Ayush:
My name is Ayush, I am ten years old and I live in Leicester. My family is from Uganda in Africa. I came to see Rupal whose family is also from Uganda. Rupal is a radio DJ and she is going to tell me how her family was forced to leave Uganda and move to Leicester when she was just 2 years old. India and Uganda were once ruled by Britain, so people sometimes moved between the two countries to find work. Sometimes workers were mistreated and poorly paid.
In 1962 Uganda ceased to be ruled by Britain and in 1972 it was ruled by a man called Idi Amin. Idi Amin ordered all Indians living in Uganda to leave. 50,000 people were forced to relocate and many of these people ended up coming to Britain because Uganda was part of the British Empire. So how did you come to Leicester Rupal?
Rupal:
When my father was a teenager, he left India for Uganda because there were lots of job opportunities for him and there were not many in India. So he moved to Uganda in the 1940s and he met my mother, got married, he had 4 children and I am one of the youngest. He worked on a huge sugar cane plantation until around 1972, when things changed completely. We were asked to leave and we decided to come to Leicester
Ayush:
Why was your family forced to leave Uganda?
Rupal:
A dictator by the name of Idi Amin took over the country and one of the first things he wanted to do was get rid of all the Asians because he felt we were taking all the wealth from the country. He called it, ‘milking the economy.’ He gave us 90 days to leave the country. About 50-60,000 Asians who run many businesses there have left to go to various parts of the world. But many have come to Britain. We were only allowed to bring one suitcase full of clothes and £50 per family, I understand, so that’s all we brought to the UK.
Ayush:
So how did you end up in Leicester?
Rupal:
Many of us had British passports, including my parents. So one of the places we were thinking of coming, well, my parents were thinking of coming was in Britain and here in Leicester, the local council, the city council put an advertisement in the Ugandan newspaper and asked us, to us Asians not to come to Leicester because they said they didn’t have the facilities and because a lot of us had heard of Leicester a lot of people came here. So that kind of backfired on the advice.
Ayush:
So what were your earliest memories of Leicester, Rupal?
Rupal:
I remember my mother taking me to school the first day and I was terrified. She was dressed in her usual outfit, which was a sari. I remember pulling on her sari to tell her, ‘Please don’t leave me here, don’t leave me here.’ I was really, really scared.
Ayush:
How long did it take you and your family to get used to life in Britain?
Rupal:
It took a long time, I think, for all of us. But since there were many of us, many Ugandan Asians, we all helped each other. We all supported each other and it felt like a real community. And there were also lots of people from Leicester who helped and supported us and made us feel welcome.
Ayush:
How did you become a radio DJ afterwards?
Rupal:
Purely by accident, if I’m being really honest. One day I heard an ad on the radio and I thought, ‘Let me, let me see if I can get a job there.’ So I applied. And I started from scratch, making tea and coffee and worked my way up.
Ayuash:
So what do you think about what happened to you and your family?
Rupal:
We were driven out of the country. People had to start their lives over with nothing. Me, my family and thousands of other Ugandan Asians will be celebrating the 50th anniversary, and I want people to never forget, really. Rupal’s family and my family went through the same difficult journey when they were both forced to leave Uganda and come to Britain.
Ayush:
But it was uplifting to talk to Rupal and find out how she has managed her life in the UK since then. My parents and grandparents also worked hard to give me a good life here in Leicester and I am very grateful to them.
