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Out of Africa: the fall and rise of Uganda’s Asian community
- It is nearly 50 years since Idi Amin expelled the thousands of Asians who made up Uganda’s economic backbone. In exile, they prospered, as Amin fell
- Many have since returned to leading roles in the economy – accounting for just 1 per cent of Uganda’s population but paying 65 per cent of its income tax
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On August 5, 1972, the president of Uganda Idi Amin dreamt that God was telling him to expel the thousands of Asians – mostly Indians – who formed the economic backbone of the country. Summoning his henchmen to his bedside, he commanded them to turn his vision into action.
Around 80,000 Asians lived in Uganda at the time. Most of them could trace their roots to Gujarat, an area of India that had enjoyed trade links with East Africa stretching back centuries. Some were the descendants of labourers who had been shipped in to build railways at the turn of the 20th century, others were the offspring of later migrants who had travelled west in search of opportunity. Almost all were destined to be stripped of their homes and businesses and unceremoniously booted out of the land of their birth. The Ugandan economy subsequently tanked, and an increasingly deranged Amin proceeded to exterminate thousands of perceived tribal rivals, turning the once-prosperous country into a bloodbath.
Many were expelled with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Nevertheless, in exile many prospered due to sheer hard work and, when the political climate shifted, returned to Uganda, where they are now once again a mainstay of the economy.
Those exiled scattered as far as Canada, back to India, and to next-door Kenya; some 27,000 sought sanctuary in Britain. Rather than bewailing what they had lost they promptly set about restoring their fortunes, on the assumption that if they had to start from bottom the only way was up.
Amin was deposed in April 1979, following a flurry of skirmishes with neighbouring Tanzania, and fled first to Libya and later to Saudi Arabia. In 1986 Uganda’s new president, Yoweri Museveni, suggested the exiles could return, having distanced himself from Amin’s policies. Cautiously, some took up the invitation. In a short space of time, the trickle turned into a flood.
Ed Peters is one of Asia's most experienced travel writers, and has reported for the Post from every continent except Antarctica.
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