Uganda is a place where about 20,000 Indians call home

In 1972, Idi Amin expelled all Indians. They left only to return two decades later to a place where most of them feel they belong, writes Sunday Monitor’s Benon Herbert Oluka: -

If Sanjiv Patel ever had any doubts about where his young family should call home, he received a debate-settling answer around 1998 from his then 10-year-old son. Although Mr Patel’s grandfather first came to Uganda in the 1920s and settled in the present-day eastern District of Sironko, from where he started a string of successful businesses, the third generation Ugandan-of-Indian origin wanted his son not to lose touch with his ancestry.

Consequently, in 1998, Mr Patel took his son to the deeply cultural Asian country “thinking that he should get some Indian Education.” But a year later, Mr Patel’s plan unravelled and his son called back with a peculiar request. “He called and said, ‘I want to come back home. I love India. It is nice but I want to come back home. This is not my home,’” revealed Mr Patel, adding, “He couldn’t gel there because he has a lot of friends over here. This is home for him. He just turned around and said, ‘I want to come home.’” His son’s resolute decision was an eye-opener for Mr Patel whose cosmopolitan upbringing, which included being born in USA, studying in India, getting married and living in USA for three years, returning to work in Kenya initially and eventually resettling in Uganda in 1991, could not have been more different.

For a man who had traversed the world for nearly all his life, and holds an American passport, it took his son’s earnest plea to remind Mr Patel that home is indeed where the heart is and he quickly organised for his son to be returned home – to Uganda. Not that Mr Patel had forgotten it. He had, after all, returned to resettle in Uganda on his own accord. But his son’s decision re-awakened the family to the realisation that the umbilical cord that connected and tied them to India had dried up and their collective soul now receives sufficient nourishment from an altogether different source.

Little wonder that during our conversation, which took place at his office in Kampala, Mr Patel quite regularly and almost intuitively refers to Sironko – where his father was born – as “my village.” “That is where I come from,” says the father of two. “That is my village. That is where my grandfather flourished from. We still have our houses made of mabati [corrugated iron sheets] there.”

Mr Patel, who is the Director of Tomil Agricultural Limited and runs a string of other family businesses, says whenever he travels out of Uganda on a business trip, he tells friends and business associates while returning to the country that “I am going back home.”

Call to duty
As the ongoing Commonwealth Games in India approached, they provided Mr Patel with the one of the most strenuous litmus tests of his patriotism. But, once again, Uganda carried the day and Mr Patel was one of the few individuals invited by the Uganda Olympic Committee to accompany Team Uganda to the Games in New Delhi.

The invitation was not by accident. Mr Patel had led an Indian Association of Uganda-inspired fundraising drive to raise money and provide logistical support for Uganda’s team to prepare for the Commonwealth Games and settle in New Delhi. The drive raised Shs60 million out of the Shs250 million that Team Uganda needed to cover all expenses.

“The idea was to make our Ugandan athletes and officials comfortable,” he said. Then, in a statement that revealed a deep-rooted patriotic urge, he added, “I am a sports fanatic and it has always been a dream that I would like to represent a country in such a sporting event, and if possible even walk the track in the opening ceremony.”

Mr Patel is just but a microcosm of the numerous members of the Indian Association of Uganda who contributed to Team Uganda’s trip to the country of their birth. In the words of Mr Patel, those contributions were their way of “spreading the word within Uganda that Muyindis (local parlance meaning Indians) are not here only to make money.” “We are here to live together; to build this nation,” he said, quite persuasively. “Many of us have made this our home. It was unfortunate that we were thrown out [during the early 1970s when the then President Idi Amin ordered all Asians to leave Uganda within 90 days].”

Homeless in the ‘70s
That home was snatched away in September 1972 when Amin expelled nearly all of Uganda’s 80,000 Asians and seized their property. That decision, which was condemned worldwide at the time, still sparks off mixed feelings from some members of the Indian Community. To some Ugandans, the expulsion of Indians was justified because they had booted Ugandans out of business.

According to Mr Patel, while the expulsion was unfair, a section of the Indian Community should take some of the blame for helping to set the stage for their expulsion and lack of backing from ordinary Ugandans.

Mr Patel believes the Indian Community should have identified Uganda as home then and worked on creating a good relationship with ordinary Ugandans, as well as contributing to efforts to help turn the country around during the politically tumultuous years. “After going out, we should have thought how to regain the country back, not only for Indians but for Ugandans together,” he said. “What happened is that Indians went and started their own businesses and flourished. There should be a time in our lives when we should call somewhere our home, like I call this my home.”

They did not and, as a result, spent more than two decades out of the country. But at the invitation of President Museveni’s government, there was an influx of returnees and fresh arrivals from India to Uganda.

