Picking the pieces of Amin's dream
Article Published on: 4th August 2005
Thirty-two years ago today, President Idi Amin Dada announced that he would take action against Asians who controlled nearly all of Uganda's commerce. He would shock the world and expel anywhere between 50,000 and 80,000 Asians, including Ugandan citizens. RICHARD M. KAVUMA talks to a businessman who has since returned, and revisits the issues surrounding Amin's 'dream'
From behind his neat desk, Mr. Sherali Bandali Jaffer, 81, labours to explain why he is in Uganda.
Even some of his six children don't understand him. It cannot be money, for they will ask how much it is that he can't find in the West.
The Fairway Hotel chairman will tell them: "I was born there; I have my friends there, my African friends, all attachment to Uganda.
"And I like to be in Uganda and I might wish one day that I die in Uganda. I have got a very good business in Canada. I am one of the biggest poultry farmers in Canada. So money is not the problem. My poultry farm in Canada makes more money and gives me less headache."
Sherali's is the story of the Ugandan Asians, or "the Indians". Many - or their parents - came here as simple traders, worked their heads off and within 70 years controlled Uganda's business sector.
"My father (Bandali Jaffer) came from India about 110 years ago," says Sherali. "He was not a rich man. He rode a bicycle from Kampala to Luwero, bought cotton and sold it in Kampala."
Bandali Jaffer went on to build a ginnery in Kampala and others in Luwero, Wobulenzi...
By the time he died in 1941, his youngest son, Sherali, was 17, born at Nsambya Hospital in April 1924.
Sherali Jaffer's three brothers and two sisters have since died, but the turning point for him came that cold, scary night in 1972 as he waited to flee Uganda.
He had studied at Aga Khan primary and secondary schools, finished A-level in India and returned to the family business in Uganda.
The businesses had prospered and the Bandali Jaffer name lived on. Along came six children - five girls and one boy. Mr. Jaffer, as Sherali came to be known, became a member of Kampala City Council, before being elected MP for Kampala West in 1962.
In 1953, Nubians around Bombo asked Jaffer to help them build a school in their area. His contribution to that cause won him many Nubian friends, who became more significant after Idi Amin rose to power.
Nearly 20 years later, at 6 a.m. a friend in government sent a message: Jaffer would be killed if he did not leave Uganda by that night.
Jaffer did not ask questions.
As he sat on the British Airways flight out of Entebbe, he could not wait to return home.
"I went to London thinking Amin would not last long. But we were wrong."
Bubble busts
Five months later, dozens, then hundreds, thousands and eventually tens of thousands of Ugandan Asians followed Jaffer - to Britain, Canada and America.
Amin had expelled them.
It had started as a joke.
Amin told his soldiers in Tororo that God had instructed him in a 'dream' to take action against Asians of British nationality. He then announced on radio that he would ask Britain to remove its citizens from Uganda. But in the following weeks, it became clear that he wanted all Asians out of Uganda, eventually giving them just 90 days to leave or end up in concentration camps.
In a telegraph to Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere the following month, Amin said the "British Asians" not only dominated trade and commerce but siphoned away the profits to Britain. He said Britain should take the Asians because she was the one who brought them to build the Uganda Railway - which was now complete!
In London, Jaffer first heard it on BBC.
"We were all surprised. We thought it was a temporary thing. Even the British government thought it was temporary," he reminisces.
He called Kampala and spoke to his brother in law, Lalji, who also thought it was a joke.
Then came the November 8 deadline.
Then came the November 8 deadline.
Jaffer does not recall any prior serious tensions between Asians and Africans except that "some business people" wanted to grab the Asians' businesses. But he agrees that the Asians' economic domination was a concern for policy makers. Under Obote I, Parliament had been considering removing Asians from the villages to the towns and leaving the dhukas (shops) to indigenous Ugandans.
But Amin decided to do it all overnight!
According to researcher Fred Guweddeko, the campaign against the Asians did not start with Amin. Local activists like Augustine Kamya, a cobbler, had organised boycotts against Asian shops in 1954 and 1959.
