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The Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II has appointed two Ugandans of Asian origin (Messrs Mahmood Thobani and Rajni Tailor) to his cabinet, and one other (Mr Manu Kanani) to the Lukiiko (parliament) - a thing that is laudable for it helps water down the negative constructions of Ugandan Asians as exploiters, economic colonialists and racially and socially exclusive foreigners.
These stereotypes have for a long time dogged the relationship between indigenous Ugandans and Ugandan Asians both in the colonial and post-colonial times. Perhaps the two memorable events that this negative construction climaxed into were the Mengo-organised boycotts of Asian shops in the early 1950s, and the 1972 expulsion of the Asians from Uganda by Field Marshal Idi Amin.
This stereotyping was fuelled by the British colonialists who, in their typical divide-and-rule policy, feared a possible Asian-African onslaught
on the
colonial establishment during the dusk of colonialism.
In an analytical essay entitled "Black Attitudes to the Brown and the White Colonisers of East Africa," Professor Dent Ocaya-Lakidi observes that the stereotypes of Asians as exploiters were first and foremost British in origin.
He argues thus: "The Adjectives that the Black Africans were to use in describing Asians were first used by white Britons at the East African coast. The Asian then had been described as crafty, money-making, cunning [and] the local Jew; unscrupulous and single-minded in the pursuit of gain; a user of false weights and measures, [and] a receiver of stolen goods."
Before their change of heart, the British colonialists had been in good books with the Asians, whom they used as political and economic middlemen between the Queen's mighty empire and the colonised Africans. This middlemanship was one of the reasons as to why the Asians were accused of betrayal by nationalistic Afric
ans.
This is because by becoming the individuals who put exploitative and oppressive colonial policies into effect, they inevitably came to take the blame for an exploitative colonial system while the real authors of the system, operating often invisibly behind the buffer, remained relatively free from black African hatred.
The Ugandan Asian novelist, Peter Nazareth, observes thus on this situation in his novel, In a Brown Mantle that prophesied the 1972 expulsion of Asians: "The British are clever. They placed a middleman of another race between themselves and Africans so that they could rake in the profits undisturbed [�] It is the one who deals directly with the African who is hated most. The British remain aloof and are neither loved nor hated".
That the Kabaka has appointed Ugandans of Asian decent to his cabinet and parliament is evidence of how progressive a leader he is - a man willing to look at issues squarely. And this is as it should be, for desp
ite the
negative attitudes indigenous Africans had towards the Asians it is on record that they (the Asians) contributed a lot towards the independence of East African countries.
For evidence of this, one needs to read books like Asians in East Africa (by George Delf), Uhuru and the Kenya Indians (by Dana Seidenberg), A History of Asians in East Africa (by J.S. Mangat), Portrait of a Minority - Asians in East Africa (edited by Dharam and Yash Ghai), and Expulsion of a Minority - Essays on Ugandan Asians (edited by Michael Twaddle).
In Uganda, Isher Dass, as a member of the Legislative Council from 1933 to 1942, made frequent representations on behalf of Africans, especially in respect of their demands for more land, political representation and the removal of restrictions on the growing of economic crops.
Other Indian representatives on the Legco helped in this task - B.S. Varma and U.K Uze, by opposing further alienation of land to non-Africans.
In Kenya,
the
Asians logistically helped in the printing of African nationalist newspapers between 1942-1952. Examples of these papers are the Kikuyu daily Inoororia Gikuyu (Gikuyu Sharpener), a Swahili weekly, Afrika Mpya (New Africa), Mwiguithania (Conciliator), Sauti ya Mwafrika (Africa Voice), Hindi ya Gikuyu (Gikuyu Times) and Habaari za Dunia (News of the World).
The contribution of these newspapers, and therefore of the Asians who sponsored their printing to the achievement of Kenyan independence cannot be underestimated.
Besides, East African Asian lawyers helped defend African nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta and other Mau Mau and Kikuyu detainees. In 1954, for instance, A.R. Kapila (who, together with F.R.S De Souza, S.N. Pritt, Chaman Lall and Jaswant Singh had defended Jomo Kenyatta) defended General China, a renowned leader of the Mau Mau.
From 1953 to 1957, De Souza defended over 200 Mau Mau suspects. Other Asian lawyers like E.K. Nowrje, A.H. Malik, S.
M.
Akram, S.P. Handa, Sheikh Amin, M.K. Bhandari, K.D Travadi, and Arvind Jamidah worked behind the scenes defending Mau Mau suspects.
Asian journalists also threw in their lot to support the African cause. Examples are Harun Ahmed, Pranlal Sheth, D.K Sharda and Pio Gama Pinto.
What these examples show is that not all Asians were anti-Asian. There were fingers that brought oil, but these did not soil the entire land. Thus labelling all the Asians as traitors, opportunists and exploiters is erroneous, just like it is to label all Africans as having been nationalists (for there were some who were traitors).
Of course there were some exploitative Asians. Some of these hoarded goods, which they later sold to Africans at a high cost, while others siphoned forex from Uganda to Lodon, Paris, Geneva, New York and other European and American cities.
In an article entitled "Economic Aspects of the Expulsion of Asians from Uganda" M.A. Tribe shows the ways through
which
this was done - direct smuggling of currency and jewellery, over-invoicing of imports and under-invoicing of exports.
Where an Asian businessman imported goods worth ten million shillings, for example, he would send double the amount so that the balance is put on his Swiss account. If he exported goods worth 20 million, he would under-invoice them and declare them worth five million. The 15 million would find itself on a London account.
Besides, the Asians involved in the tourism industry were paid in London banks thereby sidelining East African governments. And there was every businessman's weakness - the deliberate evasion of taxes through false declaration of factor incomes like profits and rents.
Then there were cases of Asian racism. In an article entitled "The Hindus of Bakuli" Rohit Barot reveals that in the mid-sixties at a Uganda sugar factory in Lugazi, an Indian supervisor beat up an African worker for drinking water from his pot and thus mak
ing it
'unclean'.
These cases withstanding, it is important to emphasise that the sins of some people need not be generalised to a whole race. This is where Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi's appointment of Asian Ugandans is something laudable - it shows how far indigenous Ugandans have gone in the struggle to unite with their brown brethren.
Of course there are whispers to the effect that the Kabaka's overriding motive is money, which is why he has appointed successful businessmen to his cabinet, giving them a key ministry -Economic Planning, Development and Investment.
Whatever the majesty's motive was, one thing is clear - he has demonstrated that Buganda kingdom is moving towards a broad-based way of governance, which believes that any person is capable of leading it to glory, irrespective of their ancestral origins.
Perhaps we shall one day see a situation where a person from a different ethnic group, a Mutoro or Munyankole for instance, holding a portfolio
in the
Mengo government, or becoming a parliamentarian in the Lukiiko.
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