Gifts from Amin: Ugandan Asian refugees in Canada, By ShezanMuhammedi, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. 2022. pp. 288. $27.95 (paperback). ISBN: 978‐0887552830

Abstract

Gifts from Amin: Ugandan Asian refugees in Canada is a poignant exploration of the pluralities of identity in a global world. Shezan Muhammedi traces the history of Asians living in Uganda, their place in Ugandan history, and their subsequent expulsion under the order of President Idi Amin. From his interviews with Ugandan Asian refugees who resettled in Canada, Muhammedi blends together intimate personal narratives with their broader historical contexts. Gifts from Amin provides a model of an alternative historical record, one which demonstrates that people are not powerless recipients of history, but active participants in the construction of their worlds. South Asians had a steady presence in East African society for centuries, primarily through participation in Indian Ocean trade networks. However, under British colonial rule during the 19th century, Asian populations in East Africa increased significantly—as merchants, indentured labourers, or government officials. The British colonial system stratified Ugandan society, favouring Asians over Africans, placing Asians in the center of the “colonial sandwich” (p. 22). This strategy used social divisions as protection against unified resistance between Africans and Asians to colonial rule. After Ugandan independence, Asians were forced to decide between retaining British or Ugandan citizenship, but could not have both. Logistical barriers to acquiring Ugandan citizenship were part of a project by the Ugandan government to portray Asians as outsiders, oppressors, and colonial collaborators. The culmination of this project was the expulsion order issued by Idi Amin in August of 1972, ordering all Asians to leave Uganda within 90 days. The Canadian government agreed to assist Britain in the resettlement of Ugandan Asian expellees. Muhammedi argues that the government's motivation for resettlement was a mix of humanitarianism and national benefit. The idea was that “these people are not destitute refugees, they are the most desirable type of immigrants” (p. 78) for a multicultural Canadian society. By the end of the 90-day expulsion period, 4,624 Ugandan Asians resettled in Canada. Muhammedi also illustrates the ways that identity formation is fluid through the narratives of Ugandan Asian “refugees” (a term Muhammedi chose because all 49 oral history participants self-identified as refugees). While in Uganda, Asians retained their cultural, ethnic, or religious identities. However, many Asians also identified as Ugandan, especially those who had been born and raised in East Africa. After the expulsion order, Ugandan Asians had to learn how to enmesh within the Canadian social fabric. The complexities of social identity are particularly evident among second-generation Ugandan Asians who had been born and raised in Canada. It is a project of forming your own personal identity while existing within a system of contradictory classifications. As one oral history participant aptly says, “I am a Canadian, a Ugandan, an African, an Indian and a Goan. You don't have to choose … I embrace all of them. They are all a part of [my] psyche” (p. 204). Gifts from Amin also shows us the ways in which colonial racial stratification was both reified and challenged by Asians in Uganda. Some used their proximity to the colonizer to gain access to wealth and resources, exploiting Ugandan Africans in the process. However, Muhammedi shows how many others were simply trying to exist under conditions of limited mobility. The process of immigration into Canada also required another kind of stratification, not just for Ugandan Asians expellees, but for all who enter through contemporary immigration policies. The Canadian state uses metrics, ones less explicit than race—points, refugee status, country of origin, etc. While not an identical comparison, the discursive similarities are still important to recognize. Systems to organize people also serve to divide them. Gifts from Amin narrates the impacts of manufacturing otherness across Uganda and Canada, and their long-standing and far-reaching implications. Gifts from Amin sheds light on how history is something that is experienced both personally and politically. The use of oral history is the most moving part of the book. It is a history of a community, a history of a country, and a history of our modern world. With migration as one of the pressing issues of the day, Gifts from Amin asks us both who is the migrant and what is a nation. But most importantly, it asks us to hold the complexities of how these two ideas fit together. Just maybe, they can be more than we ever imagined.