Guweddeko, who works with the Makerere Institute of Social Research, says indigenous Ugandans also suffered racial segregation. Buganda Road was reportedly a kind of boundary beyond which Africans could not roam into the residential quarters of Nakasero.
"For an African to be found in Nakasero, for instance, you would be arrested unless you had an ID showing that you were an Indian's houseboy...," he said.
Speaking to the BBC in 2002, London-based Ugandan-Asian columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown suggested the money-siphoning Asians were partly to blame.
"Most Asians were deeply racist, unable to imagine marrying Africans and living with them as equals," Alibhai-Brown said.
As Amin left for a tour of eastern Uganda, Kamya reportedly handed him a written petition to put the economy in the hands of indigenous Ugandans.
Amin reacted by declaring his 'economic war', earning the praise of many locals.
Musicians like Christopher Ssebadduka composed songs praising Amin and, portraying the Asians as humiliating slave drivers.
London lawyer Balu Radia, whose father had lived in Uganda since 1906, agrees that racially segregated Africans welcomed the expulsion:
"When he was commander of the Ugandan army, Amin got on all right with Asians of influence. I don't think he had anything personal against Asians, but to get rid of them was a popular step. It's difficult to say whether it was also insanity - there was method in his madness," Radia told the website www.asiansfromuganda.org in 1997.
"When he was commander of the Ugandan army, Amin got on all right with Asians of influence. I don't think he had anything personal against Asians, but to get rid of them was a popular step. It's difficult to say whether it was also insanity - there was method in his madness," Radia told the website www.asiansfromuganda.org in 1997.
Life in exile
When the refugees started arriving in London, Jaffer tried to assist them, visiting the camps and offering encouragement. His own family was more relaxed, although each person had been allowed to carry only $50.
He rented a house in Ilford, Essex. Two daughters Mobina and Zenobia were studying law and pharmacy in England and they helped the family to settle in.
The Jaffers had kept about $50,000 in England for education costs, money that came in very handy.
But in Kampala, all assets were seized, including Fairway Hotel, opened six months earlier by the Aga Khan.
"We felt so bad. We counted this as our own country. We were all citizens of Uganda."
In the beginning, Amin said he wanted only non-Ugandan citizens to go. Then all Indians had to go.
But India rejected them.
Kenya also closed its borders, with vice president Daniel arap Moi saying that Kenya was no dumping ground.
Britain set up 16 reception centres for the expellees, while the United Nations set up another three camps in Europe.
The British government gave about 20 pounds per person per week, but exile was still a painful experience for people used to largely affluent life in Uganda.
Jaffer recalls how his wife cried on the underground train as she went shopping for underwear, having left hers in Uganda.
In camps he visited, some of the refugees broke down in the lunch queues as they carried food trays. In Uganda they were being served by servants, now here they were, lining up for food like beggars.
Amin the benefactor
The suffering has not stopped Ugandan Asians from prospering. In fact, Amin's madness appears to have become a blessing in disguise for many.
In Leicester, whose city council warned the expelled Asians in 1972 that they were not welcome, Asian businesses are reported to have created more than 30,000 jobs.
"Or take my case; I was in Uganda as a Member of Parliament, all right: but would my daughter [Mobina Jaffer] have been in that position as a senator in Canada?"
But the greatest beneficiary was the muyindi who owned a small dhuka in Bugerere. He would never have afforded to fly to Britain, let alone have his children educated there. Pushed out of Uganda, their children received quality Western education for which they did not have to pay much. Today, says Jaffer, some of them earn up to a million dollars in annual salary.
In 1975, the Jaffers moved to British Columbia in Canada which they found more like Uganda - with mountains and rivers.
Depositing $45,000, they got a 25-year loan and bought a chicken farm.
Only a month later, the first major hurdle came. A family lunch outing turned sour as all 200,000 chickens died due to power failure.
Their fortunes were resuscitated by kind neighbours who unconditionally loaned them chickens in hundreds.