Today, according to the Indian High Commissioner to Uganda, Mr Srivastava Niraj, there are nearly 20,000 Indians in Uganda – although only about 2,000 of the estimated 55,000 that were forced to leave the country in 1972 have reportedly chosen to return.

Speaking at a flag hoisting ceremony in Kampala to mark the India Republic Day celebrations early this year, Mr Niraj said Indians invest $60 million (about Shs120 billion) in Uganda every year while bilateral trade has grown from $5.6 million in 1984 to more than $168 million in the 2007/08 financial year. “India is one of the three biggest trade and investment partners of Uganda,” explained Mr Niraj. “The two countries trade in a number of items, including pharmaceuticals. In fact, one third of Uganda’s pharmaceuticals come from India.”

Spreading tentacles
Ugandans-of-Indian origin are now spreading their tentacles far and wide. In perhaps the greatest sign of their amalgamation into one of the leading cultural institutions in the country, Kabaka (King) Ronald Muwenda Mutebi of Buganda Kingdom appointed two Ugandans of Indian origin to his cabinet in January 2005. The two were Muhamood Thobani, who was appointed minister for economic planning, development and investments, and Rajni Tailor, who was appointed state minister in the same ministry. By virtue of their appointment to the Kabaka’s cabinet, the duo automatically became members of the Buganda Lukiiko (Parliament). A third Ugandan of Indian origin, Manu Kanani, is a member of the Lukiiko.

Mr Tailor, who says he was born in Old Kampala and raised in Wobulenzi, told Sunday Monitor that his family’s ties with Buganda and the Kabaka-ship in particular have lasted generations. “Our ties are from old days because my father used to be a tailor and he used to stitch the clothes of Kabaka [Edward] Mutesa. When Ronald Mutebi was crowned Kabaka in 1993, I helped to raise funds for his coronation,” said Mr Tailor, 59, who speaks fluent Luganda. “I am privileged that [Buganda Kingdom] honoured me to become a minister because of my social background and loyalty to the Kabaka.”

Mr Tailor, who holds a Ugandan passport, says during their tenure in the investments ministry, they have helped streamline Buganda Kingdom accounts, address land issues, initiate microfinance projects and plan to establish a kingdom banking facility.

The group has also been recognised in the diplomatic circles, with Nimisha Madhvani currently serving as Uganda’s Ambassador to India. Upon her appointment by President Museveni, Ms Madhvani became the first woman envoy of Indian origin across Africa. “It is a signal that the Asian or Indian community is recognised as a well integrated part of the country,” said Ms Madhvani in an interview with Thaindian News in 1998. In other instances, the Ugandans of Indian origin have competed for political office on their own accord.

It all started when the late Jay Tanna defied several odds to win the Youth Member of Parliament election for eastern Uganda in 2001. Although he died one year into his tenure, Jay had set a precedent that was soon followed by his brother, Sanjay Tanna, soon followed when he was elected MP for Tororo Municipality in February 2006.

In 2005, another Ugandan of Indian of Ugandan origin, Singh Katongole, was elected Deputy National Treasurer of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party – a position that he comfortably retained for another five year period during the NRM Delegates’ Conference in September.

Mr Katongole, 43, has set his sights on a bigger catch; he recently declared his intention to contest in the 2011 general elections for the Lubaga North MP seat that is currently held by Uganda Federal Alliance President, Beti Olive Kamya.

The decision by Mr Katongole to contest, along with that of Arvind Patel to vie for the Kampala Central MP seat, brings to three the number of Ugandans of Indian origin who will dip their feet in political waters this election season.

Mr Patel, 55, is the current Treasurer of the National Entrepreneurship League of NRM as well as a member of the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ugandans of Indian origin have also been heavily involved in the sports circles, especially on the motor rallying scene where several have competed and in cricket where players like Nehal Bibodi, Nandi Kishore, and Akbar Baig have represented Uganda at international competitions. Mr Baig has captained the national cricket team on several occasions.

New generation
Among the about 18,000 first generation of Indians who came to Uganda for the first time after the expulsion of Asians is the current Chairman of the Indian Association in Uganda, Naren Mehta. Mr Mehta, who first came to Uganda in 1993 as a visitor and resettled a year later, is currently Chief Executive Officer of five companies that are involved in trading, manufacturing and property development.

Mr Mehta says when he first came to Uganda 16 years ago, after travelling to across parts of East Africa and Europe, he found Uganda to be the most welcoming of all the countries he had been to, as well as brimming with business opportunities.

