Why India’s prime minister Modi is visiting Uganda

Back then; having one of your relations travelling to India to study law, medicine, accounting or commerce was enviable.

Those whose relatives travelled to India would regale whoever had time to listen to them with talk about the Taj Mahal mausoleum, and chilli sauces.

Now, Uganda will between July 24 and 26 host India’s prime minister, Mr Nerandra Modi. He will meet his host, President Museveni, and on Wednesday, July 25, address Parliament.

Attempts by this newspaper to get the official explanation from Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa about Mr Modi’s visit failed. The paper could not get to the spokesperson for the visit, Mr Alfred Nam, too.

Even then, Mr Modi’s visit to Uganda comes on the heels of his and Mr Museveni’s tête-à-tête on the sidelines of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) meeting in London in April this year.

Mr Museveni later posted on Twitter that he and Mr Modi had committed towards “stronger relations between the two countries”.

To explain Mr Modi’s visit, an article titled Africa: The Indispensable continent for India, written by Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu for the Brookings Institute, a US-based think tank, is instructive.

The author lists four issues that inform the relationship between many African countries and India.

These are the common experience of colonialism, the yearning for reform of the United Nations Security Council, vulnerability to terrorism and economic interests.

First, consider the economic interests. Just like China and to some extent Japan, Indian industry could do with commodities such as iron ore, to mention but one, which Uganda has in plenty.

Economic bond
At the same time, Uganda is a market for India’s high value finished products, ranging from medicines to motor vehicles (lorries, buses, pickups and even motorcycles).

According to Bank of Uganda July 2018 data, India’s exports to Uganda, as of calendar year (CY) 2017, were worth $599.04 million (Shs2.1 trillion), up from $293.87 million (Shs505.9 billion) in CY 2007.

India’s exports to Uganda were highest in 2013 – $1,263 billion (Shs3.2 trillion) before they started to drop, first to $1,243 billion (Shs3.2 trillion) in 2014, $994.93 million (Shs3.2 trillion) in 2015 and $705.37 million (Shs2.4 trillion) in 2016.

As India’s exports to Uganda dropped between CY 2013 and 2016, China’s exports to Uganda were rising from $542.07 million (Shs1.4 trillion) in 2013, $550.25 million (Shs1.4 trillion) in 2014, $736.11 million (Shs2.3 trillion) in 2015, $743.56 million (Shs2.5 trillion) in 2016 and $816 million (Shs2.9 trillion) in 2017.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s exports to India increased from $3.21m (Shs5.5 billion) in 2007 to $43.69 million (Shs159 billion) in 2017.

That is slightly higher than the value of Uganda’s exports to China: $30.23 million (Shs110.1 billion) in 2017, but up from $13.29 million (Shs22.8 billion) in 2007.

Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid notes that at the first India-Africa Forum attended by eight African heads of state, calling for ‘new architecture’ in the Indo-African partnership, India’s then prime minister Manmohan Singh announced duty-free access to Indian markets for the world’s 50 least-developed countries (LDC), 34 of which are African.

India pledged preferential market access on 92.5 per cent of all LDC exports, including diamonds, cotton, cocoa, aluminium ore and copper ore.

Second, Rajiv Bhatia, India’s former High Commissioner to South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya, wrote an article in The Hindu Times of July 15, 2010, which too is instructive in explaining Mr Modi’s visit.

From the past
The article, entitled India’s Africa policy: Can we do better? speaks to India’s role in de-colonising Africa.

India’s Independence in 1947 gave hope to the African countries that were still shackled by colonialism that they would someday gain independence.

According to Bhatia, India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru believed that India’s independence would be meaningless if Africa countries were still colonies.

In the course of fighting for their independence, Sidhu says, many African countries and India developed a set of political norms that stressed sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutional structures and non-intervention.

“Perhaps that is why every newly independent African state became a member and actively participated in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM – of which India was a founding and leading member,” Sidhu says.
Third, African countries and India are concerned about the spread of terrorism and organised crime.

With some terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab, which is said to be affiliated to al-Qaeda, operating from bases in Africa, both African countries and India would want to cooperate in routing the terrorists.
It is not lost to India that al-Qaeda has bases in Pakistan, one of India’s neighbours, and in Afghanistan.

Fourth, African countries and India want to reform the United Nations Security Council. India, particular wants to be a permanent member of the council.

To that end, it is courting small, but many, UN member states so that should the matter be subjected to a vote, those states could vote in India’s favour.

To win them over, it is said to be promising financial aid. Information on the council’s website says it is this council that takes determines the existence of a threat to world peace or act of aggression.

Where it has established such, it adds, it calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement.

“In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.”

What India is going for it is that it has been involved in peacekeeping operations in different war-ravaged countries in the world.

With a slot for India on the UNSC, African countries hope they would, through India, shape the agenda of the body on issues such as food, energy, climate and water.

Bhatia, in through the article already mentioned, says India’s policy has laid emphasis on expansion and diversification of trade, investment and economic relations.

Though not in reference to Indo-Africa relations, Dr Moyo Dambisa counsels that Africa should look to itself.

“…like charity, trade begins at home. Africa need not look so far away: it can look to itself. A simple decree to remove inter-country trade barriers, which average more than 30 per cent, would be a good start,” Dr Dambisa writes.

Prof Phares Mutibwa, in his book Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes, traces Indians’ entrance into Uganda to the construction of the Uganda Railway. Many of them came to Uganda as paid labourers to construct the Uganda Railway.

“With the termination of the contract in 1901, most of the workers returned to India, while 6,724 stayed in Uganda. However, the former spread news of the immense opportunities in East Africa, and this caused further Asian influx,” he writes.

“The British used the Indians as middlemen – political as well as economic – between themselves and their African subjects. As such they became an essential part of the colonial infrastructure. The economic activities of the Asians prospered.”

Prof Mutibwa says the Asians both developed and exploited the Africans.

It was partly because of the accusations of exploitation that Idi Amin Dada, Uganda’s president between 1971 and 1979, sought to make political capital – by expelling Indians from Uganda and dishing their businesses to his cronies.

Many of the expelled Indians fled to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and even India.

According Prof Mutibwa, their expulsion sparked off what came to be known as the Economic War – other foreigners were also forced out; all businesses were taken over, from small duukas (shops) to giant organisations such as the sugar factories belonging to Mehta at Lugazi and Madhavani at Kakira and Kilembe Mines at Kasese belonging to Falconbridge of Canada.

The government then started managing the big companies whereas the small businesses and estates went to a lucky few black Ugandans.

Tibbit
• India is the world’s largest producer of papayas, mangoes and millet, according to FAO (2008), CIA World Fact book. It is second to China in producing wheat, rice and tea.
• India is the world’s second largest agricultural producer after China, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (2010)
• Then, it made $202 billion from agriculture then compared with China $489 billion
• India of 2007 to 2009 had either leased or purchased 765, 000 hectares of land in Ethiopia, placing it behind China that had leased or purchased 2.8 million hectares in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt which had leased or purchased 860,100 hectares in Uganda, according to Atlas des Futurs de Monde, 2010; IFPRI, 2009 FAOSTAT and WDI.

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