"But I had to work very hard," says Jaffer, with a satisfied smile. "Here I had 500 people working for me. There I had to pick up eggs myself for 10 years."
Many Asians expelled by Amin have never returned to Uganda, mostly because they started new lives altogether.
Jaffer made a sceptical return in 1981 - just to see Uganda, and another in 1983. Obote would give back a house on Wilson Road, but not Fairway Hotel.
That came in the early 1990s.
Jaffer has since invested an estimated $3-4 million and brought the hotel from the 50 operational rooms when he got it back to 120 currently.
Looking back at the expulsion, Jaffer is happy that dual citizenship is about to become a reality. He says this will enable many Ugandans abroad to feel safe to invest here, without losing their acquired citizenship.
On the day we met, Daily Monitor newspaper reported that businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba had evicted 200 traders in Kampala.
Jaffer remarked: "If that had been done by an Asian, it would have been political. But because it was done by an African, nobody talks about it" - an indication of lingering racial undercurrents.
And can we be confident that what happened to the Asian Community in 1972 can never happen again?
Jaffer: "Not yet. I don't know when that will be, but not yet."
Jaffer: "Not yet. I don't know when that will be, but not yet."
* August 4 Amin announces dream in which God told him to expel Asians
* August 5 Amin announces he will ask the UK High Commissioner in Uganda, Richard Slater, to arrange for the repatriation of Asian holders of British passports within 3 months.
* August 6 India says expelled Asians are primarily Britain's responsibility.
* August 7 Amin says all non-Ugandans "sabotaging the economy will also have to leave in three months' time."
* August 8 Kenya seals border with Uganda to keep out expelled Asians .
* August 9 Amin announces he has signed a decree revoking all entry permits and certificates of residence of non-Uganda citizens of Asian origin. Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals must leave Uganda.
* August 10 The Home Secretary tightens immigration of Asians from East Africa by summoning representatives of 23 airlines to the Home Office.
* August 11 Lady Tweeds-muir of Belhelvie, Minister of State for Foreign and Commo nwealth Affairs announces that Mr. Geoffrey Rippon, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, would visit Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to persuade Amin to re-consider his position.
* India declares that visas will be required for Asian British passport holders entering the country.
* August 13 Rippon tells a press conference in Kampala that Britain has decided in principle to admit some 50,000 Asians holding British passports if they are expelled. Britain refers dispute to the United Nations.
* August 14 Rippon, after receiving a personal invitation from Amin, extends his stay in East Africa and returns to Uganda.
* Referring to the 23,000 Asians with Ugandan nationality, Amin tells reporters, "I see no more future for them in Uganda than for the others. If all of them go I'll be very, very happy."
* August 15 After meeting Rippon, Amin told the press: "I am not changing my mind that Asians who are British will have to go to England and he, Mr. Rippon, has accepted that. My decision of 90 days still stands."
* August 16 Preparations for an airlift of British Asians from Uganda start.
* August 17 John Ennals, Director of the United Kingdom Immigrant Advisory Service, says that Asians expelled from Uganda could be a benefit for Britain. Many of them spoke English and had skills that could be very useful in Britain.
* August 19 The right wing Monday Club reminds the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, of the pledges given in the 1970 Conservative Party manifesto "that there will be no further large-scale permanent immigration."
* August 21 A "Co-ordinating Committee for the welfare of Evacuees from Uganda," a body representing 40 welfare immigrant and charitable organisations, is set up under the chairmanship of Mr. Douglas Tilbe.
* August 22 The President of the National Union of Students, Mr. Kisimba Masiko and the President of the Makerere Students Guild, Mr. Tumusiime Mutebile appeal to Amin to cancel the expulsion.
* August 23 Sir Charles Cunningham, a former Permanent Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office is named Chairman of the Ugandan Resettlement Board.
* Airlines announce they will fly Asians from Uganda at £70 per passenger.
* August 24 Canada Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau says Canada will accept 'a number' of Asians from Uganda.
* Public protests in Smithfield, London, against the immigration of Asians, supported by the National Front.
