Indian diaspora in Southeast Africa
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The Indian diaspora in Southeast Africa consists of approximately 3 million people of Indian origin. Some of this diaspora in Southeast Africa arrived in the 19th century from British India as indentured labourers, many of them to work on the Kenya–Uganda railway. Others had arrived earlier by sea as traders.
Today, the Indian community in Southeast Africa is largely affluent and plays leading roles in the region's business sector and dominate the economies of many countries in the region.[1]
Sub-groups
Indian Ocean islands
- Indians in Madagascar
- Bihari)
- Réunionnais of Indian origin (Malbars)
- Indo-Seychellois
Mainland Southeast Africa
- Indians in Kenya
- Indians in Mozambique
- Indians in Tanzania
- Indians in Uganda
- Indians in Zambia
- Indians in Botswana
- Indians in South Africa
- Indians in Zimbabwe
History
Indian trade activities and settlements in Southeast Africa may date back to the late 1st millennium CE.
Following the passage of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, the Indian indenture system developed to replace slave labour in British and other European colonies. The system, inaugurated in 1834 in Mauritius, involved the use of licensed agents after the abolition of slavery. These agents imported indentured Indian labour to replace the freed slaves. The indentured were legally supposed to receive either minimal wages or some small form of payout (such as a small parcel of land, or the money for their return passage) upon completion of their indentures. Employers did not have the right to buy or sell indentured laborer's as they did slaves. However, the conditions faced by the indentured laborer's were frequently abysmal.
Of the original 32,000 contracted laborer's, after the end of indentured service about 6,700 stayed on to work as dukawallas,[Note 1] artisans, traders, clerks, and, finally, lower-level administrators. Colonial personnel practices excluded them from the middle and senior ranks of the colonial government and from farming; instead they became commercial middlemen and professionals, including doctors and lawyers.
It was the dukawalla, not European settlers, who first moved into new
Between the building of the railways and the end of
Many
Expulsion and repatriation to Uganda
In 1972,
Some 27,000 Ugandan Indians moved to Britain, another 6,100 to Canada, 1,100 to the United States, while the rest scattered to other Asian and European countries.
Today, however, many of these same ethnic Indians have returned. In 1992, under pressure from aid donors and Western governments, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni simplified a then 10-year-old law letting Asians reacquire lost property.
Still, the Indian communities remain concerned about their position in Southeast Africa. Continued fighting in western Uganda between hundreds of rebels and troops in June 2000, and politically motivated ethnic violence in Mombasa that claimed more than 40 lives in August 2000, gave credence to these concerns. Around 15-25,000 Indians currently live in Uganda.
Cultural depictions
The lives of the Wahindi (
The experience is touched upon in the films Mississippi Masala, Touch of Pink, Bend It Like Beckham, The Last King of Scotland and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Books written on the socio-cultural and economic climate and realities experienced by the Indian diaspora, particularly the Nizari Ismailis include The Book of Secrets and The Gunny Sack, by M. G. Vassanji, himself a Nizari Ismaili.
See also
- Asian Africans
- Coolie
- Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India
Notes
- ^ Shopkeepers: from the Swahili "duka" – meaning shop, and the Hindi "walla" – meaning person in charge of something
References
- ISBN 978-0385721868.
- ^ Wood, Marilee; Dussubieux, Laure; Robertshaw, Peter (2012-06-01). "The glass of chibuene, mozambique: New insights into early indian ocean trade". South African Archaeological Bulletin. 67: 59–74.
Further reading
- Dharam P. Ghai and Yash P. Ghai, "Asians in East Africa: Problems and Prospects", Journal of Modern African Studies, 3 (1965), pp. 35–51.
- Gijsbert Oonk, Settled Strangers: Asian Business Elites in East Africa (1800-1900), London, Delhi, Los Angeles, Sage 2013, 284 pages.
- Gijsbert Oonk, Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2007.