Migration, Identity and Post-Colonial Change in Uganda: A Goan Perspective

Abstract

While the story of South Asian migration to Uganda in the early twentieth century is familiar, in general terms, a second migration, from the 1980s onwards, has not attracted much attention. Using a combination of archival research and oral history interviews conducted in India, Uganda, Canada and the UK, and focusing on migrants from Goa, this paper suggests that colonial and post-colonial migrants have different perceptions of and attitudes towards each other, their neighbours and the colonial, later Ugandan, state. These perceptions and attitudes can best be understood as the result of historical contingencies that contributed distinctly to the formation of their identities. The case study raises important questions about the nature of divisions within ‘diasporic’ communities, how they are maintained or constructed, and their implications for understandings of what constitutes a ‘diaspora’.

Keywords:

• Migration
• identity
• ‘diasporic’ community
• Uganda
• Goa

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the University of Oxford Beit Fund, the University of Oxford History Faculty, OReNGA (Oxford Research Network on Government in Africa), the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Research Foundation and the Gerda Henkel Foundation for their financial support to the research on which this article is based. The Institute in Advanced Studies for the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, provided a congenial intellectual atmosphere in which to revise this article. Thanks also to Emma Mawdsley, Gerard McCann and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version. Most importantly though, I wish to thank all those who so generously shared their stories and experiences with me.

Notes

 1 Interview with Priscilla, Uganda, June 2006. She is a member of one of the ‘old’ migrant families that has lived in Uganda for three generations. Interview with Cosmo, Mary, Uganda, June 2006. Cosmo and Mary belong to families that have recently migrated to Uganda.

 2 Castles and Miller, Age of Migration; Lucassen and Lucassen, Migration, Migration History, History; Moch, Moving Europeans; Bade, Migration in European History; Hoerder, Cultures in Contact; Manning, Migration in World History; McKeown, “Global Migration,” 155–189.

 3 Mangat, Asians in East Africa; Gregory, India and East Africa; Morris, Indians in Uganda; Rothermund, Rolle der asiatischen Minderheit in Ostafrika; Bharati, Asians in East Africa; Bhachu, Twice Migrants; Seidenberg, Uhuru and the Kenya Indians; Twaddle, Expulsion of a Minority; Ghai and Ghai, Portrait of a Minority; Nanjira, Aliens in East Africa; Ramchandani, Uganda Asians; Tandon, Displaced Minority; Mamdani, From Citizen to Refugee.

 4 See Salvadori, We Came in Dhows; Salvadori, Through Open Doors, or into particular features affecting East African Asians since the 1960s (mainly Tanzania); Nagar, “Politics of Gendered Boundaries,” 6–7, 15; Nagar, “Saboteurs? Or Saviours?”; Brennan, “South Asian Nationalism,” 24–38; for Kenya: Patel, Challenge to Colonialism. Other studies offer ethnographic vignettes into contemporary issues in East Africa (Oonk, Asians in East Africa; Warah, Triple Heritage). Moreover, a number of memoirs provide a different view on how East African Asians present their life stories (Madhvani, Tide of Fortune; Maciel, Bwana Karani; Rodrigues, Goan Voices; Rodrigues, A Collection of Goan Voices 2).

 5 Markovits, Pouchepadass and Subrahmanyam, Society and Circulation. See studies on movement that employ the concept of ‘diaspora’ in multiple ways, for instance Safran, “Diasporas in Modern Societies,” 83–99. These studies employ a great variety of methodological approaches (see, e.g. Eisenlohr, “Language and Identity,” 101–114; Eisenlohr, “Mediating Diasporas”; Moag, “Diglossia versus Bidialectalism,” 350–370; Ballard, Desh Pradesh. See also Cohen, “Diasporas and the Nation-state,” 507–520). Currently, two main strands in diaspora studies can be discerned: one strand emphasises the flexibility of the concept (Mayer, Diaspora), the other doubts the analytical qualities because of its fuzzy definition (Vertovec, “Three Meanings of ‘Diaspora’,” 277–299) or because of its negative connotations for ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ (Anthias, “Evaluating ‘Diaspora’,” 557–580).

 6 Schiller, Basch and Szanton-Blanc, “Transnationalism,” 1–24; Vertovec, Religion in Migration; Vertovec, “Transnationalism and Transformation.” This transnational approach is complemented by studies on locality and translocality (Appadurai, “The Production of Locality,” 204–223; von Oppen, Bounding Villages.

