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Alicia C. Decker , In Idi Amin's Shadow: women, gender, and militarism in Uganda . Athens OH : Ohio University Press (hb US$80 - 978 0 8214 2117 8 ; pb US$32.95 - 978 0 8214 2118 5 ). 2014, xvii + 256 pp.
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Idi Amin's fearsome regime is popularly known yet academically under-studied. While most accounts of the presidency of the Ugandan dictator focus on his erratic behaviour and the politics of his administration, Alicia C. Decker reframes his eight-year regime around the role of gendered ideologies and the experiences of Ugandan women. Decker argues that Amin deployed gendered rhetoric and militarized action strategically 'to consolidate political hegemony and maintain a certain performance of power' (p. 93). Rather than a deranged madman, Decker presents Amin as a savvy showman who used gendered discourse to elicit fear and respect, claim legitimacy on the international stage, and humiliate his opponents. However, Amin is not the only agent in this book. Decker shows Ugandan women as multifaceted and multiply situated, courageous actors who strategically navigated increasingly dangerous circumstances.
Each chapter begins with a vignette about a different woman living in Amin's Uganda to presage the key themes of the subsequent section. After introducing the topic and the broad strokes of Amin's rise to power in the introduction, Decker focuses on different manifestations of gender in the Amin administration. We learn...