Maybe there is a change afoot for Africa. A news item this past week announced: “Billionaire offers $5 million to Africa’s best leader.” Egyptian-born Mo Ibrahim, who made his fortune in cell-phones, intends to “remove corruption and improve governance” by assessing all 53 African countries every year. The prize will go to the best leader in terms of public works and clean government, but only after the leader steps down in proper constitutional continuity. He or she will get $5 million over ten years and $225,000 per year after that. In other words, you can win your opulent retirement by ruling well; you don’t have to plunder your nation.

I’m not sure that such a prize would have changed Idi Amin. As The Last King of Scotland demonstrates, dictatorship for him seemed to require not only the usual willingness to kill, but also personal participation in deadly fun. It might work with Amin’s successor, Yoweri Museveni, who was all right for a while but recently gave $3,000 to each member of parliament to get a vote on altering the constitution so he could stay in power. A five million dollar prize might cause him to weigh his options. Idi Amin’s part in The Last King of Scotland is comedy; he’s just an ebullient killer. The haunting quality of the film comes through the young protagonist from Scotland. His innocence is tragedy. He represents all our weaknesses: our vague “do goodism,” our fascination with luxury and power, and the temptation to get on the inside of it, until it is so scary you plead to get away. It is a classic Everyman situation. The film is a great pilgrim’s progress, as ironic as its title.