Yusuf Gowon

Yusuf Gowon (born Yusuf Mogi; 1936 – 2 February 2024) was a Ugandan military officer who served as chief of staff for the Uganda Army during the dictatorship of Idi Amin.

Originally a farmer, Gowon quickly rose in the ranks of the military due to a combination of happenstance and his skills in politics.

Compared with other high-ranking officials of Amin's regime, he was regarded as humane; nevertheless, he was probably involved in some political murders.

His appointment as chief of staff was mostly owed to the fact that he was regarded by President Amin as loyal, not ambitious, and of no threat to his own rule.

Gowon was born as Yusuf Mogi in Ladonga, a village in the West Nile Province of the British Uganda Protectorate in 1936.

His father Ibrahim was born a Catholic Christian and an ethnic Kakwa, but converted to Islam and adopted a Nubian identity; as a result, Gowon's cheeks were cut with three marks after his birth, signalling him belonging to the Nubians.

Though his family was not wealthy, his father was a clan chieftain and owned some farmland.

In his youth, Yusuf would help out on his family's farm by looking after its fields, goats and cows.

Occasionally, he went hunting with bows and arrows.

Ibrahim could only afford to send one of his children to an Islamic primary school in the provincial capital of Arua; he chose Yusuf.

To pay for his son's education, he sold some of his cattle to the disapproval of other clan elders who reminded Ibrahim that the West Nile region was too poor to offer any employment for educated men.

Sending Yusuf to school was regarded as wasted money.

Yusuf wanted to go to school, however, and convinced his father to pay a few years of tuition.

In Arua, Yusuf stayed at the house of a family friend, working on the fields and helping in the household to earn his keep.

Arua served as center for the British colonial troops, the King's African Rifles, and many of Yusuf's classmates adored the military.

He was an exception in this regard, and showed no interest in military matters at all.

His classmates regarded him as sociable prankster who would entertain others with jokes and songs.

Yusuf was known for dressing fashionably, thereby earning the nickname "Goan".

This was a reference to the city of Goa in India, as the region's best tailors were Indians.

Having taken a great liking for the nickname, he eventually adopted it with slight changes as his official last name.

The West Nile Province was a poor region, and offered few occupation opportunities for young men.

As a result, most of Gowon's friends joined the King's African Rifles when they finished primary school.

In contrast, he opted to attend the junior high school, and subsequently an agricultural college.

There, Gowon learned how to drive a tractor, and used his new skills to set up his own farm.

The country had become independent in 1962, and the Ugandan King's African Rifles units had been transformed into the Uganda Army.

This endeavor yielded little monetary gains, so Gowon decided to switch to working on a prison farm producing cotton in 1964.

He enjoyed the work, and a British overseer taught him to repair the farm's machinery.

Gowon later described this time as the happiest of his life.

Gowon left the prisons service in 1968, and enlisted in the military.

This decision partially stemmed from the changed political situation in Uganda.

Gowon's lack of talent for tactics and strategy came to the fore when the Uganda–Tanzania War broke out in 1978, and his leadership of the Uganda Army during this conflict was extensively criticised.

Many of his comrades and subordinates even blamed him for Uganda's defeat in the conflict with Tanzania.

When Amin's regime began collapsing in 1979 and his own soldiers intended to murder him, Gowon fled Uganda.

Gowon subsequently settled in Zaire where he worked as businessman.

Unlike many of his former comrades, Gowon did not join any insurgent group during his exile.

When the new Ugandan government of Yoweri Museveni offered him to return to his home country in 1994, he accepted and founded a nonprofit organization to help ex-combatants to find civilian jobs.

He also became head of a veterans association.

In 2001, Gowon was arrested and tried for the suspected involvement in the murder of Eliphaz Laki during Amin's rule.

The trial generated much publicity and was controversial, as some regarded it as important chance to finally address the crimes of Amin's dictatorship, while others claimed that it was politically motivated.

Gowon denied any involvement in Laki's murder, and was acquitted due to lack of evidence in 2003.