Uganda's Asian Elite Face Fresh Hostility

On 12 April an environmental protest in Kampala turned racial. The crowds began chanting anti-Asian slogans.

Some held placards with slogans praising Uganda's former dictator Idi Amin. "For one tree cut five Indians dead," said one poster.

Violence targeting Asians led to the death of one young Indian man. Shops were ransacked and many Asians sought refuge in the Hindu temple or barricaded themselves in their shops. Pent up frustration over the inequality between Uganda's Asian and black communities found expression on the streets.

"The violence was exceptional, but the bitterness expressed was characteristic," says Dr Moses Musaazi, a university academic turned businessman.

In 1972, Idi Amin expelled the country's wealthy Asian population and expropriated their assets. But in the1980s the exiled were offered compensation and many have returned to re-establish business empires that again dominate Uganda's economy.

Indians make up less than 1% of Uganda's population. But they control some 40% of the economy.

"Asian employers haven't done anything to correct the situation that brought about Amin," says Dr Musaazi. "I didn't think they would make the same mistake again."

The protest was originally over an environmental issue. Uganda's government had announced that it was giving the go ahead for a sugar cane company to develop a part of Mabira National Park, a protected area of forest.

But the company in question is owned by the wealthy Ugandan-Indian Mehta family.

"Mabira gave an outlet to fears of Asian domination, gave them a voice," says Angelo Izama, journalist and broadcaster.

"There is resentment that the government appears to be favouring an Asian business. It has pitted the communities against each other."

Ugandans feel that Asian business is given special treatment and has the ear of the government in a way they do not. Many Indians are not eligible to vote, but often donate money to support the political campaigns of Ugandan friends.

The Museveni government values the investment and expertise that foreign investors bring to Uganda. And the Indian community now enjoys a kind of political insurance which was absent in the days of Idi Amin.

"The accessibility to authorities in Uganda is so smooth and so simple," says Sanjiv Patel of the Indian Association of Uganda.

"I can assure you if there is a burning issue of Indians or minorities, or pertaining to the country, the president would call us within twenty-four hours."

It's not obvious to the naked eye but almost all of Kampala's big businesses are owned by Indians including manufacturing, luxury hotels, banks and real estate. The city's finest restaurants are curry houses catering to the wealthy elite.

On the street there's the occasional glimpse of a bright sari amongst the boldly patterned African clothes. A glance in many small shops reveals a sea of black faces at the service desk and one Asian in the shadows at the back.

"Because of a lack of integration, any small misunderstanding is blown out proportion," says Angelo Izama.

Ordinary Ugandans readily refer to cases of Asian employers mistreating and underpaying staff. And in the city's market district small traders feel the competition from Asian rivals keenly.

"Their prices are cheaper than ours, so we are not friends with Indians," says Sarah, the manager of a hardware shop.

"Our president mostly likes the Indians and the Chinese. He doesn't listen to us blacks.

"I think Ugandans have lived in harmony with the Indians for quite some time. We have been underpaid by them for quite some time in their factories, their flower gardens and their shops. All this we bear because we are poor" says Issa Sekitto representative of Kampala's city traders.

But there's nothing like the difficult relationship there was between Indian employers and black workers before 1972. Indians have worked hard to overcome the reputation they had for arrogance and cruelty.

Ugandans are also quick to admit that immigrants tend to work harder, put in longer hours and expect the same from their employees.

Despite some obvious resentment there's little sign of outright racism against Indians. Most Ugandans, from academics to second hand shoe salesmen, refer to Indians with respect.

They admit that when Idi Amin expelled the Asians it left the economy in a mess. Ugandans who inherited Asian property had little experience in running industry and no money to invest. The economy collapsed.

Most Ugandans are grateful that Asians investors were persuaded to return to create work and wealth again.

But they are suspicious of a community which worships, educates and lives apart.

And now the President is preparing to publish a final decision over the fate of Mabira National Park.

The government argues the hundreds of jobs and wealth that will follow are worth the loss of some of the country's protected forest.

They are quite aware that pursuing the plan could jeopardise the delicate balance of good will that they've built up in recent years.

trivia :

* Uganda, Iraq & ADF : BAGHDAD--Saddam Hussein's regime was linked to an African Islamist terrorist group, according to intelligence papers. The documents provide the first hard evidence of ties between Iraq and religious terrorism. Secret dossiers detailing the group's discussions with the Iraqi Intelligence Service were found in the spies' Baghdad headquarters, among the detritus of shredding. The papers show how an Iraqi diplomat in Nairobi, Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie, was in discussion with the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan guerrilla group with ties to other anti-Western Islamist organizations. While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide evidence. ---------- "Papers connect Iraqi spies to African terrorist group," BY PHILIP SMUCKER AND ADRIAN BLOMFIELD, Chicago Sun-Times, April 18, 2003

