Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

The next morning, Garrigan has breakfast at the hotel, and notices that all of the waiters are crowding around a radio. The broadcast is about the coup, and it explains that the Uganda Armed Forces have taken power from President Obote and given it to Major-General Idi Amin Dada. There is a warning to foreign governments not to interfere with the coup.

Garrigan is fearful, and he goes out onto the balcony to look at what is going on in the street. He sees only small clusters of people, but as he watches, the street becomes crowded, and military vehicles (complete with machine guns) appear. The people cheer Idi Amin, and teenage girls give flower garlands to the soldiers. Obote posters are ripped down, and young men carry around effigies of Obote that are burned or smashed. Garrigan finds it more...