Our history has come back to Haunt us. As always.
Forrest Whittaker just played, to much critical acclaim, Idi Amin in the movie 'The Last King Of Scotland' and to be honest I have decided not to watch it because I feel it it will just bring back all the painful memories that many of us carry.
The trauma of the years 1971-79 have left few families unscarred. We all have an unle Fred that nobody can quite tell you what happened to him., just that he died during 'Amin's time'. The wounds have not quite healed, but like the truly stoic people we are, we quietly brush it under the carpet and act like nothing ever happened. The onus is on the inquisitive to let sleeping dogs lie.
I remember the famous travel writer, Paul Theroux, comment that when he visited Makerere after many years he found all the students he met always asked him what stories they should write about in order to be successful. His answer was simple, 'write about your own lives, your history.'
And there is the paradox, our history is rich, and our stories numerous, but nobody is writing them. Trauma is not a reason not to talk about the gaps in our lives. If the jews had followed this line of thinking, would we ever have heard of the Holocaust?
So now someone else is doing the writing for us. I am sure 'The Last King Of Scotland' is great, but it is written from the perspective of a fictional scottish doctor in Uganda heading out into deepest, darkest Africa in order to find himself(or was that supposed to be Bob Astles?).
Try as we might we might, we cant shake this monkey off our backs, and now with Forrest Whittaker winning the Best Actor Golden Globe, the BAFTA's and a good bet for an Oscar for playing the role of Idi Amin, this will have the effect of invigourating the global image of Uganda being the place where that 'Man' was president........some people actually still think he is.
Its a stigma we dread, one we try to hide from, even when we travelling all the way in far off New Zealand. But that 'Man' is going nowhere, probably enjoying our discomfort, all from the comfort of his grave. Thats our history and we need to confront sooner or later..
