The King of Scotland

I was all set to show some pictures of my latest fiber project today (yet to come!), but a movie got in the way. Last night I watched The Last King of Scotland which was released in 2007. It is based on the book by Giles Foden. The movie portrays the rise to power of Idi Amin as told through the eyes of a young Scottish doctor (fictional) who worked as Amin's physician and collaborator. One of the greatest criticisms of the film is this fictional aspect and its relationship to the truth of Amin's murderous reign of power. One aspect of the film that cannot be disputed in my mind is the incredible portrayal of Amin by Forest Whittaker. He won an Oscar for best actor in this role and it is easy to see why. The movie grossed eight times what it cost to make it or close to 100,000,000 dollars. Somehow I want to hope that some of that money might was spent in Uganda and other African countries relieving the endless poverty and disease there.

The truth of the movie is more powerful than any of the fictional aspects: there was a dictator named Idi Amin whose pathological paranoia drove him to kill 300,000 Ugandans. Having  overthrown Obote's dictatorship, Amin himself becomes a dictator. He kills all those loyal to Obote and then proceeds to kill anyone else who speaks against his abuses.

When I was in seminary in the early 80's, Bishop Festo Kivengere came for a visit. He was the Bishop of Kigezi in Uganda during Amin's reign of terror. Summoned with other bishops to the dictator's headquarters, he watched as mobs loyal to Amin called for the deaths of these Anglican bishops. All but one of the bishops were allowed to leave. Janani Luwum, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda (Anglican) was held. The government later announced his death in an automobile accident. Bishop Festo told us the story of what happened several days later. Amin's men came to his house and said they had been sent to kill the bishop and his family. Bishop Festo gathered his family and then told Amin's men that "they could kill him and his family but that they would live forever in Jesus." The men became frightened, put down their guns and fled. On Sunday 2 of the young men showed up in Bishop Festo's church and told him that they wanted to know about this man who could make them live forever.  Bishop Festo and his family later escaped from Uganda by walking to the border of Rwanda. He went back to Uganda after Amin's downfall and was one of the leaders of the East African revival.

Through the years I have told this story to anyone who would listen because it made such a deep impression on me. Since meeting Bishop Festo I have met many Ugandans whose lives were influenced by the great revival of faith after Amin. I am deeply humbled by the faith of a man who faced not just death but the living horror of watching darkness pervade his homeland. We who have always lived in freedom know nothing of this kind of horror. My prayer is that we will never face those horrors, nor come to the place of facing death. But my hope is that I will always be found "walking in the Light" so that if I face death it will be with the courage of those whose witness I hold in my heart.