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    Idi Amin's mastery of media revealed in newly published photos

    Photos taken by official photographers show how Ugandan dictator exploited media ‘to amplify ego and political will’
    by Jason Burke Africa correspondent Oct 07, 2019 4 minutes
    Idi Amin and guests celebrate ‘Refugee Day’ in 1975. Photograph: Uganda Broadcasting Corporation

    For decades he has been reviled as a simple-minded and sadistic dictator, or lampooned as a clownish thug.

    Now tens of thousands of newly discovered images have shown how Idi Amin exploited cutting-edge media technology, populism and radical ideologies to maintain his bloody grip on power in the 1970s.

    Idi Amin playing the accordion at Buvuma Island in 1971.
    Idi Amin playing the accordion at Buvuma Island in 1971. Photograph: Uganda Broadcasting Corporation

    Most of the 70,000 pictures were taken by a team of photographers from the information ministry who followed the Ugandan dictator over the course of his eight-year rule. Many show Amin at public occasions, but some are of private episodes, such as the arrest and humiliation of alleged petty

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