‘Success story’ of family who moved to Peterborough in 1972 on 50th anniversary of the Ugandan Asian expulsion order

“I think, as a family, we’re a success story,” professor Akbar Vohra, 62, who is now a consultant anaesthetist at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said.

Fifty years ago, on August 4, 1972, Ugandan’s third president Idi Amin, who seized power in a military coup, ruling from 1971 to 1979, ordered the expulsion of Uganda’s entire Asian population – giving over 50,000 people just 90 days to leave the country.

Many people from India had settled in Uganda after the the British government, of which India was under the colonial rule of, sent over 40,000 labourers from India in 1896 to build a railway running from Kenya to Uganda.

Life in Uganda

Akbar’s parents, Ebrahim and Amina Vohra, moved to Uganda from India in the 1950s.

His father originally moved to the country to work for the family business, Rajat Motors, before becoming a manager at Michelin.

Akbar was born in Uganda, and grew up in the country’s capital, Kampala, of which he said he has “fond memories”.

However, by the age of 12, Akbar, his family and Uganda’s entire Asian community, were forced to either obtain Ugandan citizenship or leave the country.

"I remember people trying to work out whether he [Idi Amin] really meant it or not,” he said.

“My dad thought it was true and decided he was going to get us out of the country."

Leaving Uganda

Akbar said that the treatment of the Asians living in Uganda “changed” after Amin declared the mass expulsion of the nation’s Asian population.

He only realised years later that it was likely that he was shot at before leaving the country.

“I’ve got a friend who is a wing-commander in the RAF, and I was telling him about something which flew past my ear on the roof of the apartment block we lived in not long before we were due to leave the country,” he said.

"He said that what I heard was likely to be a high velocity rifle shot, which just missed my head.

"We were in Kampala, which was different to some of the other smaller townships, though. I’ve heard horror stories from people from other smaller communities. I think the people who stayed longer got into more trouble."

Expelled Asians were forced to leave their lives and savings behind, taking with them just £50 in cash and a suitcase of possessions.

“We were told not to lock the doors of our homes – and people who owned businesses were told the same," Akbar said.

“Some people tried to hide things in toys and on children. I didn’t have anything on me.

My dad managed to pay for us to board a coach with a police escort to the airport, so we didn’t need to stop at all of the checkpoints. I did get strip searched at the airport, though.”

Moving to Peterborough

Akbar’s parents were both British citizens, and he and his three siblings were all subjects, with British passports.

On September 27, 1972, the family left Uganda, flying to an encampment set up for refugees by the British government at RAF Stradishall, in Suffolk.

"I was freezing when I first got off the plane that evening,” he said, reflecting on when he first arrived on British soil.

"We were put in a hanger, which housed about six families on mattresses on the floor.

"I was so pleased to get a slightly oversized coat, which I put on to keep warm.”

In early October 1972, Akbar’s father secured a job at Perkins Engines, in Frank Perkins Way, Peterborough, and the family relocated to the city.

They were given a fully-furnished council house, in Star Road, by Peterborough City Council.

"I’m so grateful for what everyone did for us as a family,” he said. “I think we were the first family to come to Peterborough, if not, one of the first.”

Life in Peterborough

Akbar attended Eastholm Secondary Modern School, before continuing his education at Peterborough Technical College.

In 1978, he left Peterborough to study medicine at the University of Manchester.

A career in the NHS followed, and he has been an honorary professor at the University of Manchester since 2018.

Forever grateful

There is one feeling that has been ever-present throughout Akbar’s life since leaving Uganda: gratitude.

"To come out with grateful as a thought to encompass everything that has happened to me, and how things happened to me, has meant that I want to give back,” he said.

"You must be the sum of your experiences, and, therefore, I’ve always wanted to give back because so much has been given to me. It’s shaped my attitude towards other people coming into this country.

“I think we’re a success story of the government, Peterborough City Council and the people of Peterborough themselves.”