JEEVAN SANGHERA

Would you first like to introduce yourself?

MAYUR SETA

My name is Mayur Seta. I live in Leicester, I’m 57, and I was 7 1/2 when I moved to the UK around October 1972.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

The first question that I wanted to ask you is how did you come to be in Uganda?

MAYUR SETA

So yeah, it's all to do with the railways. Kenya wanted railways between the two countries, people from India were invited, my great grandparents went there and they stayed there and had a business and all that and he just didn’t go back to India and opened a business and I was born there [in Uganda].

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Do you know what year your grandad arrived?

MAYUR SETA

Probably 1908 something like that.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

So, was all your family born there?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah the whole family, so my parents got married in Uganda they met there got married and they had five boys.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

So, growing up in Uganda what was that like?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah it was fantastic I remember everything about it, going back to the little shanty town we lived in, it was nice there I remember everything about life there. Then we moved to the big city, Kampala, it was about 30 miles from there and we were there for about 3 years, I think until we got asked to leave the country in 1972.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Was there a reason you moved to Kampala?

MAYUR SETA

I think because business was better in [Kampala] [it was] like moving from a small town like Peterborough to London [there were] more prospects because it was the capital city yeah so that's why dad moved there, education and everything else.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you were growing up, you left quite young, but did you have your education in Kampala?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah, I was only 7 1/2 [when we left] so I had just started. I remember going to school it was quite interesting, but I’d just started and that’s when we were asked to leave the country.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you were in Uganda do you remember there being much mixing between South Asians and [indigenous Ugandans]?

MAYUR SETA

No, I was too young but all I know was it was just our community. We had all our functions, we went to weddings, get togethers it was mostly us. The only people who I knew who were [indigenous] Ugandans were the people who used to work for us, we had servants who worked for us, and they were the only [indigenous] people I knew.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you were growing up what are your most vivid memories, [what’s] one of your most defining memories of being young?

MAYUR SETA

It has to be going to the cinema. We used to have a drive-through cinema so we used to go there almost every weekend to watch a film and all I was excited about was having my bottle of coke in a glass and a packet of crisps and you’d open the packet of crisps and there would be a little packet of salt in there and you’d spread it and I was in heaven.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

What films did you see?

MAYUR SETA

All of them all the films, and Haathi Mere Saathi was my favourite because it was elephants, I must have seen the film four times, I loved that film.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Was the media you engaged with films, music, and stuff was that generally South Asian?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah, it was all Indian films so my parents would have the music in the background so I got used to a lot of the music in the films. I mean I used to watch them, didn’t understand them, but I got the gist of it and I got used to the films where the story was going so yeah my love for Bollywood started then.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

In terms of the languages you spoke when you're younger, was it…?

MAYUR SETA

I think it was just Gujarati I knew some Swahili words because a lot the words we brought over from Uganda we still use them and I always thought they were Gujarati words, but they are actually Swahili words and I thought “What really, okay?”. A good one is iron we call it pasi but it's actually a Ugandan word.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You mentioned leaving Uganda could you elaborate on when you left?

MAYUR SETA

Right so what happened was on the 4^th of August Idi Amin decided to ask all the Ugandan Asians to leave and he gave us 90 days to leave the country, people thought it was a joke, no it wasn’t because the guy had a history of doing nasty stuff so people took him [seriously eventually and] he will honour it if we don't leave the country so that was it. We started getting out visas to get back into the UK because we had British passports. The UK government took 28,000 Ugandan Asians and my family is one of them, and then we left around October 1972 got to the airport, a lot of checkpoints I remember, and they took everything of us they only gave us a bag and £55 to take out of the country and that was it, we got on the plane. I remember as soon as we lifted [off] we were safe, everybody was shouting because we were safe, we were out of the country basically.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you were leaving what were the main things you chose to take?

MAYUR SETA

It was just clothes, that’s all people could take. There wasn’t much we could take and £55 and I remember my dad was saying that was it. Clothes, what we were wearing and some clothes in a suitcase, and that’s it.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You mentioned the checkpoints, do you remember much about what happened?

