Exiles: The Ugandan Asian Story Learning resources

About the authors Bill Bolloten is an independent education consultant. He specialises in work on equality, diversity, migration and community cohesion. Suman Bhuchar has been involved in the Exiles Project as a researcher, writer, interviewer and production supervisor for the digital stories. The Exiles Project, Project manager: Santhosh Chandran Project coordinator: Jayesh Amin Heritage consultant: Philip Kiberd Design: Tim Hughes

http://asiancentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Exiles-learning-pack-web1.pdf

Second generation Madhvani

Manubhai (on the right) with his brother, Jayant . The two Madhvanis grew their father’s businesses and handed them over bigger and better to a third generation, despite turbulent times.

In Summary

These stories of Manubhai Madhvani who died in London in May 2011, are excerpts from Vali Jamal’s book Uganda Asians: Then and now, Here and There, We contributed, We contribute. The interview was done at Kakira on June 19, 2008 with Eng Yashwant D. Sidpra.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Second-generation-madhvani/-/688342/1521496/-/fyt02sz/-/index.html

Salma Mughal 

With the expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972 came separation of family and friends. I found this letter addressed to my late father, dated 24th October 1972. 
Stamped Newbury, 24th October 1972.

Now, that is nostalgia, imagine your own parents, your loved ones, and small children, young, old all forcibly displaced with the very clothes that you, they wore and the devastation that brought to the elders on the forceful burden that was bestowed upon them at their age, all was lost.
 

As if, that was not enough, building up to the evacuation date... a loving, living environment in contrast was now a constant fear of life overnight, one had to get rid of all your valued sentimental in pets, in valued treasured goods for nothing, the pain that resonated through each and every member of the family in a different way until such time of the exodus that neared like a dingier greyer mist setting upon hovering over us all,  that got grimmer and grimmer.

There was more heartache/fear awaiting that reverberated and constant apprehension of getting imprisoned, beaten up, women folks in fear of getting abducted, raped, their valuables snatched and the perpetual anxiety and terror bequeathed upon  all in a different way until such time that one safely either got to the borders or at the Entebbe Airport.
 

Elders who had spent decades building what they had with their blood sweat and tears for the very loving families that stood in front of them with nothing, nothing at all, as all was to be left behind, taken away from them, all some of them had was each other.
 

Social network, all were so tightly knitted as one household, that experience that still echoes at social gathering amongst us all to this very day, all school friends that were like a family to us all, some parted never to be seen ever again, all the sentimental landscapes, the food, the air that was so pure and different even the aroma of the sand when it rained lingers in our thoughts, how each and every one of us must have been dichotomized from the land that was one's precious ancestral home.

How each one of us was possibly dissected in their very own desolated psychological way only to find ourselves as paupers heading to a land that was an Empire, far away that our forefathers knew well about  but most of us had only read about.

A land, that ruled over our mother land for over 200 yrs: yet we did not or could not comprehend, grasp the impact awaiting us all; on the other hand we had heard that our forefathers in their eyes were looked down upon as second class people.

We were stepping upon a historical feat in contrast and entering a land that was once "the empire on which the sun never sets" an unfolding of a historical era that was unimaginable, inconceivable just a decade ago.  

What was awaiting us all, they were rulers, they had different cultural, religion, environment, traditions, climate, a land that some folks seen us all as a threat to their livelihood, threat towards their loved ones.

We were set upon, prejudiced upon, yet all we were “a people without a land, with some belongings, fragmented in mind and soul, beings that had been abandoned with families... hoping for the Empire that ruled over us to give us back in return some shelter and hope.

Deflated elders had to step up and to now start life all over again with their loved ones providing shelter, feeding, educating, nursing them, to consoling them, comforting, reassuring that all will be alright etc providing, supporting us in the best possible way that they could.. BLESS THEM FOR THEY DID NOT DESERVE ALL THAT!

1972 was the year never to be forgotten….We must thank the UK government and its wonderful and good people in believing in us and giving us hope, here we are some four decades later...

Life is such…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The History of Fort Portal (Fort Gerry)

It is the only town in Uganda with an English name “Fort Portal”, and the town was named after the British Consul General of Zanzibar, Sir Gerald Portal, who came to Uganda in 1890s to formalize British protectorate ship over Uganda.

Fort portal is perhaps the most attractive town in Uganda, its situated amid lush rolling hillsides swathed in near tea plantations and clouds permitting / offering excellent views across to the glacial peaks of the Rwenzori Mountains to the west, the town centre has seen a great deal of renovation since the early 1990’s, including plenty of new hotels and restaurants, and what with the recent resurfacing of its internal roads, it is barely recognizable from the run down Fort portal hole of a few years back.

http://fortportal-town.com/the-history/

https://theeye.co.ug/fort-portal-infomation/

More Links on Uganda:

The Most Evil Men in History: Idi Amin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyaTWKv44Hs

Uganda Asian Refugee Movement 1972

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQPKNhxymY

Ugandan Indian Migration (1970s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrY-vl8_Vak

Leicester: Ugandan Asians - 40 years on (Part 1, 2 & 3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Pc19cg-d4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVz295UWzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVv0IRyu2TI

Uganda 40 Yrs on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4abS0PhRzQ

Return to Uganda - 06 Aug 07 - Part 1 & 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI3DlMY5JIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6_MyXrAYKU

Rana's Reflections, Ruminations & Recollections

http://www.josephclan.com/tjblog/?p=1859

Other Links:

http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/idi-amin-legendary-ugandan-dictator-was.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2399549.stm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fd23a2ca-ecb0-11e1-81f4-00144feab49a.html#axzz34p49qDZq

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19549567

http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/suffolk/article_2.shtml

http://southasianlitfest.com/event/ugandan-asian-exodus/

http://www.ibtimes.com/uganda-forty-years-after-idi-amin-expelled-asians-739228

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/635863-saleh-woos-back-asians-expelled-by-amin-in-1972.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/stories/2004/03/views-on-refugees.shtml

http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=5270

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/2012/40th-anniversary-of-ugandan-asian-refugeee-camp

http://www.thepromota.co.uk/leicester_mercury-image-leicester_mercury-thursday-december-02-2010-0930-3-comments-share-bookmark-with-what-is-social-media-facebook-digg-reddit-delicious-stum/

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Ugandan-Asians-Then-and-Now--Coming-to-East-Africa/-/691232/1506392/-/jfc8epz/-/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4371457.stm

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-08-09/proud-to-be-british-tonight-itv1-at-7-30pm/