While several events in 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of a major expulsion of a vulnerable minority in post-independence Africa, very little is written about the root causes that led to this tragic event.
The From East to West project, founded by Fiyaz Mughal, an expellee who arrived in the UK aged one, aims to capture those aspects that are not the stock in trade of normal refugee stories, which focus on “we came (penniless), we struggled (they all helped us), we succeeded (everything was okay)”.
Mughal says, “There are stories of pain, of trauma, and of those moments where we saw racism in the face and had to grapple with it”.
In a special discussion moderated by contemporary African Indian Diasporic commentator, Dr Mohamed Keshavjee, the voices of three individuals from the UK and Canada helped provide a different perspective.
Each highlights their love for the country they call home. Indeed, all three come from families that accepted Ugandan citizenship at the first available opportunity. For them, there was no other home. Uganda was their home.
Senator Mobina Jaffer, whose father, Sherali Bundaly Jaffer, was an MP, said: “We lived with the African people. They became part of our everyday lives because my father helped set up institutions for them….”.
Senator Jaffer also spoke of the shock of the expulsion and said that even though “the whole atmosphere was changing… we didn’t get it. We didn’t think it would involve us because we were Ugandans”.
For Iqbal Asaria, who was aspiring to pursue a doctorate in his chosen field of economics, life changed suddenly and dramatically. “My father heard of my aspiration but responded. We have 17 members in the family. We will not live on handouts, and we will support everyone who wants to go for further education. I understood that I had to change course, and I went with the flow”.
For Amir Gulamhusein, there was the lingering fear that the Uganda government scholarship that he was a recipient of would be cancelled, but to his surprise, it continued until he finished his PhD, and yet the situation meant that he “was extremely worried, being a student in London, how am I going to support and look after my family who would be arriving in England?”
The participants also reflected on the expulsion 51 years later. For Jaffer, although it took time to come to terms with the aggression her family faced first-hand from Amin’s regime, she has always stated, “Many times people put Ugandans together, and I always tell people it’s not Ugandans who were like that, it was the dictator; we must never forget the good people of Uganda”.
For Gulamhusein, the expulsion and the subsequent path he took instilled in him “an ethos of behaviour and etiquette in trying to impress upon the local people that we are with you, we care for you, we will look after you, and we will actually allow you to flourish”.
Asaria noted the sadness that Amin cut short what was a developing relationship between Asians and indigenous Ugandans at the time:
“I don’t think that we could have done something different; we were second- and third-generation Indians in Uganda, and you could see change slowly coming. We had African friends; we had African schoolmates. I can see that one generation on, we would have been quite close together. I think it was a question of time.”
The participants also shared details of the difficulties and obstacles faced in resettling in new countries, such as racism, employment, and housing, but also noted that there were also kind people who helped along the way. As Asaria noted, “There are always good people around and you come across them”.
Bringing the session to a close, both Mughal and Mohamed Keshavjee provided some closing remarks about what the discussion highlighted. For Mughal, the discussion illustrates that for Ugandan Asians, “resilience is a key characteristic. They took whatever came to them and were ready to meet the challenge.”
While Keshavjee emphasised that Asian minorities in ex-colonial countries should study their own history and participate in writing it more equitable and fairly, so they are not written out of history and are aware of their own historical contribution.
Photo: An Asian family expelled from Uganda arrives at Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol, Netherlands on November 24, 1972.
(Credit: Bert Verhoeff/Wiki Commons)
Max Russel
