Sultan Somjee was born and raised in Kenya. Somjee has written extensively. Today, on our podcast, we will be discussing Somjee’s first book, Bead Bai. The migration story from India to Africa described in this book is important, as this later paved the way for the East African Asians to travel to Uganda for the building of the railway. This settlement of Asians in Uganda, was later disrupted by the 1972 expulsion by the, then President Idi Amin. In this podcast, Somjee explains the significance of the artefact, the Bandhani. He describes these artefacts of material culture as an embodiment of people’s valued inheritance vested in art and preserved bodily in women’s visual memories. These Bandhanis were brought to Canada by these Asian women and still treasured as a very valuable possession. He talks about the treacherous journeys in dhows in the Indian ocean and how passengers got sick and some never made it to Africa. He also weaves in his stories the lens of racisms and discrimination as Africa was then under the British Colonial rulers.
Website: WordPress.kpu.ca/ugandanasianrefugees
Email: Yasmin.jamal(at)kpu.ca
