WEEKLY SUMMARY SPECIAL REPORT ASIAN EXODUS FROM EAST AFRICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040040-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2004
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: November 24, 1972
• Content Type: REPORT

 Approved For Release 2005/01/11 CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040040-4
Secret
DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
MEEKLY SUMMARY
Special Report
Arian Exodus from East Africa
CIA
bubu-'JO)IT Secret
N. 659
F
a 24 November 1972
App
gar
IN 0. V3yI/ IGtl
JROVA-RDP85TOO875ROO1500040040-4
25X1
 25X1 Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040040-4
Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/11 CIA-RDP85TOa875R001500040040-4.
EXODUS FROM
EAST AFRICA
"The expulsion of the Asians,
seer. by most of the world as brutal,
inhumane, and foolish, has enhanced
Amin's popularity not just in Uganda
but throughout east Africa"
The Economist
 Approved For Release 2005/011daCJt P85T00875R001500040040-4
In early August 1972, Uganda's u n predict-
able leader, General Amin, ordered virtually the
entire ountry's Asian community-some 44,000
peopl .-to leave within 90 days. For the next
three month;, Britain and several other countries,
as well as the UN, worked hard to help evacuate
those affected by the expulsion order. This was
not the first time that world attention has
focused on the plight of the Asian in east Africa,
and it is not likely to be the last.
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda had lar~,,c and
well-entrenched Asian communities when they
became independent in the early 1960s. Since
then, Asians have been leaving the area in large
numbers. The reason for the exodus is simple.
Like other shrewd, clannish, and prosperous
minorities elsewhere, the Asians are envied and
hated. Their only virtue in the eyes of the three
east African governments is the fact that they
possess vitally needed skills that are in short
supply. By the same token, their predominance in
commerce and industry has been the source of
long-standing popular grievances. Each govern-
't'ypical Asian Quarter in East Africa
Special Report
ment has dealt differently with this problem, but
the goal has been the same-to push the Asian
out. In Kenya, this process has been a sluw and
pragmatic one. In Tanzania, the pace has been
somewhat faster and disjointed. Now, in Uganda,
Amin has uprooted the Asian community at a
single stroke, seriously damaging the modern
parts of the economy.
Long before the Western age of discovery,
Asian merchants-mainly from southern Arabia
and the Indian subcontinent-had been drawn to
the east coast of Africa by the lucrative trade in
spices, leopard skins, rhinoceros horns, gold,
iJory, and slaves. By the time the Portuguese
arrived at the end of the 15th century, Indian
bankers, money-lenders, and middlemen were
well established in all the major coastal towns
from Mogadiscio to Mozambique. It was not until
the European colonial powers established them-
selves in the interior in the late 1800s, however,
that Asians-this time mainly from India-b'gan
to flock to this part of Africa in large numbers.
Some Indians were brought in by the British to
build railroads in Kenya and Uganda. Others
fought there against the Germans during World
War I and stayed on. But the majority of Asian
immigrants came later. Between 1921 and the
early 1960s when Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya
gained independence, the Asian population in at
Africa increased from 50,000 to over 375,000.
Barred by British colonial law from owning
farm land (except in Tanzania), most Asians
initially moved into commerce and the skilled
trades or sought jobs in the colonial administra-
tion. The dukawalla, thL: small Asian shopkeeper
and trader, became ubiquitous in rural areas.
Later, as their wealth increased, some Asian
families entered the professions and invested
hea-iily in local manufacturing and construction.
Although only about one percent of the popula-
tion in east Africa, the Asian communities made
up the bulk of the middle class before independ-
ence. They still do.
During the colonial period, British officials
did everything they could to keep the races apart.
Approved For Release 2005/01/ 'f-:QT DP85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/SE Gl lfP85T00875R001500040040-4
Each racial group had its own schools, clubs,
hospitals, residential areas, even cemeteries. In
government, British colonial civil servants monop-
olized the top positions while Asians filled the
middle ranks and Africans were consigned to the
more menial tasks. The same was true in business.
European companies hired Asians over Africans,
and if an Asian wanted to expand his business he
sought the help of a relative. This naturally gen-
erated resentment among Africans who came to
regard the Asians as a roadblock to economic
advancement.
Although relegated to second-class citizen-
ship himself, the Asian gr~,,v to accept this situa-
tion. Not only did east Arica offer a better life
than he had known before, he enjoyed a priv-
ileged position above the African. Independence,
however, reversed the roles-at least politically-
and Asians were called on to adapt in ways few
were willing to do.