 7 The phenomenon of two waves of migration from the same sending and receiving country at different time periods has happened in a few other cases, such as that of Lebanese migration to Ghana or Chinese migration to South Africa. However, cases like Indian or Asian migration to Uganda is very uncommon: The expulsion in 1972 constitutes a drastic dividing line between both waves of migration. To my knowledge, this has not happened in any other case of more than one migration wave from one to another country. See Forrest, “Le Retour des Indiens,” 76. For Lebanese migration to Ghana, see Akyeampong, “Race, identity and Citizenship,” 297–323; Yap and Man, Colour, Confusion and Concessions.

 8 The term ‘Asians’ is used in East Africa to denote Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis since 1947 and 1971 respectively. Prior to 1947, usually the term ‘Indians’ was used. ‘Goans’ constituted a separate category in British colonial administration, records and daily use until shortly after the Second World War. In this paper, these historically contingent descriptions are being used accordingly.

 9 In general, I provide a pseudonym, the location and date of the interview. The names of all interviewees have been changed to protect their privacy. For the methodology of oral history, see Thompson, Voice of the Past.

10 This has also been the observation of the author when in the field. On the debates on diaspora and transnational studies, see Braziel and Mannur, Theorizing Diaspora; Schiller, Basch and Szanton-Blanc, “Transnationalism,” 1–24; Mayer, Diaspora; Safran, “Diasporas in Modern Societies,” 83–89; Tölölyan, “Nation-State and Its Others,” 3–7; Tölölyan, “Rethinking Diaspora(s),” 3–35; Vertovec, “Three Meanings of ‘Diaspora’,” 277–299; Vertovec and Cohen, Migration, Diasporas and Transnationalism.

11 Besides Zanzibar, Tanaganyika/Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique, the regulative mechanisms used in their recruitment differed from those for other groups, such as Indian soldiers or indentured labourers. As a rule, Goans paid for their own passage, and their emigration was monitored by the Indian emigration authorities to a lesser extent than that of indentured labourers. See Frenz, “Global Goans,” 183–202.

12 D'Souza, Goan Society, 203. For Uganda in 1948, the percentage of Goans among the ‘non-native’ population of Uganda was 3.5%, while 82.4% of the ‘non-native’ were classified as Indians and 8.4% as Europeans. The Uganda Census of 1959 counts 2830 Goans in Uganda: Uganda Census, 1959, 106.

13 Interviews with Andrew and Justin, Goa, December 2002. See also Haward, “An Urban Minority,” 299–323; Salvadori, Through Open Doors. The earliest record of a Goan clerk working in the administration in Uganda stems from 1898. See Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 32.

14 Maciel, Bwana Karani; interview with Robert, UK, December 2004. Also see Mangat, History of the Asians, 131.

15 Twaddle, “Development of Communalism,” 112. See also Mangat, History of the Asians, 102, 109, 130. However, the situation in Uganda was not as rigid as in Kenya. Interview with Robert, UK, December 2004; Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 78. Quote in Myers, Verandahs of Power, 38.

16 Morris, Indians in Uganda; Bhatia, Indian Ordeal in Africa; Ghai, “Future Prospects,” 176–227; Gregory, South Asians in East Africa; Brennan, “South Asian Nationalism,” 24–38; Nagar, “Saboteurs? Or Saviours?”; Nagar, “Politics of Gendered Boundaries.”

17 Interview with Robert, UK, December 2004: ‘[…] the chief secretariat office had European toilets, Asian toilets and African toilets. […] the European toilets were in the building, […] the Asian toilets were just outside and the African toilets were further away’.

18 Myers, Verandahs of Power, 38. For residential patterns of Asians in Nairobi, see Tiwari, “Asians in Nairobi,” 141–149.

19 Gugler, “Urbanization in East Africa.”

20 Interview with Esther, Uganda, June 2006: ‘Peter and Sons were a big company, they were famous here in Kampala before Amin’; interview with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; interview 2 with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; interview with Judith, Canada, August 2007 and personal communication with Nathan's brother in March 2006. However, many Goan businesses did not survive the Depression of the 1930s. See Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 31. Interview with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; interview 2 with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; interview with Judith, Canada, August 2007.

