president Mobutu Sese Seko changed the names of Lake Albert and Lake Edward to Lake Mobutu Sese Seko and Lake Idi Amin Dada, respectively.
Amin became the subject of rumours and myths, including a widespread belief that he was a cannibal. Some of the unsubstantiated rumours, such as the mutilation of one of his wives, were spread and popularised by the 1980 film Rise and Fall of Idi Amin and alluded to in the film The Last King of Scotland in 2006.
During Amin’s reign, popular media outside of Uganda often portrayed him as an essentially comic figure. In a 1977 assessment typical of the time, a Time magazine article described him as a “killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet”. For focusing on Amin’s excessive tastes and self-aggrandizing eccentricities, the foreign media was often criticized for downplaying or excusing his murderous