Asians who could prove that they and at
least one of their parents had been born in east
Africa were automatically granted local citizen-
ship after independence. Those who did not
qualify were given the option of applying for
citizenship by giving up their British "piotected
person" status. The Asians were already heartily
disliked by the African for their social clannish-
ness, racial arrogance, and reputation for sharp
business practice, and most were unwilling to
bind themselves to the new nations. This left the
Asians vulnerable to attack by the new African
governments, which were under popular pressure
to break the Asians' strangleho!d on commerce
and to end their predominance in the civil service.
In order to accomplish these objectives, the three
governments adopted "Africanization" programs
designed to ease the Asians out in favor of the
Africans, without seriously disrupting the
economy or the government. At least this was
true until Amin abruptly moved against the Asian
community in Uganda.
Kenyan Pragmatism
Two years ago, the picture of a dejected
young Asian girl named Rajanbala Viad made the
front page: when immigration officials in
England, Germany, and Kenya refused her entry.
Unable to obtain a work permit needed to stay in
Kenya, Miss Viad flew to London to join her
brother in hope of gaining admittance. Turned
away, she became caught up in a nightmarish
round of transcontinental flights that took her to
Frankfurt, Nairobi, Johannesburg, back to
Nairobi, and then back to London, where she was
finally admitted because of her inability to re-
enter Kenya.
The Asian lobby in London immediately
seized on the incident to focus attention on the
plight of other non-citizen Asians in Kenya
caught in the crunch of Africanization. Although
Kenya's 130-140,000 Asians have been subjected
to much verbal abuse. harassment, and racial dis-
crimination, the number of persons affected by
this displacement policy has been greatly ex-
aggerated by the international press. Hoping to
avoid the dislocations that are now occurring in
Uganda, the Kenyatta government in fact has
moved its so-called "Kenyanization" program at a
gradual, almost glacial pace.
Nothing did more to confirm the Kenyan
Government in its conservative approach than the
panicky, much publicized flight of 15,000 Asians
from Kenya in early 1968. Their departure was
Approved For Release 2005/01/1 IF-~'~P85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01 /8E R F85T00875R001500040040-4
EAST AFRICA
F.T.A.I.
6 pjibouti
Diredawa ?
ETHIOPIA
Population Figures
Total Asian European n f-'
CENTRAL`
AFRICAN
REPUBLIC
Kenya 10,942,702 139,037 40,593
Tanzania 12,311,981 70,100 17,500 7
Uganda 9,526,000 10,000 10,300
'Figures from Census of: Kenya, 1969;
Tanzania, 1967; Uganda, 1969
3ANDA
~'a~lwartxa
Oodoma
TANZANIA
LeA,' r,,uv,,,njA,,
Special Report
Mbeya
KENYA
-.Nakuru. ~..
?
~Momba sa
Linda
SOMALIA
j Chisimaio
Approved For Release 2005/01 /18E TR 85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/11Sr615T00875R001500040040-4
triggered by the Kenyan Government's efforts to
lay the legislative groundwork for turning control
of the economy over to Kenyan citizens. The
bureaucracy had already been largely Africanized
by then, but the Asians' domination in trade and
industry had hardly been touched. The govern-
ment had informally encouraged some large for-
eign corporations to hire more Africans. It had
also established a chain of "people's shops" to
compete with local Asian retailers. Neither step
had proved very effective.
In order to speed up matters, the National
Assembly in December 1967 enacted an immigra-
tion and a trade licensing act. The immigration
law required all non-citizens to register for work
permits and gave the government the power to
withhold or revoke these permits, thus termi-
nating the holder's right to stay in Kenya. The
licensing act empowered the government to
prohibit businesses owned by non-citizens from
handling certain basic goods and from trading in
some parts of the country. Fearing the worst,
thousands of Asians stampeded to the British
passport office in Nairobi, prompting an alarmed
British Government to clamp a lid on the flow of
Kenyan Asians to the UK on 1 March 1968. After
that date, a quota was established permitting only
1,500 Asians with British passports and their
immediate families to emigrate to Britain each
year. This quota was increased to 3,000 in 1971.
The 1968 exodus had no serious repercus-
sions on the Kenyan economy. Many commercial
firms and small repair shops were temporarily hit
by a loss of clerical and semi-skilled personnel. In
addition, some capital was smuggled out of the
country and private domestic investment and
employment fell as jittery Asian businessmen
tightened up their operations and converted more
of their assets into cash. Few professionals, skilled
artisans, or Asian merchants left, however, and
the economy continued to show signs of strength.
