The United Kingdom, on Thursday, marked the 50th-year anniversary of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by ‘bloodthirsty’ dictator, Idi Amin Dada.
On August 4, 1972, Idi Amin who prided himself as the “Conquerer of the British Empire,” had given thousands of South Asians living in Uganda 90 days to leave the country or face being rounded up into concentration camps.
He carried out his threats when he expelled more than 27,000 ethnic Indian and Pakistani holders of UK passports who managed to make their way to the English Midlands city of Leicester.
According to recorded history of the incident, many of those who arrived had been “stripped of everything they had and were penniless after Idi Amin took their wealth in a purported drive to give Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans.
“Overcoming English racism and weather, the refugees rebuilt their lives from scratch, as chronicled in a new exhibition marking the anniversary of Idi Amin’s incendiary decree of August 4, 1972,” Nisha Popat, a curator at the Leicester Museum where an exhibition was held to mark the anniversary said.
After the exhibition at the Leicester Museum, there will be three stage plays at the Leicester Curve Theatre to showcase the story of the Ugandan South Asian exodus to Leicester, according to the Curve chief executive, Chris Stafford.
Even the family of British Home Secretary, Priti Patel who is responsible for refugee policy, were Gujarati Indians and part of those who fled Uganda to Britain in the 1960s when anti-Asian prejudice was already rife.
Before Idi Amin’s eight years reign of terror was brought to an abrupt end through a coup in 1979, more than 300,000 people including foreigners were reportedly slaughtered including close allies, opposition figures and even his wives.