The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland

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About the authorGiles Foden was born in England in 1967 but his family moved to Africa in 1972. He spent his early years there but returned to England at the age of 13 in order to attend public school. He later went on to study English at Cambridge University. After graduating, he worked as a journalist and then as an editor for the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. His first novel, The Last King of Scotland (1998), set in 1970s Uganda during the rule of Idi Amin, won several prizes and was made into a widely acclaimed film starring Forest Whitaker in 2006. His second novel Ladysmith (1999) is set during the Anglo-Boer war in 1899 and was inspired by letters written by his grandfather. Since then he has written various short stories and another novel Turbulence about military interest in meteorology during World War II.

SummaryChapters 1–2: Nicolas Garrigan works as a doctor in Uganda, near a town called Mbarara. One day the President, Idi Amin, has an accident nearby, and Garrigan is sent for. He examines Amin and they drink a beer together. Amin asks Garrigan to work for him but Garrigan refuses. A few months later he receives an invitation from the Minister of Health to become Idi Amin’s personal doctor. Two years previously, Garrigan had arrived in Uganda to start his first job after university. On his first day in the capital Kampala, he meets a South African pilot called Freddy Swanepoel who warns him that there is going to be political trouble. The next day there is a military coup and President Obote is replaced by Idi Amin. Garrigan goes to the British Embassy and a man called Nigel Stone tells him he should continue

with his plans to travel to Mbarara. On the bus he meets Bonney Malumba, a student who is going home to visit his family. On arriving in Mbarara he meets Doctor Merrit, who shows him around the health clinic. At first Garrigan is happy with his new job but soon there are many injured soldiers at the clinic. One of the other workers, Sara Zach, tells him that Obote’s rebels are hiding across the border in Rwanda and that Amin’s men are punishing the local people for helping them. Garrigan starts taking medicine to local villages with an African man named William Waziri. It is dangerous, and one evening Waziri points out one of the army officers involved in the repression, Major Mabuse. The Malumba family invites Garrigan to lunch and Bonney’s father tells Garrigan about how much hate there is for Idi Amin in that part of the country. Garrigan starts to feel sad. A few days later Garrigan and Sara go to see Amin make a speech in Mbarara. The crowd is very excited and Garrigan also feels the power of the President’s words.

Chapters 3–4: Garrigan and Sara become more friendly, but at the same time the political situation is getting worse. Local soldiers and two Americans are killed by Major Mabuse’s men. Later in the year Garrigan finds that his friend Bonney and his parents have been killed by Obote’s rebels. Sara starts to be more distant, there are fewer resources at the clinic and the news about Idi Amin is getting stranger. He sees a link between Uganda and Scotland, both of which have been oppressed by the British, and he thinks he can be the last King of the Scots. The Indian population of Uganda is expelled and Sara leaves Mbarara without saying goodbye. At this point Garrigan accepts the offer to become Amin’s personal doctor in Kampala. He moves there to a more luxurious lifestyle and begins work in a hospital. He sees nothing of Amin until one day he is called to treat his son. In reward, Amin gives Garrigan a car. Some time later Garrigan and another doctor are invited to one of Idi Amin’s houses. Amin brings up the topic of Ugandan and Scottish oppression by the British. He believes that the British businesses in Uganda should be attacked.

Chapters 5–6: Garrigan is called to the British Embassy and has an interview with Nigel Stone, Bob Perkins, the ambassador, and Major Weir. They ask Garrigan to help them to stop Amin from committing more atrocities. Some time later Garrigan is called to see Idi Amin, who is a little unwell, and he tries unsuccessfully to talk to

Giles Foden




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him about the mass killings. Time passes, there is a failed assassination attempt on Idi Amin’s life and he begins behaving in an increasingly crazy way. One night Garrigan is asked by Peter Mbalu-Mukasa, a doctor at the hospital, to perform an abortion on Kay Amin, one of Idi Amin’s wives. They have been having an affair and they are afraid that Idi will kill them. Garrigan refuses and Peter performs the abortion. Kay dies and he kills himself. Garrigan starts to feel very bad about everything. Then Nigel Stone shows him some very bloody photos. This time Stone states clearly that he wants Garrigan to kill Amin. He is offered £100,000 for it, but again he refuses.

