north of the mosque, is a new three-storey block still undergoing construction.
Other ancient structures across the hill are joining this lot too; not through reconstruction, but rather through massive face-lifts to the exteriors and insides of the houses. On the western wing of Old Kampala, many houses have been repainted and refurnished and, save for the architecture, now possess an enhanced look. Some of the structures that used to be homes have now been turned into hotels and offices.
With such structural changes underway, Old Kampala’s ancient image now seems to be in transition and slowly fading away into oblivion. Coupled with the facelifts on the ancient buildings on the hill, the olden image of Old Kampala, with which we have come to associate it, now seems to be a thing of the past; fast being taken over by the modern forces of architecture. Even the remnants of the historic Fort Lugard now have a fresh look.
It has been modified with a new plastering and tiled surface that carries it ages away from the days when Fredrick Lugard commanded it. A stroll through the streets will reveal a wave of new supermarkets, shops, and businesses dealing in animal feeds and products, tyre-sales, mechanical equipment, hotels, offices, to mention but a few.
On its streets, several boda bodas whiz by, while the sounds of hammers hitting nails, cement mixers blending concrete, and the sights of pickup trucks bringing in stock, now dominate the setting. With this introduction, Old Kampala seems to be well on its journey of transition; changing not only its image but its way of life as well; or is it?
The residents of Old Kampala offer varying views on whether their hill is in transition or not. Willy Musoke believes Old Kampala is changing not only because of the mosque but many more factors. He views Old Kampala’s change through the emergence of new shops and commercial centres on the hill that were not there before. He believes that the hill is getting livelier and busier by the day and seems to be waking up from its sleep.
“Old Kampala is not the same,” he said, “So many people are coming into it and setting up businesses. It is not as quiet as it used to be”. And true to his word, a series of stores dealing in a variety of supplies are filling up the blocks of the ground floor of the three-story block still under construction. As Musoke says, it has given the hill a “business look”, that didn’t exist before.
Ahmed Musisi, who rides a boda boda, says the completion of the mosque has brought him new business, especially on Fridays when multitudes ascend the hill for Juma (Friday) prayers. “This”, he adds, “has attracted more boda boda riders to Old Kampala”.
But other residents are far from confessing to the transition of Old Kampala. They acknowledge the change in the scenery ever since the completion of the Old Kampala Mosque, but are quick to insist that the structural changes are not enough to change Old Kampala’s image.
The Gaddafi National Mosque stands out as one of Kampala’s leading eye-catching sites. PHOTOS BY ISMAIL KEZAALA
Ibrahim Kiwanuka who resides on the western side of Old Kampala believes that Old Kampala’s image is still the same. “The mosque is nothing new,” he said. “It has been around for a long time now and the only difference is that its construction has been completed.” He says this in respect to the fact that the mosque had been in construction for over three decades.
He argued that the completion of the mosque thus did not alter the look of Old Kampala. For some residents however, they denounce any changes to the look of Old Kampala because they hold a sentimental connection with its ancient look. Aggrey Ssegwanyi argues that it would be sad if the image was overhauled and took on the look of new architecture. “Old Kampala looks good just the way it is,” he says.
Although the completion of the mosque and the rise of new buildings on the hill have not overhauled Old Kampala’s ancient image, they have certainly created a new face for it.
This new face declassifies Old Kampala from the old impression that the hill only has primeval buildings and architecture. It is in this new face that Old Kampala’s tomorrow lies. But it is the change in the heartbeat of the area that stands undisputed.
Life now moves at a pace faster than it did before. The hill has opened up to new entrants, especially as seen through the shops and stores that are shaking off the cobwebs that hitherto hang over the hill, and all this has increased the rate of activity in the area.
In many ways now, Old Kampala is not ‘old’ any more. And for years to come, while looking back with hindsight, the completion of the Old Kampala Mosque in mid 2006 could as well be seen as the nucleus for the New ‘Old Kampala’.
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Comments:
UMAIBC said at 13 Sep 2008, 12:29
The old kampala Masjid/Mosque looks beuatiful. Majid Alemi Junior, in Vancouver, Western Canada. Ramadhan Karim to all. worldwide. salam warahma. http://www.wananchionline.com/ http://ugandan-communityinvancouverblogspo.blogspot.com/ http://www.kakwa.org/ http://alemiamonye.blogspot.com/
Husni Mubarak said at 12 Sep 2008, 05:58
Its a great article and a Great Islam. Even the Non Muslims alike admire the structural architecture of the Mosque. Im using the word mosque because im writing in English. I dont agree with the idea of the origin of the mosque stopping us from using the word since its a universally acknowledged english word for Masjid. The evil done to us centuries ago has gone and the evil doors have gone. Islam remains and continues to flaurish and expand.
Secondly we are in Ramadhan and we have received Good words from a significant multitude of Christians during this month. It means that most of them respect our religion and have accepted our steadfastness. We should not forget that Islam is a religion of Peace.
We should preach peace to all and avoid confrontations.
BMK said at 11 Sep 2008, 04:34
Mr. John K. Abimanyi, I haven’t read your whole article but I believe it’s good.
I am a Muslim and I have no problem with your article or the use of the word mosque.