MAYUR SETA

No, no, I remember getting stopped but there were quite a few checkpoints. I think we may have had a smooth ride that day but there were a lot of checkpoints, people some of them had some bad experiences family members were taken away I’ve heard that’s happened, we were lucky. I remember getting to the airport and they were checking all the bags and my aunt, my mum’s sister my masi, her daughter was about 3 ½ / 4 and she was holding her favourite teddy bear and the army guy went to check it and at the same point my aunt pinched her daughter and she screamed and the solider went “What’s happening?” and [she went] “You can’t touch her teddy bear, that’s her favourite teddy bear you can’t touch it” and obviously he must have had kids so he realised and he didn’t touch it and in there my aunt had all the jewellery, so she got that out of the country doing that.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When your family left, you mentioned your aunt, was there quite a few of you that left together?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah there was a lot of us, all my cousins we left, we left at different stages. We left the same time as my aunt I remember there was seven of us that left in my family, mum and dad, and five brothers including me.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

So you spoke about your parents already having British citizenship was it relatively easy getting visas?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah everything was done in Uganda, we arrived in October 1972 at Stansted Airport we were taken through immigration and were taken to a room were we had some food biscuits and tea and coffee. Then we were taken to another room where it was basically clothes, all the clothes were there, jumpers, coats, hats, everything and we were given all that because obviously we’d come from a hot climate to a cold climate and it was really cold in them days, the Octobers of now compared to the Octobers of 1972 were completely different much much colder and it was the first time we experienced cold weather and soon as we got onto the bus to take us to the camp that's when it us wow how cold it was and the jumpers and gloves became useful. So yeah we were taken from there [Stanstead Airport], there were 16 resettlement camps in the UK, and basically we were lucky we were taken just down the road, south side of Cambridge to a place called Stradishall it was the biggest camp. It had 2000 capacity but it was later reduced to 1600 but it was the biggest camp and it was the nearest one to Stansted Airport so we ended up there, came late at night, [did] our registration, they put us into this room a big hall were we all slept for the night until morning and then they found us, it was just temporary accommodation, houses to live in on the campus. So they were old military camps, there were 16 of them, and that was our home until they found something for us.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When this was all happening how did you feel and do you remember how your family felt?

MAYUR SETA

I think my parents were still in shock, but they were happy that we had left Uganda, it wasn’t safe there, we were in a safer country we didn’t know what to expect now but camp life, we were there for six months we loved it, I did. So what happened was in a few days, we were eating food that we had never seen in our life, it was alien to us, we couldn’t eat the English food and every day we were just having chips, mashed potatoes, and beans and there was no way we could eat that everyday so my mum and a few ladies approached the canteen manager and said “Look we need to have Indian food can we cook it? We don’t mind cooking it” so within a few days my mum was made head chef and she was cooking for 1000 people Indian meals every day.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you arrived what was it like having this sudden change from Uganda to the UK?

MAYUR SETA

The thing was for me, I was only 7 1/2, everything was fantastic because every day when school finished all the kids would go back to their houses whereas me and my brother would go back to the canteen. My mum was working there, she would start her shift at 10/11 o’clock in the morning, and as soon as we got there she would give us tea, biscuits, all the food that was going to be available in the evening was there we could have cakes, chocolates, ice cream whatever we wanted everything. So, for us it was fantastic me and my brother loved it. So, the camp also had Christmas, parties, all sort of activities and we loved it, going on the coach taking us to different places. We went to the circus, we went everywhere they really looked after us.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Before arriving in Britain did you have any ideas or expectations of it?

MAYUR SETA

No, no, all I knew was England and that was it. I was really young, so I was living day by day and I was enjoying it.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

What were the defining memories of this period when you were in the camp?

MAYUR SETA

Like I said because my mum was the head chef, we could run riot in the canteen whatever we wanted, the Christmas parties, everything we [did] in the camps was fantastic. Every weekend the public would come to the camp, drive into the camp, we would get into the cars and that guy or woman would take us to their house or somewhere and we would spend the day with them, and they would really spoil us. So every weekend Saturday, Sundays that was what happened, so for us it was like a party everyday so I really really loved camp life and then we got moved after six months, we got moved to another camp called Gaydon camp near Leamington Spa and we were there for three months. My mum was again making Indian meals there and we stayed there until about July 1973 and then we moved to Peterborough.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

And so, is that where you had your first fulltime home?