* August 25 Mr. Bernard Perkins, one of the 12 members of the Community Relations Commission, resigns over the decision to allow British Asians into Britain from Uganda. Amin extends stay for Asian non-citizens, holding important positions for another year.
* August 27 Amin announces that he will seize all foreign-owned businesses.
* August 28 Amin rules that all non-citizens are to fly by East African Airways.
* August 29 Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign Secretary) freezes a £10 million loan to Uganda.
* Mr. Henry Brind , Deputy British High Commissioner in Uganda, announces that 485 Asians had been processed with entry permits to date.
* Mr. Joseph Godber, Minister of State at the Foreign Office flies to Geneva for talks with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then flies on to Vienna to meet Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the Secretary General of the United Nations.
* September 1 Amin aims to make Uganda "economically independent.
* Not a single Ugandan Shilling to leave" was the notice given to passengers when leaving the country.
* September 4 United Kingdom asks 50 countries to help in resettling the expelled Asians.
* September 5 Amin accuses Britain of plotting to have him assassinated.
* September 6 President Kaunda of Zambia backs UN sanctions against Uganda.
* September 11 Plans for airlifting British Asians to the UK by East African Airways, in collaboration with BOAC and British Caledonian Airways are finalised.
* September 13 Amin announces plans to put Asians who are still in Uganda after the deadline into concentration camps.
* September 14 Third meeting of Uganda Resettlement Board to discuss the latest reception and resettlement arrangements including the provision for loans and meeting the extra costs burdened on the local authorities.
* September 17 Tanzania-backed Ugandan exiles invade three towns in south-western Uganda while 20 Britons are detained.
* September 18 The first 193 British Asians from Uganda arrive at Stanstead Airport, of whom just over half go to the reception camp at Stradishall, while the rest make their own arrangements.
* September 21 Increasing strain in towns over housing employment and social services.
* September 22 More than 8,000 Asians have been given 48 hours to leave the country.
* September 25 Fourth meeting of the Uganda Resettlement Board.
* Main discussion was on how to accommodate the Asians arriving from Uganda and as a result plans were made to establish transit camps for 12,000 Asians.
* September 26 British diplomat Mr. G. H. Hawkins expelled from Uganda.
* September 27 Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Foreign Secretary, asks the United Nations General Assembly to give urgent consideration to the problem of the British Asians in Uganda.
* September 29 President Mobutu of Zaire offers to improve the way that Asians are being treated in Uganda.
* October 3 After negotiations with President Mobutu, Amin agrees to postpone the deadline, drop his threat to set up camps and permit the Asians the transfer of their assets.
* October 5 In order to speed-up the deportation of Asians, a checking exercise of the citizenship of Asians, by squads of police is carried out.
* October 12 Richard Slater, British High Commissioner, is expelled. Amin accuses him of being responsible for the propaganda against Uganda.
* October 16 Amin orders British professors to leave Uganda.
* October 17 Asians expell ed from Uganda, face up to two years imprisonment and Shs 50,000 as a fine, if they attempt to sell their business privately.
* November 8 EXPIRY OF IDI AMIN'S DEADLINE
* All Asians still in Uganda report to specific places in the city and major towns to be registered. All the British Asians and the majority of those with Ugandan nationality have left. Less than 1,000 Asians are still in Uganda and most of these are either of Ugandan nationality or expatriates from countries other than the United Kingdom. Idi Amin has threatened to put any Asians still in Uganda after the deadline in concentration camps until the British Government comes and takes them. But this threat is not carried out.
* November 9 Mr. David Lane, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office, says in a written reply that so far 1,100 employers have offered jobs to Asians, more than 2,000 offers of accommodation have come from private sources and that local authorities have offered 1,600 dw ellings.
* November 17 The Ugandan Resettlement Board announces that the final total of Asians who have arrived in Britain is 27,200 of whom approximately 21,000 have been received in reception camps.
* August 5 Amin announces he will ask the UK High Commissioner in Uganda, Richard Slater, to arrange for the repatriation of Asian holders of British passports within 3 months.
