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Transcript
The sense of trauma and dislocation is something that’s not talked about within the Ugandan Asian experience. It’s an experience which is talked about by some people who are very wealthy, you know, that wealth is something they’ve been successful with, which is great. There is lot of talk about, well it was the right thing that happened in the end to some in the Ugandan Asian community they found their peace in the UK, but that’s not the full story. What’s drastically missing in this whole arena, and I have raised this and I continue to raise it, is the fact that actually there has been an emotional trauma that is carried by refugees that is not talked about. So that emotional trauma, that sense of dislocation I’ve carried with me even though I’ve lived in the UK forty-one years now. I can wake up any day and think, actually I can leave the UK tomorrow. So I do feel a sense of rootedness but I also don’t feel the sense of rootedness. And that comes from a sense of dislocation actually.
Uganda has given me an ability to learn to adapt, because we had to learn to adapt and adapt quickly. We didn’t have time. We were just thrown into the situation and we learnt that. I guess also my parents kept saying that. You know, they were pretty much like survivors. You get there, you get to a country and you adapt. Like other Ugandan Asians, you get on with it. You have to, you have to live, you know. So the flexibility of mindset, I think, the flexibility of being able to overcome obstacles is one of the outcomes of the trauma of dislocation from Uganda. There was a strong feeling of unsafeness that my parent’s had throughout their lives, after Uganda. After Uganda, my father was OK but my mother was pretty paranoid about security. She carried that all the time. And I guess the sense of fear that my mother has had, or had, has I think been in a way been projected into me. So there is a part of me that feels very willing to fight for my identity.
« Return to Ugandan AsiansTasks
- How many Uganda Asian families are without their fathers according to this article?
- What does it suggest about Britain’s immigration policy? [Find out about the immigration Act 1971]
- Why are these men considered to be ‘state-less’ do you think?
- What challenges does this suggest for their families?
- What does the Report of the Coordinating Committee for the welfare of Evacuees from Uganda suggest about those who have settled here?
- What are advantages and disadvantages of using newspapers as sources for finding out about these events?
- What other perspectives are provided by the oral testimony in the video Clip?
- Can you compare the Uganda Asian’s experience to Commonwealth migration after 1945 using documents from this resource?