Idi Amin was the brutal military dictator of Uganda whose erratic and bloody eight-year rule made him one of the most notorious tyrants of his age. Born in northwestern Uganda, he received little formal education and rose through the ranks of the colonial army, the King's African Rifles, becoming a heavyweight boxing champion and one of the few African officers promoted before independence.
After Uganda became independent, Amin rose to command the army, and in 1971 he seized power in a military coup, overthrowing President Milton Obote. At first welcomed by some as a bluff, jovial soldier, he soon revealed himself to be a capricious and murderous despot, ordering the killing of perceived enemies, rival ethnic groups, and former associates; estimates of those killed during his rule run into the hundreds of thousands.
In 1972 he expelled tens of thousands of Asians, who dominated Uganda's commerce, seizing their property and wrecking the economy. His behavior grew ever more bizarre and grandiose — he bestowed absurd titles upon himself and made erratic, attention-seeking pronouncements that drew international ridicule even as Ugandans suffered.
His downfall came after he invaded neighboring Tanzania in 1978. The Tanzanian army, joined by Ugandan exiles, counterattacked and drove him from power in 1979. Amin fled into exile, living out his days in Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003, never having faced justice for his crimes.