Uganda Expulsion Anthology - Video Presentation Editorial In the first essay in our Uganda series, senior Canadian Immigration mandarin, Mike Molloy elaborated on the progressive development of the Canadian Refugee law until the Expulsion (click here to read) and today, we bring you a video presentation of an incisive lecture entitled, "Uganda Asian Expulsion-What have we learnt in half a century" by Mahmood Mamdani, acclaimed author and Professor of Government Studies at Columbia University NYC. Dr. Mamdani, a Ugandan refugee himself, puts the Expulsion in its historical context and provides lessons for the future of Uganda and other multi-ethnic societies in Africa and Europe. Iqbal I. Dewji, Editor | Uganda Expulsion Anthology - forthcoming essay For many Khojas, Africa retains a special connection - not just the nostalgia of the idealic childhoods and deeply imbeded cultural traits, but also of grateful astonishment at the nearly 150 years of prosperity and non-violent racial co-existence in the much-maligned 'Dark Continent'. In an exclusive essay entitled "Uganda Expulsion and Its Aftermath: Were the Rest of Us Really Without Choice?", M.G Vassanji, chronicler extraordinaire of the Khoja African experience, gives his thoughts on the Expulsion and its impact on racial minorities in East Africa. Typical of all Vassanji's writings, it promises to be personal and thought-provoking. | Vassanji's Books & Other Writings | M.G. Vassanji has published nine books and numerous essays etc. which can be purchased here: https://www.mgvassanji.com Whilst each of his works is masterful, my personal favourites are the first two titles below as they are set in my own old neighbourhood of Dar es Salaam and feature fictional characters I recognise. The other two books are homecoming traveloges that resonate deeply for the many of us separated from our roots. Iqbal I. Dewji | Winner of the Giller Prize (Canada) Pius Fernandes, a retired schoolteacher in modern-day Dar es Salaam, is given a recently discovered diary of a British colonial administrator from 1913-14. Set at the dawn of the First World War, the diary tells an intriguing secret about a liaison in the past, while describing an early Asian immigrant community in a border town. Pursuing the story of the diary and its secret, Fernandes discovers that it is as much the untold history of East Africa he is unravelling as his own self. "By turns detective story, family saga [and] national history... A rich, evocative meditation on how and why stories are written... A wonderfully ambitious and absorbing novel." - Sunday Times (London) "...a chillingly accurate novel." - The Times (London) "A love affair with the past...an exquisite, tender, and possibly great novel." -The New Yorker "A testament to the almost mystical power of written words, Pius Fernandes's search for the truth is also a celebration of storytelling." - The New York Times"M G Vassanji masterfully weaves an extraordinarily colourful and richly complicated carpet.... The Book of Secrets is a big book in every sense. It contains both love and forgiveness. And at its heart is an enormous generosity." The Toronto Star | Winner of the Commonwealth first Novel Prize (Africa) In the coastal city of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), an exiled Salim Juma inherits, from his great aunt Ji Bai, an ancient gunny sack of mementos. It hides the forgotten relics of the past, becoming--as he tries to make sense of them--a veritable Scheherazade, releasing tantalizing fragments of memories and stories of three generations of Indian African immigrants. As he examines these contents, one at a time, he gives shape to his story, and that of his family and community, that becomes this novel. “Vassanji is one of the country’s finest storytellers.”-Quill & Quire “Vassanji captures a wide and authentic perspective that ranks with V. S. Naipaul and Graham Greene.”-The Times (London) | Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction For MG Vassanji, India was a place alive only in the stories of his ancestors. Mysterious and exotic, it brimmed with wonder and tradition, a place welcoming and vibrant, yet still cruel and distant. An African by birth, it is only as an adult that he finally journeys to India for the first time, and in an instant the land that once existed in his imagination comes to life. In a reverant portrait of words and images that spans the length of India, crossing the busiest city streets, the richest countrysindes, and introducing unforgettable characters, A Place Within is more than a travelogue--it is a true homecoming to a world that has always lived inside. "Strikingly written...filled with myths, stories, legends, history, journal entries, and family narratives... One is grateful, in the end, for Vassanji's company as for his wonderful book." - The Globe and Mail "A lovely, deeply personal book--one entirely worthy of Canada's top-shelf talents." - Edmonton Journal "An utterly brilliant, evocative memoir that ranges across landscapes of culture, memory, identity and history.... A Place Within is the resonant chronicle of a sage, a traveler, a pilgrim. Governor General's Literary Award Citatition | Finalist for the 2015 Charles Taylor Prize In this travel memoir the author revisits the cities of his birth and growing up and over several journeys travels the length and breadth of the land--from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya, Zanzibar to Nairobi, Kilwa to Kigoma... "For a long time it seemed to me that I would never visit those lost dimensions, experience the land in its variety, experience the diversity of its people. I was wrong. All it required was the will to do just that... There were moments when the thrill of travel and discovery were such that I felt I could go on and on, from place to place, and never stop." -Interview in Macleans | | VISIT KHOJAWIKI.ORG Hundreds of family stories and family trees, detailed histories of migration, settlement & merchantilism from the 1500's; Khoja cultural artifacts through the ages. | Khojawiki.Org Is a Non-profit Collective Preserving the History of Khoja Ismailis, Khoja Ithna-asheris and Sunni Khoja Families Globally. | Since 2016, the Khoja Oral Family History Documentation Project has been creating awareness of the extraordinary mercantile and migratory history of our people since the 14th Century. | | | | | |
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