Apollo Milton Obote died last week in South Africa at the age of (about) eighty. He’s not very well known internationally because when it comes to African countries, people in the West generally only have available memory space for one name per nation. In Uganda’s case, that position was permanently taken out of competition during the 1970s.

In fact, nobody would have ever heard of Amin if Obote, leader of Uganda both before and after the well-known monster, had not appointed the practically illiterate sergeant as the commander of his army in the sixties. Idi was considered a safe choice: he would never have the ability or the ambition to threaten the president’s position. Even after the coup in 1971, people were optimistic that things are going to be good. Amin would not try to stay in power. Why would he?

Obote was the de facto leader of the country from 1962 (independence) to 1971, spent the seventies in exile in Tanzania, ruled again from 1980 to 1985 after a rigged election, then suffered another military coup, and went into exile again, living the rest of his days in Zambia. In many ways, his life history equals the history of this country. Most experts think he did a decent job negotiating the complicated ethnic divides in the beginning of his first term in power. Then, threatened by mounting unrest, he became more and more dictatorial. The military grew too powerful in his control, then got out of control and toppled him twice. It’s still way too powerful after having been consistently fed by the conflict in the north for twenty years under Yoweri Museveni’s rule. If anything jeopardizes free and fair elections next year, it’s the bloated and frustrated military. In that sense, Obote created both independent Uganda and the monster that can be seen to threaten its democracy.

In his last years of presidency, the man was just like any other African dictator, staying in power the best he could. Some sources say his forces killed hundreds of thousands of civilians while fighting Museveni’s guerrillas in the now infamous Luweero triangle. In comparison with Amin, though, he was a boring little fella: no outrageous excesses in personal lifestyle, no background in boxing, no bizarre gloating, no stories of cannibalism, no sensational bulk necessary for legend.

But what a poetic name he had! Apollo Milton. God of poetry (music, prophecy, medicine) combined with the creator of Paradise Lost! Vision combined with literal blindness. Very descriptive, in a retrospective way.

As I write this, his body has arrived in Kampala. It’s going to tour the country for about a week before they bury it in his home village. 09:18