Passenger Traders in Transit

Revisiting Ugandan-Indian Narratives of Exile

Anirban Banerjee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781041038931
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040978931
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

This monograph is one of the first scholarly investigations into the literary representations of the lived realities of Ugandan-Indians, often referred to as "Passenger Traders", who were exiled in 1972 under the Idi Amin regime. Employing an innovative interdisciplinary methodology that combines diaspora criticism, human geography, memory studies, and childhood studies, this book provides a nuanced analytical framework and makes a significant
contribution to understanding diasporic narratives in the Indian Ocean region. It delves into the subjective experiences of these exiled traders, exploring their struggle and triumph through the lens of contemporary memoir and fiction by authors such as Shenaaz Nanji, Tasneem Jamal, Neema Shah, and Hafsa Zayyan. Through a blend of historical insight and literary critique, this book unveils the rich yet troubled legacy of the passenger traders amidst the postcolonial reality of multiple dwelling and displacement. The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literature, both African and Indian, migration and diaspora studies, memory studies, childhood studies, and Indian Ocean studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Historicising Passenger Traders: Contexts and Conditions
• 2 Beneath the Ugandan Sky: Reflections on Home, Homeland Consciousness, and Hospitality
• 3 Out of Place, Time, and Space: The Affective Geographies of Exile and Statelessness
• 4 The Politics and Poetics of Memory: Identity Construction Through the Prism of Remembrance and Oblivion
• 5 Children of the Diaspora: Imagining Belonging and Coexistence Through the Ethics of “Interpretive Reproduction”
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index