Idi Amin got his start in the British colonial army under the King’s African Rifles (KAR). There he quickly rose through the ranks. He was deployed to Somalia to fight the Shifta rebels and later fought with the British during the suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya. During his time in the army, Amin became the light heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, a title he held for nine years. After more than 70 years under British rule, Uganda gained its independence on October 9, 1962, and Milton Obote became the nation’s first prime minister. Obote ordered Amin’s arrest while en route to Singapore for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. During his absence, Amin took the offensive and staged a coup on January 25, 1971, seizing control of the government and forcing Obote into exile. From there Amin began mass executions upon the Acholi and Lango, a group he perceived as a threat for their loyalty to Obote. Then h expelled Uganda’s Asian population, which numbered between 50,000 and 70,000, resulting in a collapse of the economy as manufacturing, agriculture and commerce. Throughout his rule, Amin was estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of roughly 300,000 civilians. Amin was forced to flee over time, after the number of Amin’s intimate allies dwindled and former loyal troops began to turn on him. He originally sought refuge in Libya, then later moved to Saudi Arabia, where he lived comfortably until his death of multiple organ failure in 2003.
Black History 365 | #35 Iddris Sandu
Iddris Sandu is the programmer and engineer responsible for writing and selling an algorithm to Instagram that filtered key sites or activities by user location to identify their possible interests, but the program has since been revised. He also coded for Snapchat, Twitter, and developed an interface that detects where a driver’s hands were in a car for Uber collisions. He is also the kind behind the late and great Nipsey Hussle’s tech-smart The Marathon Store. Early in 2023, it was reported that his company Spatial Labs (sLABS) acquired $10 Million seed in funding. He was quoted as saying this to Ebony magazine:
“With the brutal killing of George Floyd, there was roughly around $1.2 billion in funding that was available for founders of color and ever since then, it’s dropped by 30% every year,. We’re at a stage now where $120,000,000 has been allocated within the last year. If that is the case, then Spatial Labs raised 10% of total funding that was allocated to Black founders—that’s a problem. The reality is that although raising a total of $14 million puts us in a position that no founder under 30, even being a person of color under 30, my concern with that is we should technically be able to raise more because we’ve been held back so much. There is so much gatekeeping of information that can actually create much more equity across various industries. With the continued mission of Spatial Labs and an investment of this magnitude, we’re paving the way for younger people to know that they can be in these spaces as well.” Props to Iddris Sandu and his many contributions in this space.
Black History 365 | # 34 - The Bandung (Asian-African) Conference in 1955
In April 1955, representatives from twenty-nine governments of Asian and African nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development, and decolonization. The governments of Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka co-sponsored the Bandung Conference and brought together an additional twenty-four nations from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. At the end of the conference all nations in attendance signed a statement that included the promotion of economic and cultural cooperation, protection of human rights, the principle of self-determination, a call for an end to racial discrimination wherever it occurred, and five principles of peaceful coexistence. The US Government expressed concern that the meeting was a sign of a negative shift in the ideological leanings of the newly independent nations of Africa and Asia. US leaders were worried that the anti-colonialism of Bandung and the discussion of global racial politics taking place could turn anti-American or anti-Western. US allies and Asia were able to represent their shared interests with the United States in conference meetings.
Black History 365 | # 36 - Dr. Patricia Bath
Timelapse of digital painting
“I was not seeking to be the first, I was only attempting to do my thing,” are the words Dr. Bath uses to describe her history…well at least what her mindframe was while in the thick of it. She is the inventor of cataract laser eye surgery while working for the company Laserphaco. This discovery is widely credited as Laserphaco eye surgery. You’ll find that companies like to put their names on things. It’s all business. Now, upon explaining to the director what she achieved, she was met with a “You didn’t do that, that’s impossible.” She was met with anger, and not acceptance from her scientific breakthrough. Now the company that has been most successful doing laser eye surgery is the company LASIK. Dr. Bath conceived the laser eye device in 1981. If you search for the inventor of laser eye surgery, you’ll find that the LASIK company will credit Gholam A. Peyman as the inventor of LASIK eye surgery, which is in fact, laser eye surgery. And he got his patent for his version after Dr. Bath’s discovery in 1989. Thank you Dr. Bath.
Black History 365 | # 26 - Alice Dunnigan
Have you heard of Alice Allison Dunnigan? She was the first Black woman to cover the White House. Dunnigan was one of three African Americans and one of two women in the press corps that covered the campaign of President Harry S. Truman. During her years of covering the White House, she frequently asked questions regarding the burgeoning civil rights movement and the plight of black America. She was the first Black woman to be a member of the House and Senate Press Galleries. In 1953 Dunnigan was barred from covering a speech given by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a whites-only theater and was made to sit with the servants to cover Ohio’s Senator Robert A. Taft’s funeral. History shows that society will remind people of their “place” in the societal structure regardless of their accomplishments, education, wealth, etc. ESPECIALLY if they stand for something.