Expulsion of Asians from Uganda
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In early August 1972, the
President of Uganda The president of the Republic of Uganda is the head of state and the head of government of Uganda. The president leads the executive branch of the government of Uganda and is the commander-in-chief of the Uganda People's Defence Force. The in ...
,
Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
, ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. At the time of the expulsion, there were about 80,000 individuals of Indian descent in Uganda, of whom 23,000 had their applications for citizenship both processed and accepted.. The expulsion took place against the backdrop of Anti-Indian sentiment and
black supremacy Black supremacy or black supremacism is a racial supremacist belief which maintains that black people are superior to people of other races. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. said that a doctrine of black supremacy was as dangerous as white ...
in Uganda, with Amin accusing a minority of the Asians of disloyalty, non-integration, and commercial malpractice, claims that Indian leaders disputed. Amin defended the expulsion by arguing that he was "giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans". Many of those who were expelled were
citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...
and 27,200 emigrated to the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. Of the other refugees who were accounted for, 6,000 went to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, 4,500 refugees ended up in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and 2,500 went to nearby
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
or to
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. In total, some 5,655 firms, ranches, farms, and agricultural estates were confiscated, along with cars, homes and other household goods.


Background

The presence of South Asians in Uganda was the result of deliberate choices by the British administration (1894–1962).. They were brought to the
Uganda Protectorate The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Brit ...
by the British to "serve as a buffer between Europeans and Africans in the middle rungs of commerce and administration". In addition, in the 1890s, 32,000 labourers from British India were brought to Southeast Africa under indentured labour contracts to work on the construction of the
Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...
. Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 individuals decided to remain in the African Great Lakes after the line's completion. At the time of the expulsion, there were approximately 80,000 individuals of South Asian descent in Uganda, of whom 23,000 had had their applications for citizenship both processed and accepted.. A further 50,000 were British passport holders, though Amin himself used the apparently exaggerated figure of 80,000 British passport holders in his initial expulsion speech. The British had invested in the education of the Asian minority, in preference to that of indigenous Ugandans. By the early 1970s, many Indians in Southeast Africa and Uganda were employed in the
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