Nevertheless, the government became con-
cerned about the decline in local business con-
fidence and about the unfavorable impact the
exodus might have on foreign investment and
tourism-Kenya's largest foreign exchange earner.
To counteract these tendencies, the government
Special Report - 5
offered reassurances to skilled Asians both
verbally and by freely issuing work permits. It
also postponed the implementation of the trade
licensing act for one year. Even after the law was
put into effect, the government did not move as
vigorously against Asian traders as it had pre-
viously indicated it would. In fact, it allowed
many of them to &dge the intent of the act by
registering their firms in the name of a relative
with Kenyan citizenship or by taking on an
ostensible African partner.
Since then, the Kenyatta government has
maintained a delicate balancing act. On the one
hand, it has moved steadily ahead with its
Africanization program. Lower and middle .'evel
labor, technical, and clerical positions are gradu-
ally being filled as qualified Africans become
available. On the other hand, the government has
resisted popular pressure to move faster. When
pressed, it has taken action amid much fanfare
designed to give the impression that it is making
greater strides forward than is actually the case.
Kenyan Asians have become inured to this
kind of display and there has been no repetition
Kenyatta with sculpture symbolizing Kenya's
commitment to multiracialism.
Approved For Release 2005/01/11?91rQ T5T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/1 S_f85T00875R001500040040-4
of the 1968 panic. Nevertheless, events such as
those in Uganda are vivid reminders of how vul-
nerable they are, and many Asians have probably
made plans to leave Kenya if things get rougher
under a successor government that is less prag-
matic than that of venerated 80-year-old Presi-
dent Kenyatta.
it hit hardest at Asians who send their children to
India or Europe for schooling. Many Asians sub-
sequently began to fear that the government
would move against their few remaining private
schools in Tanzania-that their very cultural
identity would come under attack next.
In the face of these events, many Asians
Tanzania: Socialism with a Racial Tinge began to move their assets out of the country.
When General Amin issued his expulsion
order, the only African leader to condemn him
publicly was Tanzanian President Nyerere. Al-
though his attitude hardly reflected the feelings
of most Tanzanians, Nyerere has long been an
outspoken opponent of racism-white or black.
"Socialism is not racialism," Nyerere proclaims.
There is a certain irony, therefore, in the fact that
the President's socialist policies have done much
to unuermine the Asians' position in Tanza,iia.
By far the most damaging blow to Asian
interests came early last year when the govern-
ment nationalized all rental property in the
country worth more than $14,000. Some African-
owned buildings were expropriated, but the
Asians suffered more by virtue of the fact that
they were the country's property-owning class.
The suddenness with which the government
moved, moreover, aroused an intense fee';ng
within the Asian community of being under siege.
Since Nyerere launched his socialist "revolu-
tion" in 1967, the government has steadily
whittled away at the Asians' control over the
economy. A few Asian agricultural estates and
commercial holdings were nationalized in 1967
along with several other foreign-owned concerns.
Subsequently, the Tanzanian Government has
taken over most of the import-export trade as
well as the wholesale business-areas traditionally
dominated by Asians. Over 90 percent of all
imports and probably all exports are now handled
by the State Trading Corporation and other gov-
ernment agencies.
In an effort to curb the outflow of foreign
exchange, the government halted all educational
remittances abroad in mid-1970. The measure
may not have been intended as "anti-Asian," but
Special Report
This movement became so great that the govern-
ment finally imposed strict exchange controls in
April 1971. The expropriation of rental prop-
erties a few weeks later was the crowning blow.
Within a matter of months, Tanzania's Asian
population shrank from about 70,000 to 50,000.
Among the first to leave were the most talentec;.
Scores of Asian doctors, nurses, civil servants,
technicians, and businessmen departed, resulting
in a deterioration in services and a general slow-
down of the economy. The government initially
made some half-hearted conciliatory gestures to
try to stem this brain drain, but these efforts
quickly ceased and the departures continue.
For those Asians who remain, the future
looks bleak. As a business and professional class,
they face extremely high taxes, a crushing credit
squeeze, a reduction in income and capital as a
result of the loss of rents, and increasing competi-
tion from government-supported cooperative
enterprises. In short, Tanzania has become less
and less hospitable to local capitalists, and few
Asians still take heart from Nyerere's continued
espousal of multiracialism.
