The Princess and Idi Amin

I was wondering what had become of Princess Elizabeth of Toro or as she apparently calls herself now, Elizabeth Bagaaya.

After returning from the Peace Corps in Botswana, Africa in the early 1990s I happened upon her autobiography entitled Elizabeth of Toro: Odyssey of an African Princess which was published by Simon and Shuster in 1989 and is now out of print. Odyssey of an African Princesss was an engrossing read. I was going through my “African Days” then, always hunting down and on the lookout for materials on the continent, its history and people. Also I was then as now greatly interested in royalty. During that time Diana, Prince of Wales was still in her heyday and dazzling the world. How exciting it was to find a book written by a black African of royal blood.

I had heard about Princess Elizabeth of Toro years ago when I was in middle and high school through Ebony and Jet magazines, so when I found her autobiography at a discount book sale, I was so excited that I purchased four volumes for myself and some friends. Happily for me, I have found out recently that Princess Elizabeth of Toro is still around.

Princess Elizabeth of Toro was born around 1936 to King George Rukidi III and his wife Queen Kezia in the kingdom of Toro in Uganda. Princess Elizabeth is a highly accomplished individual. She is not only a princess, but her resume includes the titles of lawyer, diplomat, politician, fashion model, and actress. Her time as a fashion model and actress catapulted her to the international stage and proved that it is possible for models to have beauty as well as brains.

Princess Elizabeth of Toro completed her high school education in England. She was the only black student at her school. She had to learn to deal with being physically and culturally different from her white aristocratic classmates. The princess wrote of the experience, "I felt that I was on trial and that my failure to excel would reflect badly on the entire black race." She was accepted into Cambridge University where she became the third black woman to attend the university at the time. There she studied law, history, and political science.

The year I was born, 1962, Princess Elizabeth graduated from Cambridge with a degree in law. She returned to Uganda in the hope of practicing law after studying for three more years in London and becoming qualified as a barrister. Her father had died, so she was there to be by her brother’s side as he took on the mantle of being the new king of Toro. She became one of her brother’s most trusted advisers.

The always studious princess went on to become Uganda’s first female lawyer. But trouble was on the horizon for the monarchies of Uganda. Milton Obote who had become president abolished all of the country’s monarchies. During this time of political unrest and uncertainty, Princess Elizabeth decided to take up an offer given to her by Princess Margaret of England and her husband Lord Snowdon to come to London and model in a fashion show, the proceeds of which would go to charity. Princess Elizabeth saw the opportunity as not only a means to escape her troubled country, but as a way to put Uganda and Africa on the map in a positive way. This move would to lead to a career as an international fashion model.

During her career as a model and an actress, Princess Elizabeth would be labeled as one of the most beautiful women in the world appearing in such magazines as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In fact, she was the first black woman to appear on the cover of a high fashion magazine, Harper's Bazaar. She even got the attention of Jackie Kennedy, who helped her get to these shores to expand her modeling career. Her career lasted from 1967 to 1970, and resumed for a short time in 1984. She even appeared in a couple of films with African themes.

New adventures outside of modeling were about to begin for the princess. After Milton Obote was overthrown in a military coup by Idi Amin, Princess Elizabeth was able to return to her country. There she became a roving ambassador under the dictator. In the beginning she like many Ugandans was hopeful about Amin’s intensions. The princess only wanted to help and do what she felt was best for her country.

As time went on, Amin began to show a repressive side to his policies. He declared what he called an “economic war” in 1972 which led to the expulsion of 50,000 members of the South Asian community of Uganda. Amin severed strong ties he had with Israel and took on Muammar Qaddafi of Libya as his friend and mentor. In her autobiography Princess Elizabeth tells about how her boss Idi Amin cautioned her to keep a low profile before a visit by Qaddafi. The reason was because Qaddafi was highly religious, and Amin felt it might be offensive to the Libyan strongman if the princess, a woman, made herself too visible by asserting her opinions. Along with the expulsions of the South Asians, cozying up to Qaddafi, and human rights abuses against his own people, Idi Amin became an international pariah. Princess Elizabeth did not like what was happening, but she continued to do the best she could with her position. She was given the post of foreign minister after the previous one was murdered at the instigation of Amin.