* August 6 India says expelled Asians are primarily Britain's responsibility.
* August 7 Amin says all non-Ugandans "sabotaging the economy will also have to leave in three months' time."
* August 8 Kenya seals border with Uganda to keep out expelled Asians .
* August 9 Amin announces he has signed a decree revoking all entry permits and certificates of residence of non-Uganda citizens of Asian origin. Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals must leave Uganda.
* August 10 The Home Secretary tightens immigration of Asians from East Africa by summoning representatives of 23 airlines to the Home Office.
* August 11 Lady Tweeds-muir of Belhelvie, Minister of State for Foreign and Commo nwealth Affairs announces that Mr. Geoffrey Rippon, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, would visit Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to persuade Amin to re-consider his position.
* India declares that visas will be required for Asian British passport holders entering the country.
* August 13 Rippon tells a press conference in Kampala that Britain has decided in principle to admit some 50,000 Asians holding British passports if they are expelled. Britain refers dispute to the United Nations.
* August 14 Rippon, after receiving a personal invitation from Amin, extends his stay in East Africa and returns to Uganda.
* Referring to the 23,000 Asians with Ugandan nationality, Amin tells reporters, "I see no more future for them in Uganda than for the others. If all of them go I'll be very, very happy."
* August 15 After meeting Rippon, Amin told the press: "I am not changing my mind that Asians who are British will have to go to England and he, Mr. Rippon, has accepted that. My decision of 90 days still stands."
* August 16 Preparations for an airlift of British Asians from Uganda start.
* August 17 John Ennals, Director of the United Kingdom Immigrant Advisory Service, says that Asians expelled from Uganda could be a benefit for Britain. Many of them spoke English and had skills that could be very useful in Britain.
* August 19 The right wing Monday Club reminds the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, of the pledges given in the 1970 Conservative Party manifesto "that there will be no further large-scale permanent immigration."
* August 21 A "Co-ordinating Committee for the welfare of Evacuees from Uganda," a body representing 40 welfare immigrant and charitable organisations, is set up under the chairmanship of Mr. Douglas Tilbe.
* August 22 The President of the National Union of Students, Mr. Kisimba Masiko and the President of the Makerere Students Guild, Mr. Tumusiime Mutebile appeal to Amin to cancel the expulsion.
* August 23 Sir Charles Cunningham, a former Permanent Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office is named Chairman of the Ugandan Resettlement Board.
* Airlines announce they will fly Asians from Uganda at £70 per passenger.
* August 24 Canada Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau says Canada will accept 'a number' of Asians from Uganda.
* Public protests in Smithfield, London, against the immigration of Asians, supported by the National Front.
* August 25 Mr. Bernard Perkins, one of the 12 members of the Community Relations Commission, resigns over the decision to allow British Asians into Britain from Uganda. Amin extends stay for Asian non-citizens, holding important positions for another year.
* August 27 Amin announces that he will seize all foreign-owned businesses.
* August 28 Amin rules that all non-citizens are to fly by East African Airways.
* August 29 Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign Secretary) freezes a £10 million loan to Uganda.
* Mr. Henry Brind , Deputy British High Commissioner in Uganda, announces that 485 Asians had been processed with entry permits to date.
* Mr. Joseph Godber, Minister of State at the Foreign Office flies to Geneva for talks with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then flies on to Vienna to meet Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the Secretary General of the United Nations.
* September 1 Amin aims to make Uganda "economically independent.
* Not a single Ugandan Shilling to leave" was the notice given to passengers when leaving the country.
* September 4 United Kingdom asks 50 countries to help in resettling the expelled Asians.
* September 5 Amin accuses Britain of plotting to have him assassinated.
* September 6 President Kaunda of Zambia backs UN sanctions against Uganda.
* September 11 Plans for airlifting British Asians to the UK by East African Airways, in collaboration with BOAC and British Caledonian Airways are finalised.
* September 13 Amin announces plans to put Asians who are still in Uganda after the deadline into concentration camps.
