In 1972, the population of Uganda was approximately 9 million people. The latest census in Uganda (2002) tells us that today Uganda is home to about 25 million people.

In many important ways the Africans of Uganda suffered the most under Idi Amin. While the expelled Asians were beginning a new life in the Occident they were stuck with the erratic, vengeful and inexorably destructive policies of Idi Amin. In a very short time he reduced a once proud people and a naturally fertile and rich country to poverty and a standard of living they had never experienced before.

The economy was destroyed in a matter of months leading to widespread barter as a means of exchange. A medical service, once the pride of Uganda - with Makerere University Medical School, Mulago teaching hospital, research into Tropical Disease and Medicine and regional hospitals - also collapsed. It took a little longer for the educational systems to collapse – the university, colleges and schools slowly ground to a halt. Without a functioning Ministry of Education, teacher training, a national syllabus, unpaid teachers at all levels and an absence of material resources parents had to resort to organising themselves in small localised groups and resort to personal initiative to arrange some from of education for their children. Many Uganda Africans, particularly what was left of the fledgling educated middle class, fled to other African countries or to the Occident and a good proportion never returned.

In 1985 after a succession of unstable and unsuccessful stop-gap governments Yoweri Museveni came to power and the long task of rehabilitating an entire country started. Under his leadership the scars of 13 years of suffering have begun to fade and once again Uganda is challenged with having to live up to its potential and compete within East Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond for growth and prosperity.