In Idi Amin’s Shadow

In Idi AminΓÇÖs Shadow is a rich social history examining Ugandan womenΓÇÖs complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship to AminΓÇÖs military state. Based on more than one hundred interviews with women who survived the regime, as well as a wide range of primary sources, this book reveals how the violence of AminΓÇÖs militarism resulted in both opportunities and challenges for women. Some assumed positions of political power or became successful entrepreneurs, while others endured sexual assault or experienced the trauma of watching their brothers, husbands, or sons ΓÇ£disappearedΓÇ¥ by the stateΓÇÖs security forces. In Idi AminΓÇÖs Shadow considers the crucial ways that gender informed and was informed by the ideology and practice of militarism in this period. By exploring this relationship, Alicia C. Decker offers a nuanced interpretation of AminΓÇÖs Uganda and the lives of the women who experienced and survived its violence.

Each chapter begins with the story of one woman whose experience illuminates some larger theme of the book. In this way, it becomes clear that the politics of military rule were highly relevant to women and gender relations, just as the politics of gender were central to militarism. By drawing upon critical security studies, feminist studies, and violence studies, Decker demonstrates that AminΓÇÖs dictatorship was far more complex and his rule much more strategic than most observers have ever imagined.