We are proud to announce the launch of the following teaching materials that have been produced by the team at Faith Matters and in partnership with Syeda Ali and Professor Becky Taylor, from the University of East Anglia. We are particularly grateful to Syeda Ali from the University of Cambridge and Professor Becky Taylor from the University of East Anglia in helping Faith Matters to compile these resources for use at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 in schools.

They are, we hope, a valuable teaching resource for teachers when they are looking at issues of social cohesion, citizenship, migration and integration, as well as how the Commonwealth has intersected with British history. These teaching materials tell the story of a community that is fast being forgotten and whose impact on British history over the last 200 years has been significant.

The teaching materials are part of the ‘From East to West’ project that was founded by Fiyaz Mughal – the Founder of Faith Matters and researched by Max Russel. It has been a personal journey for him to document and to collect the stories of those who were expelled and to get the information and pictures into materials that can inform young people about the history of the Ugandan Asians. Mr Mughal is himself, of Ugandan Asian heritage who was expelled from Uganda when he was aged just 15 months, with his family being hosted in refugee military bases such as the RAF base in Stradishall.

We hope that these materials can assist those in Key Stages 3 and 4 in understanding how the impact of the British Empire and its resource needs, drew in people from across the Commonwealth. Many of them were used as cheap labour, inculcated with a sense that they were part of Britain and its Empire, re-settled in Uganda and then forcibly expelled by Idi Amin in 1972. They found themselves at the brunt end of Idi Amin’s anger at Britain, which led to much discussion by the British Government at the time, as to what should be done for the Ugandan Asians.

The sad fact is that Idi Amin was a product of colonialisation. He was brought into the Ugandan army by the Briitish, nurtured and let loose on other Ugandan tribes. He was an enforcer of British rule in Uganda and thereby a by-product of Empire. His impacts were to be felt by the Ugandan Asians who arrived in Britain in August 1972, dressed in clothing that was meant for the heat of East Africa, rather than the cold autumn that was coming in late 1972. These Ugandan Asians, (about 28,000 of them), moved from a land of light, colour and greenery, to the cold, grey and rain of Britain.

This is their story – the story of a displaced people – twice over. Once from India, and then again from Uganda. Yet they have made their home in the United Kingdom, but for many, it has come at a cost of what they lost in terms of their possessions, their memories, their childhoods and their health. This is their story.

Read more: 50 years on, no-one talks about the trauma that affected the Ugandan Asians

An opposition Ugandan lawmaker was charged with treason on Thursday over his alleged role in the stoning of President Yoweri Museveni’s convoy this month.

A civilian magistrate ordered Robert Kyagulanyi remanded in custody until Aug. 30 and granted him access to private doctors, citing the “health of the accused”, according to footage broadcast on private broadcaster NBS Uganda.

Kyagulanyi, who only entered parliament last year, has been left unable to stand after being beaten while in detention, his lawyer told Reuters, citing relatives who visited him. The Ugandan government says the assault accusation is “rubbish”.

In the TV footage, Kyagulanyi was seen walking with one crutch and the assistance of prison wardens when entering the courtroom.

Earlier on Thursday, a separate military court dropped charges of unlawful weapons possession against Kyagulanyi, a popular musician whose songs’ biting criticism of Museveni’s government has won him a large youth following.

His detention, along with and four other politicians critical of Museveni, sparked two days of anti-government demonstrations in the capital Kampala and other parts of the country this week.

Three other lawmakers and dozens of other people have also been charged with treason over their alleged role in the convoy stoning.

Separately, police arrested two opposition politicians on Thursday for defying orders not to leave their homes after police placed them under “preventative arrest” to try to head off further unrest.

Ugandan police spokesman Emilian Kayima said police had received “intelligence reports that these leaders were inciting people to riot yet they have other lawful avenues, like petitioning a higher court, to seek redress about the fate of their colleague”. He was referring to Kyagulanyi.

“We don’t want to experience what we went through on Monday,” he said, referring to a demonstration in Kampala at which Ugandan police fired tear gas and military units were deployed to disperse protesters.

Representatives of several prominent opposition politicians had said on social media that they had been prevented from leaving home and that they had planned to attend Kyagulanyi’s court appearance.

Protesters and opposition supporters accuse Museveni, in power since 1986, of stifling dissent through intimidation, beatings and detentions, charges which his government denies.

Last October, when parliament was debating whether to remove a constitutional age limit that would have barred Museveni from seeking re-election in 2021, security forces and protesters clashed on the streets and two protesters died.

The presidential age limit has since been removed.

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