The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget

The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget is a valuable book, but it’s not the book it appears to be. Its long title, reminiscent of Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families—along with the subtitle “Murder and Memory in Uganda”—seems to prepare us for a violent and lurid tale.

If that’s what you’re expecting (and I admit that I was), you may be disappointed. But if you have the patience to sit still for an uncommonly well-informed and sensitively told story of Uganda’s recent history, from the perspective of some of its powerful figures and some of its victims, this book is just the thing.

At the center of the story is the murder of Eliphaz Laki, a local chief, by two men who took him away in his Volkswagen, brought him to an anthill at the edge of a remote ranch, and shot him in the back of the neck. In his efforts to uncover the murderers, Laki’s son discovers the involvement of Yusuf Gowon, Idi Amin’s chief of staff.

The murder itself, terrible as it is, was not so remarkable in the days of Amin’s rule. What Andrew Rice provides is an extraordinarily detailed and sensitive rendering of the social and political environment in which it took place, and the environment in which, years later, the case came to trial. Based on interviews with more than 100 people, The Teeth May Smile should not be missed by students of Uganda’s troubled political history.