Chapters 7–8: Stone and the rest of the people at the British Embassy are sent home. Then Garrigan’s notebook goes missing and he is called to see Idi Amin. Amin knows that Garrigan has been asked to kill him and he threatens him with a gun. He takes him through a secret passage and shows him cells where people are being tortured. William Waziri is there and Amin orders his soldiers to kill him. Garrigan is left overnight in a cell but the next morning Amin sends him home. Garrigan drives to the airport but it is closed. Palestinians have hijacked a plane from Tel Aviv. He goes home but later receives a call from Amin telling him to go back to the airport to examine the hostages. That night he gets a phone call from Sara, who is really an Israeli spy. He tells her about the situation at the airport but he refuses to speak to Amin about freeing the hostages. He is too afraid. One day, government officers take away his British passport and give him a Ugandan one instead. Escape is now impossible.

Chapters 9–10: Amin asks Garrigan to take a present of a lion’s head to the airport to give to Swanepoel. It turns out to be a bomb and his plane explodes. Then Amin’s army attack Tanzania and Garrigan receives news telling him that Bonney’s brother Gugu is sick. He goes on a very dangerous journey to Mbarara and finds himself in the middle of a battle with Tanzanian soldiers. Gugu is killed and a Tanzanian major takes Garrigan back to Kampala. On the way there is much fighting, but the Tanzanian army is stronger and defeats the Ugandan army. Later Garrigan finds himself outside Amin’s house, which is being looted. He enters and finds the secret passage. Amin is in one of the rooms talking to a decapitated head. He asks Garrigan to help him escape. Under Amin’s magical persuasive power, Garrigan agrees. He borrows

a car and drives to the point where he has arranged to meet Amin. After waiting an hour he takes a boat and sails across the lake alone to Kenya. There he is taken to a prison in Nairobi and they threaten to send him back to Uganda for questioning by the new government. They eventually put him on a plane to London, however, and he meets Nigel Stone again. Stone says he can keep the £100,000 if he promises not to talk about British government activities in Uganda. Some time later Garrigan is happily and safe at home in Scotland when he receives a phone call from Amin in Saudi Arabia. He wants some help but Garrigan is too busy with his garden. There will be no more adventures for him.

Background and themes

Despotism and oppression: Idi Amin’s eight year rule was a bloody one marked by massive human rights abuses, ethnic persecution, political repression and corruption. Although the exact number of people killed is unknown, Amnesty International estimates it to be around 500,000.

Madness: Idi Amin behaved and thought in an increasingly erratic way. This is epitomised by his Scottish tendencies and the way in which he communicated with other foreign leaders. He is also rumoured to have been a cannibal.

Ethics: Garrigan constantly struggles with his moral position throughout the book. Although he is just an ordinary doctor, can he ethically take on the role of innocent bystander or is this sheer cowardice and complicity with Amin? Should he actively fight against this tyrant?

Discussion activities

Before reading1 Pair work: Write KING and SCOTLAND on the

board and give students two minutes to write a list of words that can be associated with either. Ask the pair with the longest list to read out the words and write them on the board. Allow other pairs to contribute extra words. Then ask students in pairs to talk about how these words are related. Get feedback and ask the students to consider the following question: If this book is about Uganda, why is it called The Last King of Scotland? Get feedback.

2 Research: Ask students to find out five facts about Uganda using the Internet. Then put them in small groups to share the information.




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Chapters 1–2While reading (at the end of Chapter 1)3 Pair work: Ask students to discuss the advantages and

disadvantages of being Idi Amin’s personal doctor as opposed to staying in Mbarara. Get feedback, writing the ideas on the board and then have a class vote about whether Garrigan should accept the job or not.

