Saturday, December 02, 2006

Thoughts on History

I've been reading a fabulous memoir called A Chameleon's Tale, by Mo Tejani. He's of Asian Indian descent and a Muslim by birth, though not practicing. He was born in Uganda, Africa until the crazy dictator Idi Amin threw out all non-Ugandan citizens in the 1970s. He and his brother were relocated to Britian, the rest of his family in Canada.

I'd never even heard of Idi Amin before reading this book. I'm sure the textbook I had in high school discussed it briefly, although I cannot be sure since it seems most history books in the time I was in school focused mostly on Europe. Recent history was all about the Vietnam War and it was overall so boring and dry, I never paid any attention.

But the way Tejani told his story and related it on a deeply personal level, I was captivated as to what happened to him and his family in Uganda. Then I remember there was a movie out recently with Forrest Whittaker who played some crazy African dictator. Could it be about this Idi Amin that Tejani talked about? I looked it up online and the movie is called The Last King of Scotland. And Whittaker plays Idi Amin. I don't think it's in theaters any longer, so I have it saved in Netflix already. I'd had no interest in that movie before I read Tejani's book!

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