* September 14 Third meeting of Uganda Resettlement Board to discuss the latest reception and resettlement arrangements including the provision for loans and meeting the extra costs burdened on the local authorities.
* September 17 Tanzania-backed Ugandan exiles invade three towns in south-western Uganda while 20 Britons are detained.
* September 18 The first 193 British Asians from Uganda arrive at Stanstead Airport, of whom just over half go to the reception camp at Stradishall, while the rest make their own arrangements.
* September 21 Increasing strain in towns over housing employment and social services.
* September 22 More than 8,000 Asians have been given 48 hours to leave the country.
* September 25 Fourth meeting of the Uganda Resettlement Board.
* Main discussion was on how to accommodate the Asians arriving from Uganda and as a result plans were made to establish transit camps for 12,000 Asians.
* September 26 British diplomat Mr. G. H. Hawkins expelled from Uganda.
* September 27 Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Foreign Secretary, asks the United Nations General Assembly to give urgent consideration to the problem of the British Asians in Uganda.
* September 29 President Mobutu of Zaire offers to improve the way that Asians are being treated in Uganda.
* October 3 After negotiations with President Mobutu, Amin agrees to postpone the deadline, drop his threat to set up camps and permit the Asians the transfer of their assets.
* October 5 In order to speed-up the deportation of Asians, a checking exercise of the citizenship of Asians, by squads of police is carried out.
* October 12 Richard Slater, British High Commissioner, is expelled. Amin accuses him of being responsible for the propaganda against Uganda.
* October 16 Amin orders British professors to leave Uganda.
* October 17 Asians expell ed from Uganda, face up to two years imprisonment and Shs 50,000 as a fine, if they attempt to sell their business privately.
* November 8 EXPIRY OF IDI AMIN'S DEADLINE
* All Asians still in Uganda report to specific places in the city and major towns to be registered. All the British Asians and the majority of those with Ugandan nationality have left. Less than 1,000 Asians are still in Uganda and most of these are either of Ugandan nationality or expatriates from countries other than the United Kingdom. Idi Amin has threatened to put any Asians still in Uganda after the deadline in concentration camps until the British Government comes and takes them. But this threat is not carried out.
* November 9 Mr. David Lane, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office, says in a written reply that so far 1,100 employers have offered jobs to Asians, more than 2,000 offers of accommodation have come from private sources and that local authorities have offered 1,600 dw ellings.
* November 17 The Ugandan Resettlement Board announces that the final total of Asians who have arrived in Britain is 27,200 of whom approximately 21,000 have been received in reception camps.
==============================
How Indian traders conquered Uganda
How Indian traders conquered Uganda
Article Published on: 4th August 2005
While Sherali Jaffer rightly says that Asians like Allidina Visram were in East Africa earlier, various records show that many railway workers stayed in East Africa after the completion of the railway.
Whatever the case, the Asians quickly and amazingly took over trade in Uganda. One explanation that has been given was that Asians benefited from the racist colonial structure that rated Africans behind Asians and Europeans.
Because they were a minority group that had got a head start in commerce, they supported one another, while the Africans found it hard just getting started.
Jaffer however says 85 percent of the Asians here sat in their small shops from dusk to dawn. For him, the difference is that the Asian personally manages and does not leave the business as the African is wont to do.
While many Africans are good businessmen, once they have made some money, they want to own big cars, marry more women, leaving the business to employees. That is why he regards women as the best business people in Africa - because they stick to their businesses.
"To make money, you have to work hard, you have to sit in your business and manage it. If you don't manage it, don't expect others to manage it for you," he said.
So, where did Asians learn this?
According to Jaffer, when they came here, the Asians had to worry about food, school fees, medical care and how to survive old age. The Ugandan meanwhile "had a banana plantation, muwogo (cassava); he did not need to worry much about food."
Hence, not only did the Asians work longer, they also saved more and were able to expand their businesses.
"But Africans did not have to worry about tomorrow. Hospitals were nearly free. Schools were free," says Jaffer "Today they have to worry because if they have to send their children to good schools, or to university in England and America, they have to work hard."
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