How the Ugandan Asian story has come full circle
PRESIDENT MUSEVENI WILL BE CHIEF GUEST AT EVENT TO MARK COMMUNITY’S SUCCESS
THE president of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, will be the guest of honour at a special dinner in London next week to mark the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of Asians.
Prominent British Asian leaders, such as Lord Dolar Popat and Lord Rami Ranger, will be among guests who will celebrate the achievements of the community on Saturday (10), organisers said.
Harshad Modha and Sanjay C Rughani, who are themselves successful UK-based businessmen from Uganda, told Eastern Eye the event, titled, “Once Upon A Time 50 Years Ago”, will focus on both sides of the expulsion story – the struggles of Asians forced to flee as well as those within Uganda.
“We said at 50 years, it was important to have the focus on all sides of the story as it’s a mix of emotions,” said Modha.
This year also marks 25 years since Museveni’s 1997 visit to the UK, when he called on Asians to return to Uganda and help rebuild the country.
Modha said, “In 1997, the president came to London and addressed more than 8,000 people at a temple, inviting them to return to Uganda. So, it is not just 50 years since the Asians were expelled, but also 25 years since they were invited back. While commemorating the lives lost, the idea is to also invite those who are now second- or third-generation Ugandans, to return.”
Rughani added, “Members of some successful families who went back to Uganda and re-engaged in business activities there are also among the invitees” and mentioned the Madhvani and the Mehta family.
The Madhvanis operate one of the largest conglomerates in Uganda and have investments in several African countries, India, and North America.
Starting under Muljibhai Madhvani, the group diversified from sugar to software and is a major player in Uganda’s economy. The family returned to Uganda in the mid1980s after Asians were expelled by Idi Amin in 1972 and the Madhvanis revived their business.
The Mehtas are an established business in Uganda. Founder Nanji Kalidas Mehta arrived in the country in 1900 and launched a number of businesses, including tea, cotton and sugar. The family lost its assets under Amin’s regime and focused on their businesses outside Africa, such as in India and Canada. The family took back control of their assets in Uganda after the former president was ousted.
Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia, the Ugandanborn founder of the Euro Car Parts, is also expected to attend the event next Saturday.
Modha said, “If you’ve got the resilience and determination, no matter whether you’re a refugee or if you are born, bred and skilled within the UK, you can do what somebody like Sukhpal did.”
He noted how the Uganda-Asians story has come full circle.
“Fifty years ago, they were kicked out. Today, the person who has taken charge as the high commissioner of Uganda to the UK, Nimisha Madhvani, is an Ugandan Asian,” he said.
She is a descendant of the Madhvani family and was born in Uganda’s Kakira. She was a teenager in 1972 when Asians were asked to leave the country.
Efforts are also on to implement 50 projects in Uganda to mark the anniversary, Modha said, adding these include setting up wells, education, and health projects. “It’s about giving back now,” he added. “One hospital in Kampala will carry out eye surgeries, led by UK surgeons who will head back to Uganda for this cause.”
He added, “The president of Uganda is keen to shift the population from subsistence agriculture to commercial.
“One of our initiatives aims at increasing agro-production, agro-processing, and agro-value addition.”
His family was based in Lugazi, near the city of Jinja.
He told Eastern Eye, “It was a town where the Mehta family had business interests. They own the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited and my family worked with them. Some other members of the family worked for Kakira, another sugar company (a Madhvani enterprise),” he added.
Rughani, who was born in Kabale in south-west Uganda, has maternal roots in that country and saw his family move to neighbouring Tanzania later. He said Uganda needs more investors following in the footsteps of their forefathers.
“There are numerous opportunities and we can assist investors in Uganda. Our forefathers helped drive the economy in Uganda more than 50 years ago and post expulsion, that changed. But as Asians have a link to Uganda, there is potential to do projects that could help build Uganda’s economy and infrastructure and take the country to where it should be,” Rughani said.
Modha added, “Whether you look at the Ruparelia Group, the Madhvanis,
the Mehtas, and others who are up and coming, they are part of families who contribute to the Ugandan economy. President Museveni is now saying, ‘Forget the past. I think we should all be forgetting the past. We should instead reshape, restructure and work together, like we were doing 50 years ago.”
Rughani highlighted the achievements of successful Ugandan Asians, including Nik Kotecha (philanthropist and founder Morningside Pharmaceuticals) and Baroness Shriti Vadera (former minister in Gordon
Brown’s
government and ex-chair of Santander). He said, “They have done extremely well, more than they would have had they stayed back. Other people have done well too, be it through their professional vocation or property investment.
“Everyone has succeeded in the UK through resilience and tenacity while building a new life.
“We also have politicians such as Shailesh Vara, Lord Dolar Popat (the prime minister’s Trade Envoy to Rwanda, Uganda and DRC), Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Priti Patel, among others. The reality is everyone has done well in some way or other.”
While the older generation has a connection to Uganda, would younger Asians born in the UK have the same link?
Rughani said, “If you take the case of Harshad, who was born in the UK, then the answer is yes. But that is not to say everyone’s going to connect.
“A small portion will certainly (connect). There will be another 25-30 per cent who will begin to connect. There is also the next generation that has gone back to Uganda and there are several who have settled there and have done extremely well.”
Modha said it depended on people’s outlook – whether they understood the opportunities that a country like Uganda offers and if they have the ability to capitalise on them.
“Our forefathers went to a country like Uganda for a reason. Yes, some went for the British railways, but they must have seen something to stay behind.
“Now it’s about whether a third-generation like me or even some from the fourth generation… it’s about enhancing or trying to understand what those people saw, what we can do. If the understanding is not there, then no; if the want is there, then sure.”