"Uganda Unhinged": Re-evaluating the Ugandan Asian Expulsion

This paper seeks to re-evaluate the Ugandan Asian expulsion of 1972 in terms of both chronology and culpability. Existing literature generally implicates Gen. Idi Amin as the primary, if not sole instigator of the expulsion crisis. Using Ugandan and Kenyan newspaper coverage from the pre-expulsion era, in addition to an analysis of Dr. Milton Obote’s economic policy, I argue that Uganda had already traversed far down the path to expulsion by the time Amin seized power. Dr. Obote initiated an economic campaign that targeted Asian merchants, in addition to issuing threats of expulsion as a negotiation tactic with world leaders. Newspapers, meanwhile, scapegoated the Asian community, producing the necessary public sentiment to justify expulsion. These findings indicate that expulsion became a reality earlier than previously accepted and suggest Obote and East African newspapers bore a great responsibility in producing the crisis.