The early life and experiences of Idi Amin
Idi Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire. Nyabire, a member of the Kakwa ethnic group that converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada in which he named his first-born son after himself. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Idi Amin grew up with his mother's family in a rural farming town in northwestern Uganda.
Amin's mother was called Assa Aatte, an ethnic Lugbara and a traditional herbalist who treated members of Buganda royalty, among others.
Amin joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941. After a few years, he left school with nothing more than a fourth grade English-language education and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer. Amin was also an accomplished sportsman, holding Uganda's light heavyweight boxing championship from 1951 to 1960.
Amin joined the British Colonial Army in 1946 as an assistant cook. He claimed he was forced to join the Army during World War II and that he served in the Burma Campaign, but records indicate he was first enlisted after the war was concluded. He was transferred to Kenya for infantry service as a private in 1947 and served in the 21st KAR infantry battalion in Gilgil, Kenya until 1949. That year, his unit was deployed to Somalia to fight the Somali Shifta rebels. In 1952 his brigade was deployed against the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya. He was promoted to corporal the same year, then to sergeant in 1953.
In 1959 Amin was made Afande (warrant officer), the highest rank possible for an African in the colonial British Army of that time. Amin returned to Uganda the same year. In 1961 he was promoted to lieutenant, becoming one of the first two Ugandans to become commissioned officers.