Lord Jitesh Gadhia
Lord Jitesh Gadhia is an investment banker and businessman. He was Senior Managing Director at Blackstone before being appointed to the House of Lords in 2016. He currently serves on the Boards of Rolls-Royce and Taylor Wimpey and is Chair of The British Asian Trust, a charitable foundation established by HRH The Prince of Wales. Jitesh was born in Uganda and arrived in the UK with his family in 1972.
Mr Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia
Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia is one of the country’s most successful Ugandan Asian entrepreneurs. He founded Euro Car Parts and grew it to over £1.2 billion in revenue. Today, he is Non-Executive Chairman of property developer Dominvs Group. Passionate about India and his long-awaited return, he founded the Ahluwalia Family Foundation to support children’s causes. His family was accommodated at Greenham Common resettlement camp, and he remembers with affection the shepherd’s pie and apple tart he ate on visits to a local family.
Professor Akbar Vohra
Professor Akbar Vohra was born in Uganda and arrived with his family at Stansted Airport on 27 September 1972. He spent an initial two weeks at Stradishall camp before moving to Peterborough. He trained in medicine in Manchester and became a consultant in cardiac anaesthesia and intensive care, managing his department for five years. In this role he looked after more than 15,000 patients; dealt with the AIDS and COVID epidemics; taught students, nurses, paramedics, soldiers and doctors from around the world. He is still looking for the magnet and blue marble that he brought in his pocket from Uganda.
Dr. Shezan Muhammedi
Dr. Shezan Muhammedi is an Adjunct Research Professor in History and Researcher in Residence at Carleton University, Ontario. He also serves as a policy analyst at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. His mother and her family came to Canada from Uganda in 1972, fuelling his passion as an advocate for those who have been forcibly displaced. His recently published book Gifts from Amin: Ugandan Asians Refugees in Canada includes over 50 oral histories with Ugandan Asians. Carleton University is hosting an academic and community-based conference titled ‘Beyond Resettlement: The History of the Ugandan Asian Community in Exile’ from November 14-16th 2022.
Dr. Maya Parmar
Dr. Maya Parmar leads the social enterprise Hadithi C.I.C. Her Ph.D in literary, cultural and postcolonial studies explores the way in which culture and identity is represented, having been displaced twice, from India to East Africa to Britain. In 2019 she published her book Reading Cultural Representations of the Double Diaspora: Britain, East Africa, Gujarat. She now directs ‘Hidden Heritages Cambridgeshire’, an intergenerational oral history project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The daughter of twice migrants, Maya often visits her parental home to be welcomed by a plate of the Indian-East-African favourite chilli mogo.
MC/Panel Moderator Babita Sharma
Babita Sharma is an award-winning Author, Journalist and Broadcaster. Babita is the author of the award-winning book The Corner Shop and she has collaborated with the National Trust and The Migration Museum for two major projects about corner shop life in Britain. Babita has also spent more than a decade covering major news stories for BBC News and is a well-known face on TV and radio, presenting several television documentaries, including her landmark BBC Two series Dangerous Borders: The Story of India & Pakistan that charted the history of the Partition of India.
supported by:
Jasani Foundation Uganda