Creating drama from family crisis

Jaimini Jethwa has penned a personal play about the expulsion of Indian families from Uganda, as Caroline Lindsay finds out

In 1972, when Jaimini Jethwa was just one, Uganda was in turmoil following the coup by the country’s ruthless despot Idi Amin. Following Amin’s order for the expulsion of all Indians from the country under a 90-day deadline, her family fled Uganda, finding themselves in Dundee.

Now, more than 40 years later, Jaimini tells her story in The Last Queen of Scotland, a one-woman play previewing at Dundee Rep in July before showing at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Playwright and Abertay University video producer Jaimini explains how the production – directed by the Rep’s Jemima Levick – came about.

“My original research inspired me to write the poem The Last Queen of Scotland, which takes the form of a conversation with Idi Amin and discussed his decision to expel us from our home,” she says.

“The poem provided the title and I developed the starting point for the play with the help of mentoring from National Theatre Scotland and Dundee Rep.”

Demons

The play looks at how one woman combats her demons with Idi Amin in Uganda in 1971, lands in Dundee and tries to make sense of everything that has happened, as well as the social and economic situation in both Dundee and Uganda in the 1970s.

“It sheds light on a unique period in Scotland’s social history and the particular story of a community in exile that has rarely been told,” adds Jaimina. “While it’s inspired by my family’s experience when they arrived in Tayside, it has been stylised for dramatic effect.”

Jaimini, who considers herself to be a Scot through and through, went to Craigie High School before studying film and television in London.

However, it wasn’t long before she was back in her beloved Scotland.

“I missed the culture and the Dundonian dialect and felt I was losing that in England,” she says.

In recognition of her passion for her home city, the script for The Last Queen of Scotland is written in the street sounds of the city’s dialect, accompanied by a live soundtrack.

“It’s my homage to my city, my love letter to the D,” she adds. “There have been so many tributes to the mill lavvies, to the Timex workers but I wanted to tell a story that is current and talks to a new generation about a subject close to the hearts of many.”

Idi Amin was known to adopt fanciful imperial titles for himself and the title of Jaimini’s work is inspired by the 2006 film and book The Last King of Scotland.

“I have decided to reclaim my heritage with this play,” says Jaimini. “I am saying to Idi Amin ‘You can’t have Scotland and what do you know about the country anyway?’

“When you Google Idi Amin one of the first things that comes up is The Last King of Scotland – Scotland doesn’t want that association,” says Jaimini.

“He was a potent character and although it’s hard to change history, the play chips away at his persona.”

Many families fled Uganda to England to settle but only a handful of families came north of the border.

“Why they came to Scotland and to Dundee in particular is one of the crucial questions the play addresses,” says Jaimini, not giving anything away.

In 2014 Jaimini returned to Uganda to National Theatre Kampala as part of Banta in Uganda, a research and development project supported by Creative Scotland.

She reveals the secret to good scriptwriting. “It comes down to character,” she says.

“If you have a good character, you have your story.

“Even though this is a one-woman show, it’s populated with the ghosts of so many other characters who all help her on her journey.”

Amazing

She says working on the play has been an amazing experience.

“Dundee Rep has been incredibly supportive and the National Theatre of Scotland have guided me throughout – I’ve learned so much.”

While the actor for the show is still to be cast, Jaimini knew from the start that she wanted the play to premiere in Scotland and in her home town, though she is hopeful it will eventually travel further afield.

“It’s one of my dreams to be able to put it on in Uganda,” she smiles.

“Not only is the Scottish language revered there but my family’s story will have come full circle.”

Picture: Mhairi Edwards Jaimini Jethwa has written a play, The Last Queen of Scotland, about her family’s expulsion from Uganda in the 1970s and resettling in Dundee.