Slow Poison

An extraordinary work of postcolonial history. – Howard W. French * The Nation *Mamdani’s love for his home country is unwavering even as he delivers blistering critiques of both Amin and Museveni. He minces few words describing what caused Uganda’s unraveling: tribalized politics, the corrupt privatization of state assets, and mass political violence. The book is at its most compelling when Mamdani tells his own story, mixing pathos and humor in equal parts. – Zachariah Mampilly * Foreign Affairs *Mamdani tells the story of his family’s exile—and his own eventual return—in hopes of complicating our view of Amin, and of Ugandan politics. Mamdani is less interested in the jubilation of independence than in the turmoil that followed. Africa’s transformation proved far bloodier than many had hoped, yet Mamdani still insists that the continent’s independence leaders have something to teach the world. – Kelefa Sanneh * New Yorker *Through a blend of memoir and scholarly analysis, [Mamdani] narrates the story of Amin’s rise and fall, and the long reign of Uganda’s current leader, Yoweri Museveni…the author hits his stride with his blend of historical analysis and personal recollection; his understanding of the period from both perspectives makes for propulsive reading. – Bronwen Everill * Times Literary Supplement *A personal account of Uganda’s last half century, covering both Amin and the autocrats who followed him…depict[s] Amin not as the buffoon that many remember but as a savvy political operator who knew what people wanted and what they feared. – Samuel Fury Childs Daly * Los Angeles Review of Books *A fascinating memoir. – Howard French * Foreign Policy *The book is informed by a hardheaded recognition that nation-building is often an ugly business, and that Amin’s crimes should be evaluated in that context. – Geoff Shullenberger * Compact Magazine *For half a century, Mahmood Mamdani has been one of the world’s most influential and incisive analysts of African and Global South politics. Slow Poison reveals why. Combining history, political critique, and memoir, the book offers a riveting account of the consequences of state-directed violence, ‘tribalization,’ and neoliberal privatization, as well as the various Western entanglements, upending a litany of myths surrounding Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and modern Uganda. Mamdani makes for a compelling witness. Brilliant! – Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary TimesMahmood Mamdani is one of the most acute and resourceful observers of our world, but Slow Poison is exceptionally lavish in its offer of bracing insight and eye-opening exposition. Rarely has any one book captured the profound ambiguity of decolonization: the scrambled pursuit of national freedom, the tortuous negotiations and compromises behind declarations of sovereignty, and the sheer slipperiness of postcolonial power. – Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After GazaMahmood Mamdani is an author of much originality, and his latest book, Slow Poison, is an obvious testimony to his well-rounded brilliance. – Nuruddin Farah, author of From a Crooked RibOne isn’t always the master of one’s destiny, but for Mahmood Mamdani, remaining a spectator is not a valid option. Written like a novel, this book retraces the steps in the construction of the Ugandan nation, with the relevant critical stakes but above all reckoning with a long administered ‘slow poison.’ – In Koli Jean Bofane, author of Congo Inc.

Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. He was Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala from 2010 to 2022. His books include Neither Settler nor Native, Citizen and Subject, When Victims Become Killers, and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.

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