Alhamdullilahi, EA is more Arab than African

At that time, there were still large population movements happening in the region.

Despite that, in 1972 the military ruler Idi Amin could dispossess and expel the entire Uganda Asian community.

Their crime was, well, that they were Asians.

All this says something about an East African notion of citizenship.

First, it is that if you arrived here on foot walking through the bush, you are noble and deserve to be a citizen without question.

However, if you arrived by boat from the Middle East or Asia, or lately by plane, you have fewer rights.

Second, motive also determines your rights.

If you came here to look for elephant tusks, gold, or to work the railway, somehow your motives were mercenary.

But the chaps who arrived in East Africa fleeing from famine, war, or looking for pasture for their goats, were somehow responding to a higher calling and deserve citizenship more. This is ridiculous.

I say, East Africa is probably more Arab than African. And it is as Asian as it is African.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is executive editor of the Nation Media Group’s Africa Media division; cobbo@nation.co.ke