21 Interview with Daphne, UK, January 2006; interview with Grace, January 2008; personal communication with Teresa, Goa, 2003. For a discussion on the role of Goans in the Portuguese diplomatic service, see Frenz, “Representing the Portuguese Empire.”

22 Interviews passim. Interview with Robert, UK, December 2004. The Goan Institute Kampala was founded in 1910.

23 So for instance in Masindi and Fort Portal. Interview with Robert, UK, December 2004; interview with Gabriel; interview with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 164. Apparently, the extension of Christ the King Church was planned in the 1960s, for which many Goans contributed money well into the early 1970s. Ironically, the extension was only completed after the expulsion. Interview with Horatio, Uganda, June 2006; Wagle and Nazareth, Uganda South Asian Exodus.

24 Interview with Nathan, Goa, February 2006; interview with Esther, Uganda, June 2006. In Nairobi, there were even more clubs: the Goan Institute, the Goan Gymkhana, the Goan Railway Institute and the St. Francis Tailoring Society attracted different sections of the community. See Frenz, “Clubbing in East Africa.” See also interview with Judith, Canada, August 2007 on differences between the clubs and implications for children. The Goan Institute was on Buganda Road, the Tailoring Society in Mengo. The rules of the Goan Institute in Kampala stated that it was a club for Goans ‘of good social repute’. See Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 244.

25 Ninety-nine percent of East African Goans were Roman Catholics. Goan Hindus very rarely migrated to East Africa during colonial times. See also Kuper, “Goan Community in Kampala,” 124. Kuper claims that Goans were ‘clearly ashamed’ of following caste despite being Catholics. For the club scene in Nairobi, see Nelson, “Caste and Club.” Both state the unusually high percentage of Brahmins among Goans in East Africa. Goan associations existed all over East Africa: in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. They functioned independently of each other, but followed similar objectives.

26 Bhachu, Twice Migrants; Mukta, Shards of Memory. See also Morris, Indians in Uganda.

27 Mamdani, Politics and Class Formation, 215; Obote, Common Man's Charter, 13, 39. Although the Kakira Sugar Estate was 60% nationalised, the family decided to stay in Uganda ‘to show their loyalty to the country’. Madhvani, Tide of Fortune, 113, 116. Furedi, “African Crowd”; Mangat, History of the Asians; Adams and Bristow, “Position of Ugandan Asians,” 151–166 argue that current anti-Asian sentiments in East Africa can be traced to British colonial policies.

28 It seems that about 35% of Asians held Ugandan citizenship in 1969; however, the process to obtain Ugandan citizenship was complicated and characterised by bureaucratic hurdles. Precise numbers are difficult to come by. Kotecha, “The Shortchanged,” 1–19. For the further debate on acquiring Ugandan citizenship, see also Wooldridge and Sharma, “International Law,” particularly 31–34; Sharma and Wooldridge, “Some Legal Questions,” 397–425; Adams and Bristow, “Position of Ugandan Asians,” 158–161.

29 Adams and Bristow, “Ugandan Asian Expulsion,” 192; Sharma and Wooldridge, “Some Legal Questions,” 405. They could stay only in case they had specific reasons and therefore, had acquired an ‘exemption stamp’ in their passports. Interviews with Daniel, Horatio, Uganda, June 2006. Two main reasons explain why so few Goans remained. First, they were anyway a small proportion of South Asians in Uganda (and East Africa) at the time. Second, many Goans worked in the administration, so they were most heavily affected by the government's Africanisation policy.

30 Interview with Robert, UK, December 2004. See also Marett, Immigrants Settling, 8; Mamdani, Politics and Class Formation, 305; Sharma and Wooldridge, “Some Legal Questions,” 400.

31 Mamdani, “Beyond Settler and Native,” 654; Schubert, “Wurzeln nachkolonialer Gewalt,” 275–294; Brennan, “Realizing Civilization,” 405–423; see also Glassman, “Sorting out the Tribes,” 395–428. Schubert argues that the role of the army provides a continuum between colonial and post-colonial times.

32 Iliffe, East African Doctors.

33 Forrest, “Le Retour des Indiens,” 78, 80; Hansen and Twaddle, From Chaos to Order, 2. For the nationalisation policy, see the Deported Asians Property Custodians Department/Board was responsible. It had been set up in 1972–73. See Sharma and Wooldridge, “Some Legal Questions,” 401; Holmgren, Kasekende and Atingi, Uganda, 128. Currently, a debate on the mismanagement of the Board takes place. See New Vision June 15, 2009, September 21, 2009; Monitor Online September 3, 2009. With respect to the opposition in parliament, see Tukahebwa, “Privatization as a Development Strategy,” 59–72.

