non-black asian indians in uganda
All non-blacks are antiblack, & indians are not alone in their obliteration of black life in the region—the british, most infamously, & the chinese, most recently, do the same. The following excerpts are a counterpoint to claims that black ugandan revolt against british/indian asians is somehow “racist”. All oppressors of black people can fuck off.
there was an unwritten but trusted social order in the colonial administration where Europeans were regarded as first class, Asians as second class, and Africans as third class.
For example, in trains there was a first class coach for Europeans and a few Asians, and there were coaches for Asians, and coaches for Africans. Apartheid did not start in South Africa or the US; it started with the “mother country”, Great Britain.
The same order prevailed with other facilities such as toilets. The segregation was not supported by law but it was observed in practice. Africans were not expected to go to the Imperial Hotel (The Grand Imperial Hotel in downtown Kampala). There was a sign outside the hotel that stayed there until 1952. It read: “Africans and dogs not allowed”. The waiters were Asians.
When Idi Amin kicked out the Asians and nationalized their property in 1972, most of them closed up shop for good, making new lives in India, Britain, or Canada. But some of them were among the first to return to Uganda after General Amin was overthrown.
Mrs. Madhvani was one of those who accepted the invitation of new Ugandan President Milton Obote to return. Her family owns the largest sugar plantation in Uganda. At one time the Madhvani industrial group controlled 38 percent of the industrial investment in the country.
The late Jayant Madhvani, a third-generation Ugandan of Indian origin, had expanded the farm-based industries his father began. He built a cottonseed oil factory, several cotton gins, a soap factory, a mill for grinding maize into flour and cattle feed, and a candy factory.
He operated this business empire from his estate at Kakira, eight miles from Jinja, the industrial center of Uganda, where Col. John Speke discovered the source of the White Nile.
The Madhvani group continued to expand: into steel, glass, and paper in Uganda and into industries in Kenya and Tanzania. Mr. Madhvani even became a member of the Ugandan Parliament.
Next door at Lugazi, the Mehta family, another Asian conglomerate, became one of Uganda’s biggest producers of coffee and tea for export.
Uganda’s capital, Kampala, erupted into racial violence yesterday, with three people killed during a protest against government plans to allow Ugandan-Asian industrialists to grow sugar cane on protected forest land.
In scenes described as reminiscent of 1972, when Idi Amin led a hate campaign against south Asian merchants, demonstrators attacked businesses and a Hindu temple, where police had to rescue more than 100 people seeking sanctuary.
An Asian man was reported to have been stoned to death after being pulled off his motorbike. Several other motorists were beaten and a sugar truck was set on fire. Demonstrators shouting anti-Indian slogans hurled rocks at troops who set up roadblocks to stop the protests spreading. Soldiers retaliated with live ammunition, killing two black Ugandans.
The march, which was authorised by police and began peacefully, was arranged by environmentalists, opposition leaders and religious groups angered by a government proposal to allow the Mehta Group to clear a quarter of the Mabira forest reserve to grow sugar. The 30,000-hectare (7,400-acre) reserve, east of Kampala, contains some of the last patches of virgin forest in Uganda and serves as an important water catchment area.
President Yoweri Museveni last year ordered a study into whether to allow Scoul, a local sugar firm owned by Mehta, to use 7,100 hectares of the forest. The state has a 30% share in Mehta.
Though conservationists said the move would ruin an area containing hundreds of species, the government pushed ahead with its plans for the reserve, which has been protected since 1932.
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