MAYUR SETA

Yes, so what happened was Peterborough City Council were the only City Council in the whole of UK to offer accommodation and jobs to the Ugandan Asians, nobody had done that accept them. So there’s Peterborough City Council, 40 miles down the road was Leicester who were telling them “Please don’t come to Leicester” the Ugandan Asians. Peterborough City Council invited 50 families to come and settle them, we were one of the 50 families, went there, they gave us a house, they took us shopping, a whole trolley of food and they got my dad a job at Perkins Engines in Peterborough, one of the biggest employers there and most of the Ugandan Asian men who came over and lived there worked in Perkins. So, we ended up there and it's all due to this guy called Charles Swift, who was leader of the City Council, and he invited us over and it’s fantastic what he’s done for us.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you arrived in Peterborough you mentioned your dad got a job at Perkins and a lot of the men got jobs in the same company. What was it like, the Ugandan Asian community in Peterborough?

MAYUR SETA

It was very very small there were only a handful of families. Some of them who were already there they came out to support us in any way they can and within one year or even six months they had already formed a Hindu association called Bharat Hindu Samaj and basically then we started having some of our festivals Diwali, Navratri started kicking off in 1973/74 and obviously the community got bigger and bigger. The Uganda Asians were probably 80% of that community.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

So it was quite close kit. You went into education when you were in resettlement camps but when you started your education [in Peterborough] was it local schools?

MAYUR SETA

So we got a house in an area with mostly Pakistanis, I reckon 90% were Pakistanis, we were put in that area. We lived there, we went to school there, stayed in that area, it’s called the Gladstone Street area, and we moved to a place called Eastgate in 1975 and we got a house. There were only two houses in the street and my school was at the top of this street so [it] literally took me 30 seconds to get to school and that's where I started my junior school education.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

What was it like being in Education in the UK at the time?

MAYUR SETA

So obviously the school I went to, Bishops Creighton School, I went there, and I did not face any racism. The headmaster was a great bloke and he made sure that, there were about six of us who were Asians, and none of us faced any racism, everybody just took us in, nobody said anything to us. I think as the Indians got more and more, I think the racism started going up and when I went to secondary school that’s where I saw racism at its worst, the National Front and everything else.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Is it something that you experienced personally?

MAYUR SETA

Definitely. I got called the P word, chased by skinheads, faced so much racism it was horrible, and I think my education suffered because of that. I was at this school for five years and faced all the racism you can think of, not just me, all of us, where I lived on the Eastgate there were a lot of skinheads but as time went on we got to know them, they became our friends they [then] wouldn’t touch us but racism was really really high. It was only when I went to college, in my school class there were 30 of us, 28 English kids and 2 Asians, I went to college there were 30 of us, 25 were Asians 5 were English, so the whole thing reversed [I] faced no racism and as a result my grades and everything became better, I studied better, and it felt nice. Then I went to a polytechnic in London and pursued my career in accountancy.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Of the move from Uganda to the UK what do you think was the biggest change for you?

MAYUR SETA

I think weather was a big big thing, but if you ask me today what Idi Amin [did] was the best thing he ever [did for us]. I think 90% of Ugandan Asians would agree with me, it was the best thing that ever happened, a blessing in disguise. The day he asked us to leave people thought we’re going to lose everything but it was a blessing in disguise, it was the best thing that ever happened. To a lot of people when they came over to the UK, a lot of families actually had photos of Idi Amin because a lot of them were poor in Uganda and they became rich and wealthy in the UK and some of them have got photos of Idi Amin still to this day, they pray to him because to him what he [did] was the best thing ever.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

So generally, put economic prospects [improved]?