Mr Mehta, who hails from Gujarat in India, contacted his friends and business associates and encouraged them to sink some money into Uganda. The rest, to flog an old cliché, is history. However, before coming to Uganda, Mr Mehta had his moments of anxiety. “It does happen that whichever country you are going to, when leaving your mother country, there is always a small apprehension about how you will be treated, what kind of reception you will get from friends, colleagues and neighbours. But once you settle down, you start loving the place and make it your home country,” he explained. “I consider the Idi Amin era to be over and forgotten but at the back of my mind, it still remains a dark spot,” he said. “When I first came in 1993, I did not feel anything that I had heard about it.”

Currently, according to Mr Mehta, his companies employ close to 100 people. Over the years, he says the dynamics of business have changed; the cost of doing business has risen and profit margins have fallen. “With time, Uganda also became a part of the world market and the changing global scenario,” said Mr Mehta. “Many new investors came in; they saw the many investments opportunities. Today, with so many entrants in the field, competition is growing, the cost of doing business is changing and so the challenges are also multiplying.

But that has not shaken the love affair between Mr Mehta and Uganda; since he came 16 years ago, Mr Mehta has moved his family from India and educated his daughter at Makerere University, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in medicine, and subsequently did her internship at Mulago Hospital. “Uganda has its issues and challenges but it has started to move in leaps and bounds,” says Mr Mehta. “I am very happy as a businessman, as an investor, as an individual, and as a part of the social community.”

Points of departure
Mr Mehta however has an axe to grind with some aspects of Ugandan life. It started after our interview in his office along Port Bell Road, when Mr Mehta’s driver returned from his home with a car which was not going to be used for any purpose. Mr Mehta took issue with the driver, saying he had wasted fuel.

Showing stacks of used envelopes that he says he keeps in a neat pile for use at a later date, Mr Mehta says what sets indigenous Ugandans and their counterparts of Indian origin apart is the culture of saving. “To be really a wealth generating businessman, the first principles are hard work, diligence and seriousness towards the work. Second, you should also remember that while you are investing the money, you should invest intelligently. And basically, being Indian, we learnt from childhood that part of the income generated should be saved for the tough times to come; that saving should be your backbone, your support or cushion,” he said. “We still believe that you spend to the extent you can manage and you save the rest. Those are two basic principles that the Indians use to intelligently manage their finances and their businesses.”

Mr Patel added that because of the cut-throat nature of business, they also cultivate a culture of working hard from an early age. He says this is perhaps why Ugandans who have worked with them complain that they exploited. “We come from a society where we have been working very hard and Ugandans come from a culture where, after 5pm, working is not in the ethics. Today, in India, even for funerals, people say leave it till Sunday we shall finish it off then. But here, people say don’t touch our culture.

Helping hands
“Don’t get me wrong,” he pleaded, “but what does your neighbour’s wife’s death got to do with you being at the funeral. You can always go and give your respects to that family on Sunday. What good is a culture when it doesn’t bring bread and butter on the table and feed your children. There are certain limits.”
The support to the team to the Commonwealth Games was not a one-off. The Indian Association in Uganda, which was formed on November 2, 1922 ‘to provide service above self for the betterment of the community,’ has provided support to several other causes.

Since 2009, the Indian Association in Uganda has sponsored 20 child patients aged between a year and 12 years for heart surgery at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in India. Currently, the Association is also calling for applications. “We have made it a project to send, every year, children that we can fund for heart surgery. This year we also intend to send 10 children,” said Mr Nehta. “The Indian Association foots the bill starting from testing of the patients. We bear the cost for the surgery, lodging, medication, and bring them back. The cost, on average, is $5,000 (about Shs10 million) all inclusive.”

However, according to the association officials, they are also exploring the possibility of having the operations carried out locally at Mulago Hospital in future as part of a move to save costs and treat more children with the same amount as they currently use.

Last year, the association invited a team of experts from India to visit Mulago Hospital and the Uganda Heart Institute to inspect the availabilities. The team, which visited on September 29, 2009, reportedly found the facilities at the Heart Institute to be adequate.
According to the officials, the reasons behind the proposal to carry out the operations at Mulago are to impart the local skills, upgrade facilities and reduce costs. The Indian Association also offered a helping hand after the floods that devastated the Teso sub-region around September 2007 and the landslides in the Bugisu sub-region early this year.

In Teso, says Mr Mehta, they distributed Shs100 million worth of goods to about 1,000 families. They handed good worth a similar amount, including pharmaceutical products, to victims of the Bududa landslides.

Mr Mehta says such donations are their way of showing their appreciation to their adopted Karmabhumi, meaning the motherland that gives bread and butter, wealth and opportunities. “If a country has afforded you [a source of livelihood] and accorded you all the hospitality,” he said, “there should be a little bit [of compassion] in you to at least give back to the country in whatever little way you can.”