50 years after Idi Amin expelled 'Uganda Asians,' they prosper happily

National Post, 28 August 2022

Having escaped the racism of Amin’s Uganda, they prospered as racial minorities in Canada

Last week I wrote of some of the perils facing India as the world’s largest democracy marked 75 years of independence. This week a hopeful tale of a relatively small group of Indians who faced maximum peril fifty years ago, but whose story is a promising one for Canada’s present and future.

Fifty years ago this month tens of thousands of “Uganda Asians” were desperately trying to figure out where in the world they would go, how they would get there, and what little they might be able to take with them when they left.

They were expelled from their country because of their race.

The expulsion of the “Uganda Asians” in August 1972 remains one of the great racist outrages of our time. It is a story of ruthless injustice, perpetrated by a dictator, Idi Amin, both unusually wicked and unspeakably cruel. He was a true madman, deranged and delusional.

At the same time, the story had, for many, a happy ending. The very Asians who were thrown out of their own homes and despoiled of their property went on to exceptional success in the countries which generously received them. Racism and brutality did not have the final word.

But they did have their day. On Aug. 4, 1972, Amin announced that all Asians in Uganda who held British passports had to leave the country. They had ninety days to get out. (“Asians” in the parlance of the time generally meant those from the subcontinent.) Later those who held passports from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also were added to the expulsion.

Uganda had gained independence from Britain only ten years previous, so many people born in Uganda held British nationality and passports.

The British colonial policy had brought many Indians to East Africa as labourers and educated managers in the colonial administration. Many of them prospered — and earned the resentment of the African majority, which was denied the same opportunities.

Some 60,000 people were expelled by Amin in a straightforward example of ethnic cleansing. He wanted Uganda for “ethnic Ugandans,” freed from the presence of Asians who were “sabotaging Uganda’s economy and encouraging corruption.” No one did more on those fronts than Amin himself and his henchmen.

The world reaction was strong on words, less so on action. The blatant racism — Ugandans by birth rendered stateless because of their race — was roundly condemned. Punishment for Amin was less forthcoming. His bloodthirsty plundering would continue to ravage Uganda until 1979, when Julius Nyerere of neighbouring Tanzania drove him into exile, first to Libya and then onward to Saudi Arabia.

Those expelled had just months to abandon lives they had built over generations. My own grandmother and uncle were among the expelled, with their property confiscated. She had been born in Uganda, lived her entire life there and practiced the urgently-needed profession of midwifery. At the age of 61, despite having contributed enormously to the heath and well-being of many women, especially in rural areas, she had to go because her parents were from India.

My parents had already emigrated to Canada a few years beforehand, so her landing here was easier than others who became true refugees, driven out with only the clothes on their backs and nowhere to go.

The Uganda expulsion created an immediate political crisis. Who would take in the 60,000?

Most would end up in Britain, but some 6,000 would be resettled in Canada, many of whom were Ismaili Muslims. The head of their community, the Aga Khan, had personally appealed to his friend, then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who was amenable. It was the largest settlement of non-European refugees until that point in Canadian history, and took place a few years before Canada had an official refugee policy.

The expelled Uganda Asians worked hard and made the most of the generous spirit of Canadians and their government. Having escaped the racism of Amin’s Uganda, they prospered as racial minorities in Canada.

Continue reading at the National Post.