MAYUR SETA

Economic yeah so, I'll give you one story. There was a family next door to us in that little town [in Uganda] we lived in. The husband was in and out of work he had a lot of problems, and his wife would come to my dad, who was a businessmen, to say “Please can I have some money” [or] my mum for food, they had four daughters and a son and my dad and mum would give them food and money. When Idi Amin kicked us out, they came to the UK, that same family, they went to East London. The three daughters who were 21, 19 and 17 they walked into a factory a sweatshop [to] the English owner [they said] “Can we have a job?” [he says] “No problem” they started working there. One of the sisters became a supervisor, they would work all the hours there all the sisters, and within five years the English owner wanted to sell the business the girls bought the business for their dad and five years later, 10 years from the day they came from Uganda, they were millionaires. From that factory they became millionaires they worked all the hours. I remember my uncle, their dad coming to Peterborough to show my dad his Mercedes-Benz/Rolls Royce whatever he had and I got back from college and my mum was holding a watch [worth] about £10,000 so my mum was trying to tell me “look this is masi’s watch it’s worth £10,000, we just bought the house from the council for £8,000” so the watch was worth more than the house and this was the same guy that was really really poor back in Uganda and his fortune had changed. So obviously I knew he had come there to wind my dad up so I said to him “Uncle what’s the time on your watch?” he said “4:30” so I said to him, pointed to my £2.99 LCD watch, “That’s strange my £2.99 LCD watch from the market says 4:30 as well” just to prove a point that it could also tell the time, but the reason I’m telling you the story is the three daughters and the father before they went to work they would pray to a photo and then go to work, and that photo was Idi Amin and so to them he was god, so you can see a family their fortunes changed, they a had a photo of Idi Amin. But then you take my mum's cousin sister, she got married, she was at her mum's house with her husband and Idi Amin’s army, this was like literally 3-4 days after Idi Amin made the announcement on the 4^th August 1972, they came into their house asked for jewellery, money and as they were leaving my uncle was standing by the door they grabbed him and took him and that’s the last time my aunty saw him. She still thinks he’s alive, she’s not seen his body, so she still thinks he’s alive, but obviously he’s not, but that’s what happened to her, so with her she would never pray to [Idi Amin].

JEEVAN SANGHERA

Two very disparate experiences.

MAYUR SETA

Two different stories, two completely different stories.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

In terms of your lifestyle and your family’s lifestyle how much did that change coming to the UK?

MAYUR SETA

Well, I think obviously we had to get used to British culture. The best thing I liked about coming to the UK [was] growing up in the 80s, 80s music, playing football, [watching] all sports, the tv programmes, Christmas. It was fantastic, I loved it and still to this day I do all of that, I play football, I love Christmas, I love my 80s music, I still listen to it to this day. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Whatever happened in Uganda, Idi Amin’s decision, it’s the best thing that ever happened to us personally.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

I didn’t ask this earlier, did your family expect the expulsion to happen at all?

MAYUR SETA

I’d have to ask my parents about it but I think it was getting bad, a lot of people had left already I think over time we would have left. I think all the Ugandan Asians would have left, as soon as family starts moving it triggers off to another family “Okay we need to move” and obviously if they keep in contact with people in the UK they tell them about the life there so they might move, but Idi Amin did the best thing by asking us to leave.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You’ve talked about how your lifestyle changed but were there any aspects that stayed the same?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah we’re still Indians and we’re still a close knit family, none of that changed. The weather changed but everything was fine, it was okay. I think we probably just missed the outdoor cinemas, going to Kampala city centre in the evenings to have all the fruits, the food was fantastic, we miss all that but I was still 7 1/2 so I don’t remember that much, but what I do remember it was nice, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you came to Britain there was an existing South Asian migrant community that had come directly from South Asia what was it like integrating into that community?

MAYUR SETA

Yeah it was fine we had people from Kenya, India, everywhere and at the end of the day I’m a Gujarati, all the Gujaratis that were in Peterborough we were one community, Leicester has got probably got 20-30 castes and they’ve all got their own temples, their own festivals whereas Peterborough we were as one 2,000-3,000 at the time, we always used to get together, big community, we were one and we just integrated with each other whatever caste you were.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You touched on community organisations previously but have the legacies of migration stayed with the community and have you been engaging with that legacy since moving?

MAYUR SETA

We’ve got the community. Peterborough has got a 40,000 [person] Pakistani community and we got on with them, we were all one because you have to remember the Asians had to stick together. We were brown skin all of us were called the P word and we had to stick together and I think we helped each other in times of need so we were one community be it Pakistani, Muslim, Sikhs etc. we were one community.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you moved away from Uganda did it change how you viewed the country both when you first moved and when you look back at it now?

