I regard myself a Kenyan. The Kenyan Africans call me muhindi.always the different one. Studying abroad, I encountered the questions 'Who are you? What are you?' many times- My inevitable and only answer, 'I am Kenyan', was always open to much debate - 'No, you mean you're an Indian living in Kenya.', and so on. In the end I conceded, I became a Kenyan Indian and am very proud to be one! I read the article 'THE ASIAN QUESTION AGAIN- A REFLECTION' by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in the last issue of AWAAZ and I agree with his opinion that a distinction needs to be made amongst the Asians living in E. Africa- those who call it home and those who call it a business opportunity.

The events at Mabira brought to light how fragile the veneer, keeping Asians and Africans in harmony, really is. As Asians, we should not tolerate the violence or racism continually thrown at us but we should work towards integrating in society so that we are known and accepted to be East Africans in our own right. On that note, we should continually demand that we be allowed to compete for jobs and on merit be accepted in the civil service, local government, etc. Currently I feel that we are sidelined, and on rare occasions accepted in select places as and when is convenient for the powers that be.

Despite, large, nay, huge contribution to charities, recognition is hardly forthcoming. By denying or turning a blind eye to such contributions by Asians, they are pushing our communities further into a cocoon, thus making out as if Asians are aloof. How many of you have noticed that majority of the media publications actually zoom their cameras away from Asians making news? I thank AWAAZ magazine and its editorial staff for continually providing, sharing the mine of information and ideas that define South East Asians in East Africa. Well done and keep it up.looking forward to the next issue.

A relative recently sent me some copies of your magazine Awaaz. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for this excellent initiative that has been long overdue. Its mixture of historical sketches, contemporary themes, interviews and review of books, films and exhibitions, should appeal to a wide audience. As a Kenyan Asian who has been living abroad for a long time but has kept in close touch with my country, I find the magazine of special interest. Incidentally I believe that I was the first East African Asian to be appointed to an academic post in East Africa when I succeeded Mwai Kibaki as Lecturer in Economics at the then Makerere University College in 1961. I believe too, subject to correction by the learned editors and readers, that I was the first East African of Asian origin to bring out a book on the Asian community with the publication of my edited volume, Portrait of a Minority: Asians in East Africa (Oxford University Press, 1963, first edition).

At some stage I would like to share with your readers my reminiscences of my first 13 years at the universities in East Africa and also my reflections on the notions of migration, minorities, integration and identity as seen from the perspective of a Kenyan of Asian origin- themes that I have had some time to think about since my retirement from the UN system after ten years as Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva.

Thank you Awaaz for highlighting the Asian situation in the country and region. However, how do we translate the debunked myths of the South Asians to the wider community? I suggest curricular reforms in our educational system right from primary school to university to include subjects on multicultural Kenya and the Asian contribution, greater political and administrative positions for Asians and minority races, first

Two weeks ago, two people of "Indian origin" were beaten to death by a crowd in Kampala, Uganda. The crowd rioted because the Mehta Group, a huge multinational with significant investments in Uganda, has asked to be allocated one-third of the Mabira Forest Reserve, one of the country's last remaining natural forests. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports giving away this rich source of biodiversity. When I was a kid, a documentary called 'Shocking Asia' made its way into our cinemas. At the time, Kenya was into censorship. The 'Six Million Dollar Man' was banned because it would make young boys jump off roofs. Kenyans could not kiss on television because it would result in instant national sexual orgies. Yet, for some mysterious reason, which wasn't so mysterious after all, 'Shocking Asia' played for years on end, "due to popular demand". I went to watch it, all of 14, and hoping to see a nipple. I left feeling nauseous, vowing never to visit India. Here was a place of mutations and multiple arms and trunks all having twisted sex. And dirty rivers and foetuses and general horribleness. Sodom. For the school-going Christianised population of Kenya, who loved Reader's Digest and watched 'The Sound of Music', India was the closest thing to a future hell. In high school "crusades", we were told that Indians brought demons to Kenya.

The truth was that a new generation of get-rich-quick politicos wanted Kenyans of Indian origin to leave. Under the banner of "Africanisation", the new rulers hijacked the economy and proceeded to disembowel it. And, of course, their anti-Indian demagogy was not without other results. During our abortive coup in 1982, hundreds of women from Nairobi's "little India", Parklands, were raped.

Finally, it seemed the end of an old history was beginning. For our history has been intertwined for at least a millennium. When Vasco da Gama arrived in Malindi, a city-state on the coast of what is now Kenya, he hired a Gujarati captain to ferry him to India.This is not taught in Kenyan schools. We were going to be Black-Surrey-on-Rift-Valley. The through nominations then later elective when empowered and greater and active role to be played by religious bodies such as Sikh and Hindu Supreme Councils, and youth groups such as Sikh Students Federation. The religious bodies can no longer hide under the guise of religion only, and greater media coverage of Kenyan Asians, not limited to the Chandarias only. Stereotype beliefs need an attitude change and education offers one of the ways.

Kenyan upper-middle class inherited disdain for the shopkeeper. As the highly subsidised nation of white settlers came to expect things they did not earn, so did this new generation of Kenyans. To send your child to India for university was "hellish"; to send your child to England was your natural right and you were furious that you could not afford it. You came back from England determined to plant bougainvillea and chase away the grubby shopkeepers. Kenya was going to leap from independence to become a country of doctors and teachers and chrome skyscraper multinationals. But we did not want to have to make cheap goods in smelly factories.

A political class of people has created a certain expectation: that the angry masses will react predictably to their "monsters" because those monsters have already been created. In Kenya, as in Uganda, a class of people incapable of building wealth used crude knee-jerk nativisms to rob. They stole windowpanes and machines, turned viable cotton ginneries into scrap metal, stole even the raw cotton supplied by poor farmers. Stole until the factories stopped running. All the time pointing fingers at 'Shocking Asia', at a shop near you. The new elite nearly destroyed Kenya to send their kids to school in England. The people they shook down were almost always the small-time traders. Meanwhile, many highly skilled people were kicked out to make room for the mediocre. So look behind the mob, to the whispered meetings held by small-time politicos the night before over meat and beer, to find motivation. In all this steam and frenzy, people will be quick to forget that the Mehta family has built many essential industries in Uganda.

There are no easy "exploitation" stories that we can extract from the incoherence of the mob.