Nakasero Hindu Temple, downtown Kampala
In my early childhood, I had a babysitter named Shantaben Patel, an Indian grandmother who would come over every day to take care of me as my parents worked fulltime. It wasn’t until I grew older that I learned that Shantaben was originally from Africa, a refugee from President Idi Amin’s Uganda. She lived in Kitgum, a small town near the border of South Sudan, before escaping with her family. Hers was one of the tens of thousands of Indian families who migrated to Africa en masse from the late 1800s onwards when a craze for East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika colonies) enveloped Indians searching for greener pastures on the other side of the ocean. Once settled, the Indians quickly became the merchant class, eventually controlling large proportions of the local economies.
When Amin took power via coup in 1971, he was a welcome change from the increasingly autocratic, corrupt second president, Milton Obote. But, it was only a matter of months before Amin began to imprison and kill those who were a direct threat to him, including those in his cabinet as well as civil servants. Eventually, regular citizens who aroused any suspicion were imprisoned or done away with. Almost exactly 39 years ago, Amin claimed to have a dream in which he was told to grab the nation’s wealth for natives. “No country can tolerate the economy of a nation being so much in the hands of non-citizens,” he stated. He proceeded to give Indians 90 days to leave everything behind, pack one suitcase, and leave the country.
Old Sikh temple, downtown Kampala
Because Uganda was a British colony prior to independence, most Indians held UK citizenship. But a few days later, he said that he wanted all Indians out, regardless of whether they held UK or Ugandan passports. The underlying motives of policy were not unprecedented. Many native Ugandans felt that the Indians had too much of a stronghold on the Ugandan economy which prevented any locals from taking on advanced business positions. They controlled almost all of the cotton gins, sugar cane plantations, tea estates, and factories along with the majority of small businesses. Making up around just 1% of the population, the Indians contributed to a quarter of all tax revenues and an even larger proportion of the national GDP. At the time, this policy was heralded as one of Amin’s most popular, since anti-Indian sentiment ran high. However, the effects of the expulsion were almost immediate as the economy collapsed. Regular foods and goods sold in Indian shops were no longer available and now had to be smuggled in across borders. Amin redistributed Indian properties and businesses to his cronies, which were then essentially mismanaged to disrepair.
Ugandan Indian refugees land at Heathrow, 1972 David Hurn/Magnum
Some say that the estimated 73,000 Ugandan Indians (or Asians, as they were referred to in line with colonial British terminology) who were expelled in 1972 were the lucky ones. Up to 300,000 native Ugandans lost their lives under the regime of Idi Amin. While displacement is traumatic, many rationalize that the Indians at least escaped Amin’s rule and were granted asylum and citizenship in more developed nations, namely the UK and Canada. The Ugandan situation caused Indians in neighboring African nations to also panic and consequently flee – historians label these mass flights as the “Asian exodus”. Many of the Indians you find in the UK and Canada will tell you that they have come “via East Africa.”
The hints of the Indian past are seen all over Uganda. Many of the buildings from the pre-Amin days are still standing. They are built in the typical Indian bungalow/ apartment style, with the name of the owner and the date engraved at the top. Today, they serve just as the façade to Ugandan businesses. Indian food is everywhere. Indian Hindu, Jain, Muslim, and Sikh places of worship from the pre-Amin days are still standing. Used as office space, abandoned, or turned into bars during his regime, they are now back in use.
Indians have once again returned, Kampala
I’ve met some who left, like Shantaben, who have never come back. While I was in Tanzania last week, I met a Ugandan Indian who had resettled in the UK. She has never stepped foot back in Kampala. “I had very, very fond memories of growing up there… of that land… I don’t want those to ever be replaced.” Stories like hers are commonplace. Far less common are those of Indian families who stayed behind in Uganda or returned post-Amin. There is a family who lives in the same neighborhood as me here in Kampala who never left. “You could count on two hands the families who had stayed behind in Kampala.” They faced harassment in the beginning, but then things slowly improved.
When Museveni, the current president, took power in 1986, he invited the expelled Indians back to Uganda, offering back some of their possessions and providing incentives to reboot the economy. But naturally, a very small number of families and individuals returned. And in the 15 years that had passed, many had settled down and restarted their lives in the West. Still, the Indian presence is once again strong in Uganda. However, probably 90% of families are immigrants straight from India and are not part of the historical Asian population. The anti-Asian sentiment has managed to creep back as I have discovered in conversations with locals and immigrants alike. History isn’t likely to repeat itself, but it’s no doubt a delicate dynamic that needs to be addressed.
