BY CHRISTOPHER KISEKKA
Samwiri Lwanga-Lunyiigo’s new book Uganda an Indian Colony 1897-1972 is a revelation to many Ugandans who are ignorant of international capital movements and enjoy the illusion of economic independence.
The well-researched, provocative book is published on the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of the Indians in Uganda. Many people still debate whether this was a foolish act or the act of a brave man.
The book explains how this minority group, as sub-colonialists, dominated the country’s economy until they were expelled. It also sparks debate about her return.
Arguably Uganda’s leading historian, Prof. Lunyiigo, provides insights into commercial life during the colonial era, when Uganda’s indigenous people were structurally impoverished and milked through taxes and work, while the 50 Indian families – whose descendants came to East Africa as poor – benefited from their sweat.
Using evidence, the book shows how the Indians, who were only 1 percent of the eight million people then living in Uganda, controlled 75 percent of the economy but paid only 5.4 percent in taxes and repatriated all their profits.
The author points out that between 1955 and 1972 there was an outflow of capital from Uganda of around £12 million a year, peaking in 1958 at £17.2 million.
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But how did the Indians do all this? Did they have a special business genius, as is commonly said? Lunyiigo simply notes that Indians have seized opportunities with legal support from the British, perhaps as a reward for fighting alongside them in the Middle East, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Promise
The author writes that the Indians had come with promises that East Africa would become their colony. When the promise was rejected, the British instead created a system that favored Indian employees.
Colonial authority repressed and eliminated indigenous socioeconomic systems that existed long before colonization and ensured that Africans did not receive an education that could help them learn a trade that would enable them to make a living.
The book also includes evidence-based cases of Native Americans stealing Native American products. The Ugandans attempted to fight for ownership of their economy by establishing cooperatives, but their efforts were thwarted by the Indians. In the story, British Governor Sir Andrew Cohen and then-President Idi Amin are heroes who offer authoritative resistance to Indian dominance.
Cohen created a suitable environment for Africans to engage in economic activities, and Amin went to extremes and expelled them outright.
The book also questions the question of properties. Some Indians were expelled without compensation in Kenya and Tanzania, but in Uganda the government paid them off. However, many returned and claimed ownership. Some criminally claim what never belonged to them or their families.
By 1993 the Indians were returning and are currently the main movers and shakers of the Ugandan economy. Over the past three decades they have settled and are now pushing to be recognized as a Ugandan tribe.
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