By MRINALINI REDDY | July 5th, 2009
-Excerpt-
However, the temporary patterns of settlement have raised concerns among some older generations of Asians living in Kampala.
Vali Jamal, the owner of Café Viva, situated on a congested strip of Kampala Road, is only too aware of the race relations debacle, a victim of Amin’s decree. He is critical of the lack of integration between the Asian immigrants and their hosts.
“They [first-generation Asians] don’t know anything about history,” said Jamal. “Their existence is superficial at that level and that is a very dangerous thing to me.” While Indian business-owners continue to harvest their investments in Uganda, they are distrustful of the locals, he said.
Jamal, whose grandfather arrived in 1904, is a third generation Ugandan. In the old days, the extended family business ranged from operating restaurants to cotton ginneries.
An economist at the United Nations for more than 25 years, Jamal returned to Kampala from Canada and may be one of the few Asian business owners with a 100 percent Ugandan staff.
Ismailimail 