MAYUR SETA

Uganda was the birthplace, I was born there, that’s the only connection I’ve got with the country, and growing up, but when I left it that was it, I don’t think about Ugandan that much but it’s occasions like this the 50th [anniversary]. It brought it all back I’ve got into the whole 50th anniversary thing I’m part of the British Ugandan Asians committee (BUA50) it’s a committee that was set up to talk to all the people at the camps about life in the camps back in 1972. Initially they wanted to talk to all the helpers but a lot of them have passed away so to make up the numbers they started talking to the residents, like myself. I went there for an interview at Stradishall camp, [did] my interview, as a result I joined the committee and I’ve played a big big part in the whole Uganda experience this year. The highlight was going to Buckingham Palace meeting King Charles so that was the highlight but there’s been so many other events I’ve been involved in I’ve been in the press, the TV, you name it, everywhere promoting the 50th year because I think it’s very important the 50th year is very important because 28,000 came, I reckon 16 to 18 [thousand] have passed away there’s probably 10 to 12 thousand [left] and a lot of the ones from the 10 to 12 thousand were under 4 [years old] who don’t remember a thing so it’s [on] the rest of us who do remember the stuff to tell these stories to people like you so that we can archive it. So one day other people can listen to my story my kids their kids [and] their kids [and] their kids can one day listen [and say] “That was my great great grandad” so all this, what you’re doing, is fantastic and it will keep the history there because what people don't realise is it was a massive massive part of history and people shouldn’t forget and the Ugandan Asians played a massive massive part in where the UK is right now. I was told six million pounds was invested in the Ugandan Asians of 1972 I reckon that is the biggest return of [an] investment by the UK because if you look at the Ugandan Asians they have become in all professions, doctors, pharmacies, dentists you name it every single profession, businesses, they have absolutely played a massive massive part, all the shops in the 80s with Ugandan Asians opening long hours and the British have caught onto that with the Sainsbury's, the Tesco's all the shops now are 24 hours, some of them, so the Ugandan Asians have played a massive massive part. And if you look at all the kids the 3^rd 4^th 5^th generations all of them are all educated, in my time 3/10 when to university, now it's like 95% of them go to university, the first question you ask them is “Oh which Uni did you go to?” expecting them to have gone to Uni. So, they’ve all gone to University all excelled in whatever they've done. So that 28,000 who came is a big family now and they have provided a massive massive income to the UK, the GDP, that six million pounds is probably worth a thousand times over.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You mentioned engaging with the 50^th anniversary quite a lot what’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt in that process?

MAYUR SETA

I think the stories that come out all the stories that come out. Some of the stories I’ve heard have been fantastic and it's been absolutely fantastic, yes it hasn't been all rosy, personally I’ve been to a lot of the events, the Ugandan [Asian] events and I was a minority [there]. Buckingham Palace, I went there it was sad, there were 450 of us and I reckon there was only about 150 to 180 who were Ugandans the rest were outsiders and it should have been Ugandan Asians that day because it was sent out to organisations, the invite,s and they should have put on the invites Please make sure the people you send are ex-Ugandans but it was picked up by the Presidents, Vice-Presidents from Kenya, India, wherever they are from that turned up to these events and that was a sad thing, more Ugandans should have been at the events because I think they could have brought more to the table, emotion, everything but I hope in the future for anybody who is listening if you send invites out to any of these bigger events at  Buckingham Palace or wherever please please make sure when you send the invites out make sure that you tell them “Please give these to the Ugandan Asians and their families” obviously we won't be around but to the 3^rd 4^th generation give it to them because they’re the people that the stories [relate to] so they need to be at these events and I hope they will do that. But the whole 50^th [anniversary] has been absolutely brilliant, the BUA50 committee 70-80% are not from Uganda but they’ve done a fantastic job I can’t praise them enough they’ve all put their heart and soul into the project they’ve been really really fantastic so my hats off to the BUA50 committee and I’m glad they chose me and I’m glad that I brought a lot of information to them so well done everybody.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you reflect on your identity and your experiences of migration how do you define yourself as a migrant in this country, taking into account all the different histories that have led to your existence here?

