{UAH} WHEN IDI AMIN ASKED US PRESIDENT FORD TO GET A BLACK VICE PRESIDENT!

Picture: Louis Farrakhan and Roy Innis pose for a picture in Uganda with Gen. Idi Amin. The two Black American leaders had come with a delegation of Black civil rights activists under the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). 

In December 1972, a delegation from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), an Afro-American organisation fighting against racial inequality in the United States, arrived in Uganda for a meeting with then president Idi Amin.

The delegation was led by Roy Innis, executive director of CORE. Innis and his team had been invited by Amin to Uganda to see an "unprecedented thing in recent history" – Black people owning businesses and running a government of their own without external neo-colonial interference. This was after the expulsion of the British from the country.

According to the official newspaper, Voice of Uganda of December 24, 1972, Innis said: "This is the truth, quiet as it is kept, Ugandans are happy and lucky under Gen Amin's rule of Africa for Black Africans."

Before leaving Uganda, Innis' delegation received Ugandan passports and offers of land, jobs and dual citizenship.

CORE replied to this gesture by promising Amin that the first batch of 40 teachers and technicians would come "home" and be part of "this great era of African pioneering."

Uganda then promised the returnees free housing, medical treatment and dental care at all government facilities.

Ugandan land, according to Amin, would be used to develop the pioneers' settlement station, which would include farms and industrial centres.

Uganda offered its African American friends the unique experience of belonging, at last, to the African continent, contributing to where their effort was valued, and making a commitment according to the enlightened self-interest of the worldwide Black community.

"Uganda's top foreign policy priorities are to solidify links with the Black African nations, and to connect the kidnapped citizens of Africa from the Western Hemisphere. To really fuse the Africans and the Blacks of the United States is a very critical element in African development. Amin really tuned into it more than anyone I have ever seen. He believes in it more than we do in the United States. He sees the massive resources we squander," Innis said.

He equally believed that Uganda's political and economic outlook under Amin was promising.

"The first thing he (Amin) has done is to give people confidence. The next thing he has done for the first time in modern history of the Black folk was to give us political and economic liberation. It is an active working programme," he added.

Later, Amin included Roy Innis in Uganda's official delegation to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Heads of state summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 1973. Innis became the first non-Ugandan in the Ugandan delegation.

"Imperialists, colonialists, their agents and their stooges used dirty tricks to discredit and sully Gen Amin and thus to discourage the thawing in our relations. Uganda is the symbol of the most important tenets of pan-Africanism and Black self-determination," Innis noted.

He then telephoned the CORE headquarters in the USA to commend Amin's speech before the OAU, calling it powerful and impressive.

Upon return from Addis Ababa, Mr. Roy Innis wrote to Idi Amin saying:

"You are a great African of our time, yours have been words and deeds in their sacred prime. For the fates of the great nation have hung on your words, no matter what the prophet of doom may say.

Before, life of your people was a complete bore, and they were poor, oppressed, exploited and economically sore. And you then came and opened new, dynamic economic pages. And showered progress on the people in realistic stages. In such expert moves that have baffled even the great sages, your electric personality pronounced the imperialists' doom, your pragmatism has given Ugandans their economic boom. Now you champion the federation of East Africa's men and women, something which has been lauded in this past 10 years. To have a common trade, tariffs, laws and free flow of money, to enjoy our meat, fish, tea, coffee, grains, milk and honey, For all East Africans to feel one people once again, for socio-cultural cohesion, political unity, economic progress and mutual gain... long live Idi Amin," he concluded.

Amin also championed the cause of Black America in America itself. In his congratulatory message to the newly elected US president Gerald Ford the following year, Amin suggested that the Black man in the US should be given total liberty in America.

His message partly read: "I wish to advise you concerning the issue of our time and to alert you on the impending danger namely: the position of the Black people in your country. You are aware Africans were kidnapped from Africa and forced against their will to leave their motherland and to go in chains to the United States. The Black people were hardworking, sincere and indeed had many talents and have contributed a lot to the development of America. Their important role in American society must be recognised.

As a fellow president and a fellow commander in chief, I wish to advise you that for the smooth running of the administration, you must not discriminate against the Black people of America. Not only should you appoint them to high offices in your White House staff, your vice president should also be Black." Amin concluded.

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