A leading Ugandan intellectual gives his authoritative and personal account of the tragic postcolonial fate of Uganda, his homeland.
In 1972, when Mahmood Mamdani came home to Uganda, he found a country transformed by “an orgy of violence.” Two years earlier, with support from the colonial powers of Great Britain and Israel, Idi Amin had forcefully cemented his rule. He soon expelled Uganda’s Indian minority in hopes of fostering a nation for Black Ugandans. The plan backfired. Amin was followed by Yoweri Museveni, who has now ruled for nearly four decades. Whereas Amin tried to create a Black nation out of the majority, Museveni sought to fragment this majority into multiple ethnic minorities, re-creating a version of colonial indirect rule. The lecture is Mamdani’s firsthand account on the tragic unraveling of his country’s struggle for decolonialization.
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and African Studies at Columbia University. He was Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala from 2010 to 2022. His books include Neither Settler nor Native, Citizen and Subject, When Victims Become Killers, and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.
Event details:
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30 April 2026, 3 to 5pm (Followed By Drinks Reception)
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Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College
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Open to all, no registration required
