Bureaucracies of Violence: a history of the Ugandan Asian Expulsion, 1972
Drawing on a broader project on the Ugandan Asian Expulsion, this talk will explore how rights were negotiated on the ground in a postcolonial crisis. As Uganda’s Asians hurried to leave the country after Idi Amin’s 1972 expulsion, they found that they required new or additional travel documents to go to anywhere else, even on humanitarian grounds. Those leaving Uganda recall queuing up at the UK High Commission, Indian High Commission, as well as the hastily established Canadian office in search of visas, entry permits or other travel documents so they could leave the country. Others lined up to have their Ugandan documents verified by that country’s authorities so they could stay on. Ultimately, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) became responsible for all those stateless Asians who had not departed for another country. Bureaucrats making on-the-ground decisions thus governed the Ugandan Asians’ departures, assessing the validity of their documents, conducting medical exams, and asking questions about their marriages, skills, and assets. Often characterised as a humanitarian evacuation, the urgent need to leave meant that Ugandan Asians often ended up going to the first safe place that offered them entry, with consequences for their longer-term prospects. This talk will thus explore how the small violences of intermediaries’ interpretations of national and international law, as well as skills-based criteria reminiscent of racial capitalism, shaped the trajectory of expulsion and resettlement both for Ugandan Asians and as global principles.
All welcome- this seminar is free to attend, but booking is required.
This page was last updated on 25 April 2025
