Vali Jamal shares two pages from his forthcoming book to show its extraordinary scope, in this case by debunking a silly plagiarism about childhood in Africa (just slightly different from that of US/UK kids). Click on the image or the link below to read.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12xsTrx7nieY5-yToTmEwlNbug5korXkuZFzGwWCD9vQ/edit?usp=sharing
Vali Jamal: Mixed marriages are now common in the Uganda Asian community but I could count just ten until 1972. The liaisons often occurred in Britain during the long years of studies in the cold climate, with no prospects of returning home except at the end of the degree. I asked Carolyn to write about her six-month stay in Kampala in 1967 so soon after her marriage to Bahadur Bandali Kassam.
Abbotsford, December 2012.
I was born in North Finchley, London, where I did my early schooling and later my family moved to Cambridge. After completing my A levels I went to St Andrews University in Scotland to read Science. I met Bahadur (BBK to his friends) when we shared lectures in Physiology. Our decision to get married was not well received by either family because mixed marriages never work” but we went ahead anyway. It was mixed in two ways, race and religion. We were married on July 1st 1967 at Cambridge, BBK graduated with his medical degree from St Andrews on July 4th and we left London for Kampala on July 7th – probably the most momentous week of our life together!
via Pages from Vali Jamal’s forthcoming book about Uganda Asians. It’s about Mrs Carolyn Bahadur Bandali Kassam and brings out how it was for a British lady to be part of the larger Uganda Asian community and Uganda society. Dr Jamal’s book should publish “at mid-year.”. Click here for all related Vali Jamal posts at Ismailimail.
If it’s Kabale, it must be the Somanis. This statement was commonly heard before 1972 because the family had become a household name in the trading of various merchandise in the south western town. The excerpt below is by Haider Somani is from the book Uganda Asians: Then and Now, Here and There, We contributed, We contribute by Vali Jamal.
In the 11th part of our series, Waheed Karim tells the story of M.A. Karim, the man who built many landmark Indian architect buildings in Kampala and Masaka. This is an excerpt from Vali Jamal’s book Uganda Asians: Then and now, Here and There, We contributed, We contribute.
via Ugandan Asians: Karim the builder – Reviews & Profiles – monitor.co.ug.
By Vali Jamal: In the 14th part of our series, Vali Jamal in his book on Uganda Asians features Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, one of the Asians who remained in Uganda even when they were expelled by President Amin in 1972. The president recognised that his services to the country were far more useful than his citizenship, and exempted him. His wife is a social organiser whose contribution has been commended by even First Lady Janet Museveni and their children are doing as much in US and Pakistan.
via Ugandan Asians: The doctor Amin could neither ignore nor expel – Reviews & Profiles – monitor.co.ug.
via Vali Jamal, PDFs: Never left – Faces.
By Vali Jamal. Author: Uganda Asians: Then and Now, Here and There, We Contributed, We Contribute
In remembering his untimely demise we also remember the life in the Gardens of Kampala in his own words. A great writer has passed on.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=1u8SwwGz68gF9MOOg7ULIBXK6zPPJXVLbvksPsy6JXtnAIUT1Q3sn6eyj9GsH
What awaits the proud peasantry is being forced into wage employment on the multinational mega farms. Who knows, their wages may even be higher than the valuation of their produce meant for their own families.
Economics lectures can be quite fun as the subject matter deals with things we generally know – what affects our standard of living and how are we doing as compared to other groups. As they say in the USA: “It’s the economy, stupid!” To justify their profession, economists try to dazzle the audience by throwing out statistics of incomes and incomes per capita. At an esoteric level they may even let out terms like opportunity cost and comparative advantage.
The story of the Uganda Asians has never really been fully told. In an upcoming book Vali Jamal helps answer some of the questions and uncovers never-before-told stories of a resilient and enterprising people and their love-hate relationship with the land many called home.
Read at Reviews & Profiles | monitor.co.ug.
The oldest person among the Ismailia community in Uganda is arguably, Mrs Shirin Lalani. She was born in Masaka almost 90 years ago, and here she tells why her family went around the world. But eventually, she is back in Uganda and feeling at home.
Mrs Shirin Lalani is the oldest lady – quite likely even the oldest person – in the Ismailia community in Uganda as of April 2012. I have known her ever since she was friends and Kamariani to my mother in the Ismaili Ladies majlas in the late 1950s. Now I see her in the jamatkhana every time I go and she comes, which until recently, was everyday and now at least thrice a week. We always talk.
