1972 in 2009
An odd title for a blog you might think but this is precisely what I was doing on 15/12/09 in Uganda
This day was especially busy and I was in and out of meetings the whole day, at 5 PM I had a free hour before my next meeting at 6:00PM. My phone rang and it was my aunt Kate at the end of the line. She told me that she had just been invited for drinks at the Kampala Club with the governor of Bank of Uganda would I care to join them, it maybe an opportunity for me to discuss my work with the governor, she continued.
As an avid networker, I didn’t need much persuasion 
I quickly got on the phone to my 6 O’clock appointment and explained my predicament! she said “go, go, it is not everyday that one gets invited for drinks with the governor of Bank of Uganda, he is a very important person, not easy one to get hold and you just never know where it might lead”
So it was that I found myself sat at the Kampala club, a concept I think taken right out of London’s Mayfair, members’ only private facilities. Previous club presidents’ names displayed on the club wall, included English men of years gone by.
My aunt introduced me to the governor who promptly asked me where in England I live, Walton on Thames Surrey I replied,
“You must have a very rich husband if you live in such a place the governor” said to me. I found this rather sexist and had to bite my tongue and find something else to say.
So I instead asked him how well he knew Walton on Thames
“I was in exile for many years and most of the people who supported us and paid for our education were Surrey based”
My aunt chipped in “I never knew that you had been in exile”
“Oh Yes”! Said the governor, “I was at University in 1972 when the announcement came that the Asians had to leave the country in 72 hours, as the president of the students union, I led a demonstration and we matched to the city square, word got to Idi Amin and someone I know was captured and killed in a few hours, I was warned to leave the country immediately as Amin’s people were out searching for me”
My aunt asked him how he got out of the country.
“I dressed up as an Indian including the head gear as a disguise, got onto the same plane as them and got to England”
“Those men were terrible, they took over this club and tore it to bits but I am surprised they left the board with the names of past presidents intact” he continued
Why would they be interested in that board? My aunt and I asked instantaneously
“Oh, there was only one PRESIDENT (IDI AMIN) in the country and no one was allowed to call themselves president of anything”
This was truly fascinating stuff for me as I was a child during Amin’s time and my own parents are reluctant to talk about what life was really like back then and here I was getting first hand information from the governor of the Bank of Uganda!
The networking got better as shortly after the country’s 1st Prime minister showed up and so did the finance Minister and at this stage the most expensive wine on the wine list found it’s way onto our table, as we drunk to happier times with a new resolve to leave the events of 1972 in the past!
