Some analysts say that Ugandans always lose out with their politicians. After independence then Prime Minister Obote had soon introduced a one-party-system. Thereafter Idi Amin, former commander of the Ugandan army, seized power in a coup to become probably the most brutal and barbarian dictator in modern history. I love reading books exactly at the very location where their story line plays, But reading “A State of Blood” in Kampala itself, an inside story about Amin’s brutal rule written by one of his former cabinet ministers, was sending shudder to my inner core. Idi Amin, bloodthirsty and crazy, had seinerzeit crowned himself with the following title: „His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular“. At the end of his eight year rule, Uganda, the former “Pearl of Africa”, lay in tatters.

I came to Uganda for the first time in 2004 when I was backpacking all the way from Kigali to Cape Town. 12 years later in 2016, when President Museveni had just celebrated his 30th year in office I came back to Kampala in the course of a business trip. Be it the old boatman at beautiful Lake Bunyonyi in the south, be it the football players at the foothills of the mighty Rwenzori mountains (where icy glaciers and rainforest dramatically meet), or be it the marketsellers close to roaring Murchinson Falls National park, Ugandans are, against all odds, a funny bunch of people. It’s always better in Africa to look at the bright side of life.