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From Citizen to Refugee: Uganda Asians Come to Britain
From Citizen to Refugee Uganda Asians Come to Britain Author:Mahmood Mamdani This vivid autobiographical account of Idi Amin's 1972 expulsion of the Uganda Asians and their experiences in refugee camps in Britain is as pertinent today as when first published. With a new introduction by the author, Mahmood Mamdani explores the theme of political identity - the colonial politicization of racial identity and its reproductio... more »n after independence - that has been the subject of much of his subsequent work. In a gripping personal account of the last days of Asians in Uganda following their expulsion by Idi Amin in 1972, Mamdani interweaves an examination of Uganda's colonial history with the subsequent evolution of post-independence politics. The British colonial policy of divide and rule ensured that race coincided with class, effectively politicising the category of race. Following the Second World War, the nationalist movement forced concessions from the British in the form of affirmative action for African entrepreneurs. The nascent African merchant class prospered after independence even as its members negotiated a tension-filled relationship with Uganda's first and increasingly left-leaning president Milton Obote, and the populist military regime of Idi Amin Dada. Preface by Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond.« less