Although ostensibly a part of Tanzania,
Zanzibar has treated its Asian minority far more
harshly than the mainland. Since 1964 when the
African majority overthrew the island's Arab
ruling caste, the virtually autonomous Revolu-
tionary Council has carried on a vendetta against
the small but dwindling non-African communities
(Indian, Persian, Goan, and Arab). In the name of
socialism and equality, the council has purged
Asians from the civil service, confiscated their
businesses, and forced their daU jhters into mar-
riages with Africans. All of this has made the
Asian a vanishing species on Zanzibar. The Asian
Approved For Release 2005/01/1`YECYA- OT85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040040-4
SECRET
merchant and craftsman who once filled Zanzibar
town's main bazaar and narrow side streets is
almost a thing of the past. In 1964, there were
some 66,000 Asians on the island; now there are
less than 7,000.
Amin's Folly
In a sense, the exodus of Asians from
Uganda began even before Amin's expulsion
order. In contrast to Kenya and Tanzania, Uganda
had brought little government pressure on the
Asians until three years ago. Then in January
1970, the Obote government passed licensing and
immigration legislation similar to Kenya's. Five
months later, Obote announced that his govern-
ment intended to take over the import-export
trade by the end of the year and to become the
senior partner in the 85 largest industrial and
financial enterprises, most of which were owned
by Asians.
No.t surprisingly, the Asian community
welcomed the overthrow of President Obote by
General Amin in January 1971. A few months
later, however. Amin himself began to lash out at
the Asians, accusing them of sabotaging the
economy and of failing to integrate with Africans.
He also canceled long-pending citizenship applica-
tions of 12,000 Asians. In December 1971, Amin
called a conference to allow the Asian community
to air its grievances. The meeting, however,
turned into a long recital by Amin of past and
present Asian sins. The session must have con-
vinced those Asians who had remained that it was
time to leave. In any event, by August 1972 when
Amin ordered all non-citizen Asians to leave
Uganda, the Asian population had dropped by at
least 30,000 from an estimated 80,000 only three
years earlier.
Most of the 44,000 Asians who were
expelled have found some place to go. Britain has
absorbed just over 25,000. India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Canada, and other Commonwealth
countries have taken several thousand more.
About a thousand have come to the US. Another
4,000 stateless Asians have found at least tempo-
rary refuge in relocation centers in Europe. Up to
8,000 Asians are still in Uganda. Some are
Special Report
An Asian shop-before and after.
Ugandan citizens; others have been granted
special exemptions because of their skills. Under
the circumstances, however, most of these people
will probably leave before long if they can find
some place to go.
Amin's action is immensely popular in
Uganda, but the results of his folly are already
evident. At least 40,000 Africans have been
thrown out of work. Trade has declined sharply,
and basic commodities are becoming scarce.
Tourism, a growing exchange earner in east
Africa, has ground to a halt. Some of Uganda's
smaller urban areas are reportedly almost ghost
towns. In Kampala, most of the stores, garages,
Approved For Release 2005/01 MS T'85T00875R001500040040-4
 Approved For Release 2005/01/1 ~:AREFt85T00875R001500040040-4
Departing Asian famili
in Kampala.
restaurants, and other small businesses are closed
and up for sale. Government efforts to help
Africans take over these concerns have largely
been limited to rhetoric. Even if there were
enough trained Africans to buy and run the busi-
nesses-and there are only a handful-credit has
virtually dried up. Because most Ugandans live at
the subsistence level, they will not be greatly
affected by all of this. But by dispatching the
Asians, Amin has gutted the small modern por-
tions of the economy and set back economic
development in Uganda by a number of years.
All told, east Africa's Asian population of
some 375,000 has in the last decade dropped by
almost half. Well over 100,000 have left in the
last five years. Some have gone to nearby African
states such as Zambia and Malawi and perhaps
Mozambique, where t;iere are small Asian com-
munities. But most have left the continent.
India and Britain have been the main recip-
ients. Over 60,000 Asians have emigrated to the
UK since 1968. Once there, they have met with a
mixed reception. London's policy of letting in
large numbers of coloreds from the West Indies
and the Indian subcontinent as well as east Africa
has never been wildly popular. The British econ-
omy has managed to absorb what is for England
large numbers of these people, providing them
with jobs, largely menial, and housing. Prejudice
against them has obviously not been legislated out
of existence, and most of them live in the poorer
sections of English cities. Nevertheless, their lives
and property are no longer in jeopardy as the
start over again.
25X1
Special Report - 8 -
Approved For Release 2005/01/1 TA-k 85T00875R001500040040-4