* ADF aka Allied Democratic Forces, Iraq & Al Qaeda : The formation of the Allied Democratic Forces in 1996 gave the al-Qaeda a better ally. Several ADF commanders were taken for training in the Sudan and Afghanistan, while several junior ones were trained in the Nairobi cell. This group included Jamil Mukulu, the de facto leader of ADF and one Rashid Kawaawa, currently on remand.
"We have information that most of the bombers were trained in al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan, the Sudan and even Iraq. We have information that these people planned to kill as many people as possible and try and create a cell here in Uganda," [Ugandan spy chief Col. Noble] Mayombo says. Documents recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan after both wars qualify Mayombo's statements.
The "martyrs", as they are known, were supposed to come back and cause serious havoc in the country [of Uganda]. They were supposed to organise and develop the local al-Quaeda. But because they lacked the zeal of their Arab mentors and trainers, Rashid Kawaawa and his group turned to using small time bombs, rather than blow themselves up in suicide attacks. None of them was willing to commit "martyrdom" as their Arab mentors do.
Worthy noting however is that the funding of the operations was guaranteed from al-Quaeda and supporting nations like Iraq and the Taliban of Afghanistan. To them, the ADF was an organisation fighting for the right to Islam.
A few Arabs tried to come to Uganda to reinforce members of the local cells, but did not succeed mainly because Uganda was in a state of war and intelligence was very vigilant.- "Can Uganda Handle Terrorism?," OPINION, by Joshua Kato, Kampala, New Vision (Kampala), May 22, 2003 ,Posted to the web May 23, 2003

More triv :

1996 : (UGANDA : ADF LAUNCHES REVOLT AGAINST PRESIDENT MUSEVINI'S GOVERNMENT - See IRAQ & ADF) The ADF [Allied Democratic Forces] emerged in 1996, when it launched a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's government. In December 2001, the movement was placed on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Throughout its campaign, the ADF has been provided with weapons and funding by the Islamist government in Sudan, one of several states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism. ---------- "Papers connect Iraqi spies to African terrorist group," BY PHILIP SMUCKER AND ADRIAN BLOMFIELD, Chicago Sun-Times, April 18, 2003

NOVEMBER 1997 mid : (AFRICA : SUDAN THREATENS CHEMICAL WEAPONS STRIKES AGAINST UGANDA FOR UGANDA'S SUPPORT OF CHRISTIAN "REBELS") Khartoum's self-confidence in its growing chemical warfare capabilities came to light in mid November 1997. Sudan formally threatened Uganda with strikes with chemical weapons if it continued to support the Christian Black rebels. This warning came despite Kampala's previous denials of cooperation with the sudanese rebels and Khartoum's adamant denials of CW capabilities or use. ----- Yossef Bodansky, "The Iraqi WMD Challenge - Myths and Reality," TASK FORCE ON TERRORISM & UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 , February 10, 1998

APRIL 2001 : (BEKKAH ABDUL NASSIR, "CHIEF OF DIPLOMACY" IN THE UGANDAN ISLAMIST GROUP 'ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES' WRITES A LETTER ABOUT HIS EFFORTS TO SET UP AN INTERNATIONAL MUJAHEDDIN TEAM TO THE HEAD OF THE IRAQI SPY AGENCY) In a letter to the head of the Iraqi spy agency [the Iraqi Intelligence Service], a senior ADF [Allied Democratic Forces] operative outlined his group's efforts to set up an "international mujaheddin team." Its mission, he said, "will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against U.S., British and Israeli influences in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East." The letter, dated April 2001, was signed: "Your Brother, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, Chief of Diplomacy ADF Forces."
Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a center in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international Holy Warrior network." It was not clear whether the center was established. "We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said. The authenticity of the letters, however, could not be verified. ---------- "Papers connect Iraqi spies to African terrorist group," BY PHILIP SMUCKER AND ADRIAN BLOMFIELD, Chicago Sun-Times, April 18, 2003

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050906A

From Refugees to Tycoons
By Val MacQueen

Immediately after he pulled off his ‘72 coup against President Oboto in Uganda, strongman Idi Amin — full title: His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular (and also, curiously, King of Scotland) —decreed Africa should be for Africans. One of his first decisions as lord of beasts and fishes was to eject all the Asians — some 40,000 or so, who were third generation descendants of Indians who had come to work for the British colonial administration during the days of Empire and who, when the British Empire was dissolved, created commercial enterprises.

Not for nothing had Amin been mentioned in a dispatch, when he was on the British side during the Mau-Mau uprising, as “virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter.”

Having decided to eject the country’s wealth-creators, he further ruled that these people, uprooted from their country of birth, could take with them only what they could carry. They had 90 days to get out.