MAYUR SETA

Well as I said I’m a British Ugandan Asian that’s it, that’s what I am. I’m Indian, I’m Ugandan and I’m British, I’ve got the best of three worlds. I haven’t been to Uganda since I let in 1972, I’m planning to go there because I want to see my birthplace and everything. I remember lots of it so I want to go back there, but like I said, Uganda was my birthplace so I’ll never forget that, England gave us a home and I've kept my Indian culture, I’ve got the best of both worlds. Living in the UK it’s a fantastic country, what British people have done for us, Edward Heath who was the Prime Minister at the time in1972 was the guy who said “Yes please we’ll take 28,000” so I’d like to thank all of them who were in the Conservative party at the time who took us in, all the British people, all the help we got, 63 organisations came out to help us in the camps, Salvation Army, Red Cross you name it all of them were there helping us and every single one of them they’ve done a fantastic job. We left a country where we could’ve been killed and we came to this country and apart from the racism it’s been fantastic I think racism is gone now we faced old racism but it made us stronger, definitely made us stronger, so like I said we could never repay the British public for what they’ve done for us.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

You’ve mentioned going back to Uganda do you have any expectations of what that trip might hold?

MAYUR SETA

No, it’s just emotional, I just want to see my birthplace go back to the little shanty town we lived in called TOWN NAME go back to my house in Kampala. I still remember where it is, flying the kites from the top of the building, the house was opposite the market in Kampala, so I remember that. I just want to go back, see my house is there, and just visit the country and see it in a different view now, go and see my mum’s, where she was born, where my grandparents were just see the place. I can't wait.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

When you reflect back on the expulsion itself, the event itself, has the [progression] of time and living here and experiencing racism has that affected how you viewed what happened in Uganda and why it happened?

MAYUR SETA

No honestly like I said from the beginning whatever happened it happened for the best. I think I speak for 90% of Ugandan Asians, best thing that ever happened. BUA50 have got a travelling exhibition we take it to cities I take it around the UK to different areas. I took it to Peterborough, to our Navratri festival, a little boy I used to know, I was probably 25-28 he was probably about 5/6 at the time, I met him and he’s all grown up and he was there and I was telling him about Uganda because his family came from Ugandan and he was there with his wife, an English woman, so I was trying to tell them “Look that’s Idi Amin the guy who kicked us out, people say he’s evil but for you two he’s god” and they looked at me and said “Sorry?” I said “He should be god to you, if it hadn’t been for that guy you two wouldn’t be here together you wouldn’t be a couple, Indian guy and an English woman you wouldn’t be a couple” and they go “Yeah you’re right, we wouldn’t have met” so all these things that have happened all the integration a lot of people are happy and that one decision has made a million stories for different people.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

We touched on people from the camps and meeting them, have you come across, kept in touch with people that you knew then?

MAYUR SETA

Oh yes so Stradishall camp back in September [2022] we had a get together there. So basically, we put the word out that all people who were at the camp please come and look at the exhibition so BUA50 have got their own exhibition for all the 16 camps, Stradishall had one just for Stradishall camp, so they asked everybody to give photos, a lot of stuff came out from the history society and archives they [did] an exhibition. One of the funny things was the headmaster at the time, whose passed away, his daughter was 8 [at the time] she came to the Stradishall camp with the register for the school register that [her] dad had done and all our names were in there and I spotted so many people’s names and there was one name that I spotted and I thought “No it can’t be him” but I gave him a ring, a local guy my friend, I rang him and said “Sanj when you came from Uganda were you at the camp?” and he goes “Yes” and I said “Which one?” and he says “Stradishall” and I knew straightaway that was him and I sent him a photo of it [the register] and he was emotional he couldn’t believe it. That exhibition, is a travelling exhibition, and it went round a few places in Cambridgeshire and I’m having a Uganda gathering in January 2023 where all the Ugandan Asians the 50 families [that settled in Peterborough] and their families their 3^rd 4^th generation kids we’ll all [be] there and we’ve got four exhibitions on offer that day we’ve got the Peterborough exhibition, we’ve got the Stradishall, we’ve got the BUA50 exhibition, and the last one is the Leicester exhibition which is just down the road so we’re going to bring that over to Peterborough because a lot of Peterborough people come to Leicester. It’s only 40 miles down the road they do all their shopping, they do everything in Leicester, so they will all know about the exhibition. So there's a lot of things happening for the 50th [anniversary]. Peterborough has made a big impact on the whole Uganda story, the only City Council in the UK to give 50 families nobody else [did] that, all due to that guy called Charles Swift. So it's our turn next month to remember that, we’ve got to remember all the people who passed away, a lot of people have passed away who were from Uganda, so we’re going to remember them. We’ve got the exhibitions, food, quizzes about Uganda, lots of things happening on that so I’m looking forward to that, hopefully it’ll all be recorded and then we can put it on the archives so one day when it’s the 100^th anniversary hopefully the 3^rd 4^th 5^th generation can take it onboard and do something for the 100^th anniversary or 75^th just to remember that they will always be part of the Ugandan story even though they were born in the UK, their parents, their great great grandparents, came from Uganda.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

