By Celani Sikhakhane
- Princess Elizabeth Bagaaya of Toro condemned apartheid at the UN General Assembly in 1974, while serving as Foreign Minister under Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
- Her speech has resurfaced on social media this week, as she mourns the death of her relative, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the world’s youngest reigning monarch.
Princess Elizabeth Bagaaya of the Toro Kingdom in Uganda has resurfaced in South African conversation this week, after a speech she delivered condemning apartheid at the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 was widely shared on social media.
Bagaaya, now 91, is best known to many as a fashion icon and film actress, the first Black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue, and an actress in films including Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. Fewer know she also served as Uganda’s Foreign Minister, briefly, from February to November 1974, under dictator Idi Amin, whose regime is documented to have killed hundreds of thousands of Ugandans through purges, torture and ethnic expulsions during his rule.
It was in that official capacity, leading the Ugandan delegation to the UN’s 29th General Assembly session in New York, that Bagaaya condemned South Africa’s apartheid government under Prime Minister John Vorster, describing it as a policy “completely contrary to any civilised and humanitarian principles” that made “a mockery of African dignity and independence.”
Her remarks came the same year the UN General Assembly voted to suspend apartheid South Africa’s participation, and later recommended its exclusion from international organisations altogether.
The resurfaced speech has prompted many South Africans to reassess Bagaaya beyond her image as a royal socialite and public figure. But her tenure as Amin’s Foreign Minister remains a genuinely contested part of her legacy. During that same period, she publicly defended controversial regime policies, including Amin’s 1972 expulsion of around 50,000 Ugandans of Asian descent, many of whom held British passports.
Bagaaya is currently mourning the death of her relative, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV of Toro, who died recently and was recognised as the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne at the age of three in 1995.
Pictured above: Princess Elizabeth Bagaaya of Toro, Uganda, who once called for South Africa’s expulsion from the United Nations over apartheid.
Image source: Uganda History Archives