The crisis this provoked in Britain at the time has been softened with the passing of the years, but because they were Commonwealth citizens with British passports, the government, in the face of almost universal opposition at home, did the right thing and decided to give them refuge. So 40,000 ethnic Asians arrived in an alien, monocultural group of islands in the clothes they stood up in and the one suitcase holding the meager possessions they had managed to carry with them. Their confusion and distress at having had to leave their country of birth and all their possessions to come to a cold, damp, hostile island must have been almost unendurable.

Back home Idi Amin distributed the property they’d been forced to leave behind among his friends and presided noisily over the decline of Uganda. The Asians, meanwhile, were billeted in drab refugee centers until they found their feet, and they displayed a resilience that still astounds.

What a difference two generations can make.

The British high-circulation Asian newspaper Eastern Eye, in conjunction with The Daily Telegraph of London, has just published its annual list of Britain’s richest Asians. In all, six from East African refugee families made it into the top 10.

Number one is Mike Jatani, one of four brothers who started the Lornamead Group (beauty products) in 1978, eight years after the Amin explusion. Today, their company, started from scratch, is worth £650 million ($1.2 billion).

According to The Daily Telegraph, the pharmacy sector is the biggest, with the Mehta brothers (8th) and husband and wife team Navin and Varsha Engineer (12th) between them accounting for £300 million — over half a billion dollars.

In the fashion segment, one of Britain’s best loved women’s clothing chains, offering outstanding fashion value for money, is New Look, owned by one Tom Singh, whose Indian parents brought him to England when he was one year old and set themselves the task of peddling goods from door to door. Tom Singh and his wife opened their first store in 1968. By the mid-1990s they had 200 stores. In 1998, they sold the chain to a venture capitalist for £156 million and Singh took a role as non-executive director. In 2004, New Look returned to the private sector and Singh rejoined as managing director. Sikh Tom Singh’s in the No 6 slot. Also in fashion, Shami Ahmed, who created Bloggs jeans, comes in at No. 13.

Another Sikh, Jasminder Singh, born in Dar-es-Salaam, with his Radisson Edwardian Hotel chain, comes in at No 5.

The only new entry to the top 20 this year is an entrepreneurial travel boss at no. 18 with £95 million, displacing the fetchingly described “curry magnate”, Sir Gulam Noon. Last year, Noon was 16th on the Asian rich list with £100 million, but now with just £85 million doesn’t merit a place at the Asian top table. (The displaced Noon has been otherwise engaged in the traditional British rich man’s sport of trying to buy a peerage under the table — the second such Asian businessman caught in Tony Blair’s latest wheeze to raise money for the Labour Party — an encouraging demonstration of just how integrated Britain’s Indians have become.)

Steel parts tycoon and cricket-enthusiast Lord Swraj Paul (he rather sweetly lists his membership of the MCC — the world famous Marylebone Cricket Club — on his resumé and contributes time and money to helping disadvantaged boys take up the game), is No 3 and worth £450 million. He and his wife recently managed to get Non-Resident Indian status from the Indian government, which means they will have the right to settle in India one day. Who comes around goes around.

Those expelled from East Africa were third generation immigrants to Africa, and had created assets and wealth. Which is why Idi Amin was so interested in them. Now, those families are again third generation immigrants, this time to Britain, and again they are rolling in wealth. How was this extraordinary feat accomplished twice?

How does one account for a group of people who came from the Third World to the First World with nothing but a suitcase, within three generations, overtook around 99.5 percent of the natives in terms of wealth?

Like the Chinese, ethnic south Asians have a reputation for possessing shrewd commercial instincts and a willingness to sacrifice short term advantage (i.e. going to work for someone else in return for a regular salary) in the service of a long-term goal. The entire family stays focused.

Those families in the 1970s were indeed strangers in a strange land. They didn’t waste time on regrets. They hunkered down and got to work. The parents of Tom Singh traipsed around neighbourhoods peddling goods from door to door for years. As did others. They were thrifty. They worked long hours. They saved their money and reinvested it in themselves. Indians keep it all in the family and the mates of their children marry into the business also. Tom Singh’s parents amassed some money from their door-to-door peddling, but it was their son Tom and his wife who opened the family’s first store, and subsequently 200 more.

Another key to ethnic Indians’ success is, they do not look to banks for money. If money is needed, they look within the family or extended family, offering a part of the business by way of repayment.

The three richest British Asians were excluded from the Eastern Eye/Daily Telegraph list because their business interests lie primarily outside the United Kingdom. Numbers two and three would be the notorious Hinduja brothers, whose fortune is estimated at around $8 billion.

Finally, not only the richest British Indian, but Britain’s richest-ever individual come together in the person of international steel panjandrum 54-year old Lakshmi Mittal, born in Rajastan and whose £14.8 billion fortune puts him third in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain is worth $818 million.

Val MacQueen is a TCS contributing writer

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