After reading4 Write: Tell the students to write a letter from

Garrigan to a friend in Scotland. It is his first day in Mbarara. Tell them to include information about some of the following: his journey to Kenya, meeting Swanepoel, the political situation, going to the Embassy, the bus journey and arriving in Mbarara. Tell them to write in the first person and describe their feelings and emotions.

5 Discuss: Put students in groups to discuss the following questions: Why were white people in Kenya in the past? Do you think they did good things or bad things there? Is it right for Amin to throw them out of the country? In which other countries has a similar thing happened?

Chapters 3–4After reading6 Pair work: Put the students in pairs to answer the

following questions: 1) Why were the two American journalists killed? 2) Why were Mr and Mrs Malumba killed? 3) Why did Gugu not speak when he stayed with Nicolas and Sara? 4) Why did Sara start to get angry and then leave without saying goodbye? 5) Why didn’t William Waziri come back from holiday? 6) Why is Marina Perkins bored in Kampala? 7) Why did Amin give Garrigan a car?

7 Game: Ask the students: What does Idi Amin want to talk about with Garrigan and Paterson? (British business) What does Paterson want to talk about? (seat belts). Now explain they are going to play a conversation game. Write the following topics on the board: HOBBIES, SPORTS, HOLIDAYS, FAMILY, FRIENDS, HOME, JOB, STUDIES, FILMS, BOOKS, etc. Put them in groups and tell one student they have to choose a topic and talk about it for three minutes but they are not allowed to say Yes or No. The other members of the group ask questions to try to make the speaker say Yes or No. Then another person chooses a topic and the game begins again. The winner is the person who speaks for longest without saying Yes or No.

Chapters 5–6After reading8 Write: Write ‘The Craziest man in Africa’ on the

board and remind students that this was the headline about Idi Amin in a newspaper. Tell them to write an article with this heading using information from the book, from the Internet and their own imagination.

9 Discuss: Put students in small groups to discuss the following questions: Did Garrigan make the right decision about a) not doing the abortion? b) not killing Amin? What other important decisions do doctors have to make as part of their jobs? How can they decide what is right and what is wrong?

Chapters 7–8While reading (at the end of Chapter 7)10 Write and role play: Refer students back to the

penultimate paragraph of chapter 8 when Amin and Garrigan are having breakfast. Put them in pairs to write 5 questions they think that Amin might have asked Garrigan. Check their work as they are doing this. Then rearrange the pairs and have one person take on the role of Garrigan and the other take on the role of Amin. Amin asks Garrigan the questions that were prepared previously and Garrigan has to answer carefully. Then get them to switch roles.

After reading11 Write, ask and answer: Write ‘Who did Amin want

to visit in London?’ on the board and elicit the answer (the Queen). Ask students to write another question about something in Chapters 7–8. Check their work as they do this. Now have students stand up and mingle, asking and answering each other’s questions.

Chapters 9–10While reading (page 41, after ‘It was surprisingly heavy.’)12 Guess: Ask the students to guess the answer to the

following question in pairs: Why does Amin want to give a present to Swanepoel? What is it? Get feedback from the class.

13 Discuss (at the end of Chapter 9): Ask students to discuss whether they think that Garrigan made the right decision when he said he would help Amin. Get feedback.

After reading14 Write and guess: Write the names of the following

characters on the board: AMIN, GARRIGAN, SARA, STONE, SWANEPOEL. Put the students in small groups and tell them to choose one character each. Then ask them to write three sentences about that character, two which are true and one which is false. Students then read their sentences out to the other members of the group who have to guess which are false.

15 Discuss: Put students in groups to discuss the following questions: Do you prefer to have adventures or a quiet life? Would you like to go and live in a country like Uganda? What would you do there? Would you leave your job for a year and do something completely different? What would you do?

Documents

The Last King of Scotland