As someone whose engaged with this process of learning about Ugandan but also having experience yourself, what’s the most important message that you personally have taken from all the experiences?

MAYUR SETA

Do you know something, I think the most important thing I found is that god told Idi Amin to kick us out and just from that one decision everything changed and it all changed for the good so I think the whole thing stems down to that day when he decided to kick us out and we never looked back, all being good when I say that 90% of us would agree with me, best decision they ever made, one defying moment in history changed a lot of lives, but it was for the good.

JEEVAN SANGHERA

As a final question are there any other things you wanted to share about your experiences?

MAYUR SETA

No like I said this 50^th year [anniversary]  was very important to bring out all the stories there were so many stories I came across that I said “Wow, wow”. I played a big part in a lot of the stories that came [on] ITV. I worked with a local reporter I gave him a lot of the stories and because of my contacts with the Ugandan community it’s been absolutely fantastic what they’ve done. I think the 50^th has got a lot of stories out the 10 to 12 thousand who are still alive a lot of them are dying everyday but I reckon 7 to 8 [thousand] can actually physically remember that information so once these 7 to 8 [thousand] go, [those] stories will go to the grave. So this 50^th [anniversary] all the stories have come out, a lot of people actually haven’t come out [to tell their stories]. I contacted a lot of people to give their stories some of them said no. I got a lot of negativity from the temples, the Hindu temples, to bring the exhibition there which was sad because what they don't realise is that temple, if you go back to 1972/73/74 the Uganda Asians set up those temples and a lot of them are old they’re retired they’re too old to be in a committee, they don't understand that that temple is there because of the Uganda Asians, to them what happened 50 years doesn't mean a thing, to them they’re not bothered about the exhibitions having them there which was a sad bit. What happened at Buckingham Palace, a lot of functions I’ve been to there have been people there who literally shouldn’t have been there, the Ugandan Asians a lot of them have missed out. One of the biggest communities that has missed out on the 50^th [anniversary] was the Sikh community. I went to a lot of functions, if you look at the videos from Uganda in 1972 outside the visa [building] where they were trying to get all the visas to get into the UK a lot of people were wearing turbans and these turban wearing Sikhs have not turned up to a lot of the events this year and I’m trying to put that right for future events. I’ve got hold of some people and I want them to come out [and tell their stories] because they are part of that history, the Hindus and Muslims have come out about the stories but I’m hoping that they’ll [Sikhs] come to a lot of the functions next year wherever they are. But like I said the 50^th [anniversary] has been absolutely fantastic but people listening to this please if you ever have the 75^th 100^th anniversary please please just have the Ugandan Asians, their families their 3rd 4th 5th generation, invite them to the functions because the stories [are] about their families not about someone from India, Kenya, wherever they are from. These people can bring emotion, they can talk about it, a lot of them have heard stories and I’ve told my kids my story they’ll tell their kids [and they’ll tell] their kids and this story will never die. We want to keep it alive, because given a 100-200 years’ time, I want people to celebrate this because it was one massive massive piece of history and people should understand that it is a very very big story.