34 Shah, “Portable Culture,” 10. Museveni continues to lobby successful ex-Ugandan Asians to establish business relationships with Uganda, as for instance on his visit to Leicester (UK) in September 2008. See State House News , September 19, 2008; Musoke and Baguma, “Museveni Meets Expelled Asians in UK.”

35 Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2002 Uganda Population and Housing Census, 27–28. Percentages of ‘returnees’ in relation to ‘newcomers’ are hard to come by. One source estimates that ‘returnees’ constitute about 10% of the current Ugandan Asian population. Reddy, “Indian Return to Uganda”; Shah, “Portable Culture,” 10.

36 Interview with Priscilla, Uganda, June 2006. The ‘newcomers’ are a mixture of bachelors, married men who leave their families in India and come for a few years to work in Uganda, and young families.

37 This fieldwork impression is confirmed by Shah, “Portable Culture,” 12. For the registration, see Baker, Uganda, 20 as well as the Constitution of the Indian Association Uganda.

38 Hindustantimes, April 13, 2007; The Seattle Times, April 24, 2007. The riot was sparked over controversies with respect to the expansion of the Mehta Sugar Corporation into the Mabira Forest Reserve. For a discussion of the controversies, see Child, “Civil Society in Uganda,” 240–258. For the reaction of the Indian government, see Asian Tribune, April 17, 2007.

39 In the 1950s and 1960s, a heated debate took place among Goan communities in East Africa with respect to the ‘liberation’ or ‘occupation’ of Goa by the Indian Union.

40 Interview with Derek and Nadine, Uganda, June 2006.

41 Interview with Esther, Uganda, June 2006.

42 Interview with Daniel, Uganda, June 2006.

43 See Bissell, “Engaging Colonial Nostalgia,“ 215–248; Schubert, “Wurzeln nachkolonialer Gewalt,” 275.

44 Interview with Priscilla, Uganda, June 2006: ‘People always have to have a plan B’. It remains a conundrum for most interviewees to explain how the expulsion came about. Most of them see themselves as victims of government policy, but do not explore the issue further.

45 For instance, interview with Lincoln and Pamela, Canada, August 2007: ‘I have no intention of going back, absolutely none, because I have seen it at its best. Now it is at its worst’.

46 This perception is comparable to the perspective of Malayali labour migrants to the Gulf region since the 1990s. See Zachariah, Mathew and Irudaya Rajan, Migration in Kerala. Interviews with Cosmo, Mary, Derek, and Nadine, Uganda, June 2006; interview with Cosmo, Mary and Priscilla, Uganda, June 2006. By 2006, however, the Ugandan immigration authorities had become much stricter in issuing work permits to Indians, reducing the number of incoming migrants. It seems that an amount of USD 1000 had to be paid for a work permit in 2006.

47 Interviews with Esther, Daniel, Uganda, June 2006.

48 This conflation of Indians or Asians with Bangladeshis has come up in several interviews undertaken in Uganda, but not in other East African countries. This suggests that it has to do with the near temporal coincidence of the establishment of Bangladesh and the growing tension within Uganda that turned into expulsion politics by August 1972.

49 Interviews with Cosmo and Mary, Uganda, June 2006 and interviews with Derek and Nadine, Uganda, June 2006.

50 Interviews with Derek and Nadine, Uganda, June 2006.

51 Interviews with Derek and Nadine, Uganda, June 2006. It would be illuminating to contrast these views with perspectives of African Ugandans on Asians, which vary significantly. They are not part of this paper, but I hope to come back to the subject in another publication in the future. For a dated discussion of African attitudes towards Asians during colonial times, see Ocaya-Lakidi, “Black Attitudes,” 81–97.

52 Interviews with Horatio, Uganda, June 2006.

53 To my knowledge, there have not been any marriages between members of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ migrant families so far. Interview with Esther, Uganda, June 2006 and with Daniel, Uganda, June 2006.

54 Interview with Priscilla, Uganda, June 2006.

55 Interview with Horatio, Uganda, June 2006; personal communication and visit of the site in June 2006.

56 Interview with Cosmo and Mary, Uganda, June 2006.