Went to His Highness the Aga Khan Primary School to meet up my younger sister who’s the Education Protfolio in His Highness the Aga Khan’s Provincial Council for Uganda. Pause for air. I wanted to take some pitchas for da so-cold book. I did two gap-year teaching there – in 1958 on finishing Senior Cambridge and in 1961 waiting to go up to Trin College.
More viva! east africa: H H the Aga Khan Primary School, Sep 2012 and before.
Excerpt: This year’s anniversary has more resonance than previous ones, in part because of the ease with which word can be spread on the Internet and in part because of the buzz created by Vali Jamal, who was a Stanford doctorate student working on his dissertation in Uganda when the expulsion order was given. He’s hoping to publish a book about the expulsion later this year, noting that this may be the last chance for the older generation of the community to mark it.
A lot has happened in the years following the exodus. Many of the refugees established successful lives in the United Kingdom and Canada. Smaller numbers settled across the world, including in the United States. A few returned to Uganda to claim businesses or property after Amin was forced from office in 1979; he died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/03/3741922/40-years-after-idi-amin-expelled.html.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/03/2930836/ugandan-asians-unsure-how-or-if.html
July 12 2012. By Vali Jamal: It was a great day for the Bohra community of Uganda today: The successor to the 52nd Dai al Mutlaq, Dr Mohamed Burhanuddin (TUS), Alqadir Sayedi Mufaddal Bhaisaheb Saifuddin (TUS) paid a 24-hour visit to lay the foundation stone of the first-ever Bohra mosque in Uganda. The succession was announced by the Dai himself in London two years ago. The Dai reached 101 years by the Islamic calendar this year, 100 years by the regular calendar next month.
I was invited to attend by the Mukhi of the Bohra jamat in Uganda, Sheikh Husseinbhai Malkan. His account is in my book in the section Those Who Never Left For Even a Day. He is the only original Bohra in Uganda. There are around 150 others from India. I was the only non-Bohra present. There were around 200 of the community, mostly from abroad, to catch a glimpse of their religion leader. Continue reading
Dr Vali I V Jamal has shared pages from his forthcoming book on Uganda Asians. On Canada Day they make for nostalgic reading. The four pages bring out aspects of our Imam’s role in resettling Ismailis in Canada in negotiations with PM Rt Hon Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Click on the image or here to read.
My friend BBK (Bahadur Bandali Kassam Pirani) sent me the picture and then sent me the story. A picture speaks a 1000 words, right, but with the 175 added we get the “full picture.” BBK and I were at school together – Government Indian Secondary School, class of 1957 – class. We went to England together, well, he to Cardiff tec. Locals used to scratch him to see if the brown colour would come off! He went on to study medicine at St Andrews. He earned a Blue at cricket for his university. He’s in my book in 3 parts – growing up in Old Kampala (he was on the other side of the Museum Hill from us; his description of flying kites beats the Kiteflyer anytime), coming to England (hilarious description of how at British Council course they taught us how to eat a boiled egg) and practicing medicine on 3 continents – Africa (Uganda), UK, and North America (Canada), with one hilarious encounter with the antagonist of this book when he landed from a helicopter on the Mulago Hospital grounds wounded. A little tincture of iodin and tape sufficed.
-Excerpt: In his book Ugandan Asians, Dr. Vali Jamal says curry powder was introduced to Uganda by Indian traders at the turn of the century. He points out that it was until the Indians constructing the railway turned-up, that curry powder became widely available as the new railway-builder-turned-traders began dealing in it in big quantities.
Chapati: According to Jamal, the oil roasted unleavened flat bread was also an introduction of the Indians.
Dr. Jamal writes in his book that the Indians who came to build the railway carried their culinary traditions along and the chapati was one of those aspects that Ugandans most fell in love with. It should also be noted that the Ugandan chapati has gone through a transition that makes it distinct from its Asian parent. -More.
Hon Kirunda-Kivejinja (left) is the Third Deputy Prime Minister, at one time Minister in the President’s Office. -Vali Jamal
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The pictures were taken when I met Hon Ruhukana Rugunda (Ndugu), Minister of Information, Technology and Communications in the Uganda Government, in relation to my book on Uganda Asians, where his own story of opposing the expulsion as a student leader at Makerere figures. He was pleased H E the President had endorsed my book through a message and a mention at Manubhai’s last rites. On seeing the inscription on the cover, “We thank President Museveni and people of Uganda for welcoming us back” he said “but this is your home.”
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