Though I haven’t been in Uganda for a while (6 years) I have seen the nice pics & videos of this architectural piece. We need to admit that’s its made Kampala look beautiful
Abdulla Hamdani said at 08 Sep 2008, 08:36
Ramadhan Karim to you Mr. Bantu Muntu. I am surprised you asked me if I am Muslim! Does my name tell you anything?
The worst insect who kills human beings, specially in Uganda, is anopheles mosquito. I am sure you are aware of it. This insect is parable to worst human beings as Queen Isabella of Spain called Muslims in Spain, thus, the Muslims were hyphened as mosquitos. Whatever you think, I will protect Islam if it is degorated by anyone. For your info, I hate suicide bombers, I do not agree with terrorism and I do not agree if anybosy degrades Islam. Salaam Alaikhum.
Bantu Muntu said at 07 Sep 2008, 22:56
Abdulla, please educate people do not impose your culture on them. Language is one of the means to disown people. Dis Arabic not do that to Asia and Africa? Islam is a wonderful religion that should not be confused by people like you! You seems to be a militant from your language. We are in Ramadan and Muslims should refrain from anger, bigotry and insults. Are you a good Muslim? I doubt! Ramadan Kerim
Abdulla Hamdani said at 07 Sep 2008, 20:28
Certainly, the "masjid" looks beautiful. Please call it "masjid" and not mosque. Mosque is an insulting word to Muslims. The word derives from Spanish language meaning mosquito. When Muslims were ousted from Spain in the 15th century, they were rounded up in the famous masjid in Granda, Spain. The humming of Muslims sounded like mosquito buzzing. The rulers, Spainiards, sarcastically mentioned the mosquitos are humming. Thus, came the new word misquita. Please refrain from the word mosque - now that you know why!
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Re: sad news of what heppens in koboko. ura shooting killings 2 & injured 4. it is a cold blood killings. the law says any persons alleged of crimes. are innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. those ura agencies involve in this kind of crime are to be tried in the court of law, if any in uganda. I appeal to united nations secretary general to send Independent International Investigators to rearly find out what exactly heppens. rather than relying on the newvisions & monitor newspapers contrlled by uganda government. the victims to be compesated by ura, all treated bills to be handle by ura. the message of sorrow,sympathy,condolence to the families of deceaswds, we also wish those injured a quick recovery. I am closely watching the outcomes of this case. I also appeals to fellow kobokans to be law abiding citizens. from majid alemi junior. salam warahma. my weblogs are for all. [no kokora]
This is a copy of the following message you sent to Connect Uganda Presenters via Connect Uganda
This is an enquiry e-mail via http://www.connectuganda.com from:
Majid Alemi Junior. & Family.
Dear. Mike,queenie,omukoki. how are you all over there? with us here, we are all ok. Hello all,
You are all invited to come and meet a delegation of about 10
officails from Uganda that will be in Vancouver from May 15th to May
18th, 2009.
A community meeting has been scheduled for Sunday May 17th, 2009 at
1:00pm. Location is 4010 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC (Ismaili Centre
Social Hall 2nd Floor).
The theme is Trade and Investment - Economic Forum. The objective of
this meeting is for you to have an open discussion where you are free
to ask the panel of judges any questions with respect to issues
concerning Ugandans and friends of Uganda wishing to invest in Uganda
or for some who may simply want to know the status of Uganda in terms
of development.
The panel will include some officials ugandans community members in vancouver BC..
Refreshments will be served and admission is FREE for all.
Please note that this is a Social-Economic initiative and non
political. the delegations from uganda are as follow. [a]Hon.Gaggawala Wambuzi. Minister of state for trade. [b]Hon. Aston Kajara. Minister of state for finance Investment. [C]Mrs. Magie Kigozi. Director for uganda Investment. [d]H.E. George Marino Abola and Spouse. ugandan high commissioner in canada from ottawa. [e] Dr. Henry Opondo. Director of the bank of uganda. [f] Mr.Emmanuel Katwe. Ministry of Planning and economic Development. [g] Mr. Kaddu. Kiberu. Uganda Manufacturers Association. [h] Mr. Anatoli Kamugisha. President of real estate Association. [i]Mrs. Betti Kawooya. Uganda high commissioner from nairobi. [j]Ms. Alex Hope.Mukubwa. Uganda High Commissioner. I request all westnilians in Bc. as neighbouring state come join us to express your view and concern our respectives region. west and uganda large. I will be reporting what is discussed into my weblogs community Info. in BC. as well to all dream teams westnilenet mambers. over to brothers and sisters. from. majid
alemi junior. in BC. Re: presenters. I would like to send greetings to my family of alemi wherever they are, greetings to ezra. e. to jaffar amin remo & family,to safiyah abdu nabbi amin,& family. they are all in kampala. uganda greetings to all who are listening connect uganda rite now, greetings to kadara alemi in london, greetings to faridah in north london, greetings to all connect uganda staffs, your marks today are. 150trllions % keep up the good. I would also like to thank Mike og airing my message of greetings last sunday on family sunday show. you did great job alone last sunday. you recieve many phone calls of greetings messages, you red many emails greetings messages. your voice sounds a little like with cold but recovering. greetings to my wife & the kids in BC. from. majid alemi junior. & Family. vancouver. western canada. peace,love,unity are my motto. salam warahma.
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