Showing excellent skills as a diplomat, the princess’s finesse led to Arab countries giving aid to Uganda. She tried to rehabilitate her country’s image internationally and encouraged heads of state to visit Uganda. Also she tried to do what she could to have the South Asians who were expelled be compensated.

Princess Elizabeth’s good efforts, however, were to be her downfall. Idi Amin’s behavior was coming more and more unpredictable. He began to eye the princess with a mixture of envy and love. An eloquent speech she gave at the United Nations in 1974 was more in defense of Africa and Uganda in general than Idi Amin. Amin did not like this, and her speech at the UN spelled the end for her. One of Amin’s wives, a very sweet and beautiful woman, had come up dead. Many believed that Amin had had his own wife murdered. Not long afterwards, the princess got a shock when he asked her to marry him. She refused him. This was the end of her career in Amin’s government, and he was about to see that it be the end of her reputation as well. Amin had another brand of murder in store for the princess, character assassination.

Princess Elizabeth fled Uganda, but Amin’s poison was about to follow her. He came up with a gross lie that would appear in newspapers and magazines worldwide. The princess was said to have been dismissed from her job because she had had sex with a white man in a restroom in Orly airport in Paris. Princess Elizabeth sued publications in England, France, Italy, and Germany for their printing of the story and won her case.

The odyssey of Princess Elizabeth would continue. She would remain in exile for a time traveling to Europe and America. She married a gentleman of royal Ugandan background like herself. He was a pilot, Prince Wilberforce Nyabongo. He would be the love of her life, and die tragically at age 32 in a plane crash. Princess Elizabeth and her husband did their part in helping Yoweri Museveni become president of Uganda. Under Museveni the princess to her country and became Ugandan ambassador to the US. She used her influence to try to educate the American public about Uganda and Africa in general, appearing even on the American TV news magazine 60 Minutes.

Princess Elizabeth never remarried nor did she have any children. She is the guardian of her brother’s son. She is involved in charities and is once again a public servant as Uganda’s Ambassador to Germany. This is the princess in Germany in 2006.
In ending, if you are fascinated with royalty as I am check out Cinderella’s World of Royalty Blog and The Royal Forums. Cinderella also has a social network for those who love to watch royalty past and present. It is World of Royalty Network.

I love, with a capital “L” royalty. For me, it may be metaphorically speaking “genetic” or perhaps more accurately, ancestral. There is a possibility that a tiny percentage of the African slaves that were brought to America were of noble birth. Two cases in point are that of Prince Ab-dul Rahman Ibrahima Ibn Sori who was from what is now Guinea in West Africa and Cinque whose story was not very well done in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 Amistad.

When I was in Peace Corps in Botswana, some of the Africans told me that I looked like I was a member of a tribe in Ghana that is royalty. Perhaps this was only their way of complimenting me. All I know is that I have had a fascination with royalty most of my life. Whether we like it or not, we all have connections to history. History influences the world and still matters even today. Having lived abroad and known a great number of people from other countries, I have noticed that history is valued more in many places than it is in America. Some of the Europeans, that I’ve met and became close to have been extremely forthright on how they feel about America saying it is promoting democracy and human rights but at the same time ignoring its’ own less than savory history. As for myself, whether I am a descendant of African royalty or not, I would love the luxury of knowing from whence my ancestors came in Africa.

I heard on television a few months ago the tail end of a report on a project that may eventually allow African-Americans who are interested to find out about their African origins. DNA will be used as it has been done with a South African tribe, the Lemba, who are actually descendants of Jews who left the Middle East centuries ago to determine where a person's African ancestors are from. This is a very important development for me. I hope this project is developed and is affordable to everyone who wants it. To me, this is just as important as the recent formal apology the federal government gave for slavery.

More photos of Princess Elizabeth of Toro and her family can be seen here.