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The General Is Up is a "novel set in modern Africa" by Peter Nazareth. Its story is based on the expulsion of Asians from Idi Amin's Uganda in the 1970s. It is set, in large part, among the expatriate community of Goans, which has had a large number of out-migrants scattered across the globe, including in Uganda, East Africa. It was published by the Calcutta (Kolkata)-based Writer's Workshop in 1984 and re-published by TSAR Publications, Toronto in 1991.
Nazareth is a writer of Goan origin. He was associate professor in Iowa University's Department of English and the Afro-American Studies Program at the time of writing the novel.
The setting is "Damibia" set in "Africa. To be precise, Central Africa" (p. 21). There, the President-General of the country has just announced that "all the East Indians in the country have to leave by the next moon".
The book focuses on "The General", the Damibia Institute, guerilla attacks, portrayals of inter-racial equations in post-colonial East Africa, playing the game of tombola, a students' demo, a party, David's departure from Africa, the sad farewell at the airport, and more.
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda also lies within the Nile basin and has a varied but generally a modified equatorial climate. It has a population of over 42 million, of which 8.5 million live in the capital and largest city of Kampala.
The history of Uganda comprises the history of the people who inhabited the territory of present-day Uganda before the establishment of the Republic of Uganda, and the history of that country once it was established. Evidence from the Paleolithic era shows humans have inhabited Uganda for at least 50,000 years. The forests of Uganda were gradually cleared for agriculture by people who probably spoke Central Sudanic languages. In 1894, Uganda became a protectorate of the British Empire, and in 1962 the United Kingdom granted independence to Uganda making Sir Edward Muteesa Walugembe to be the first President of Uganda and Kabaka of Buganda. Idi Amin deposed Milton Obote in 1971 to become ruler of Uganda, a position he would occupy until he was ousted in 1979 as a result of the Uganda-Tanzania War. After a series of other leaders, Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 and has led Uganda since that time.
Paul Edward Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue, The Great Railway Bazaar (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name and the 2021 television series of the same name.
Moyez G. Vassanji, CM is a Canadian novelist and editor, who writes under the name M. G. Vassanji. Vassanji's work has been translated into several languages. As of 2020, he has published nine novels, as well as two short-fiction collections and two nonfiction books. Vassanji's writings, which have received considerable critical acclaim, often focus on issues of colonial history, migration, diaspora, citizenship, gender and ethnicity.
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of six countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, is the EAC's chairman. The organisation was founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was revived on 7 July 2000. In 2008, after negotiations with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the EAC agreed to an expanded free trade area including the member states of all three organizations. The EAC is an integral part of the African Economic Community. The capital of the EAC is Arusha, while the most populous city is Dar es Salaam, both of which are in Tanzania.
Goan literature is the literature pertaining to the state of Goa in India.
Peter Nazareth is a Ugandan-born literary critic and writer of fiction and drama.
Goans is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese& Austro-Asiatic ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries. They speak different dialects of Konkani natively. Goanese is an incorrect usage for Goans.
Indian Canadians are Canadians with ancestry from India. The terms Indo-Canadian or East Indian are sometimes used to avoid confusion with the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. According to Statistics Canada, Indian Canadians are one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, making up the second largest non-European group after Chinese Canadians.
Mukotani Rugyendo is a Ugandan poet, writer and journalist probably best known for his poem "My Husband Has Gone".
Tom Stacey FRSL is a British novelist, publisher, screenwriter, journalist and penologist. He is a prominent member of White's.
Francisco Luís Gomes was a Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, political scientist and MP in the Portuguese parliament. A classical liberal by political orientation, Gomes represented Portuguese India in the Cortes Gerais (parliament) from 1861 to 1869. His outstanding contributions towards the fields of classical liberal philosophy and economics led him to be widely hailed as "The Prince of Intellectuals" in Europe.
Luso-Indians or Portuguese-Indian, is a subgroup of the larger multiracial ethnic creole people of Luso-Asians. Luso-Indians are people who have mixed varied Indian subcontinent and European Portuguese ancestry or people of Portuguese descent born or living or originating in former Portuguese Indian colonies, the most important of which were Goa and Damaon of the Konkan region in the present-day Republic of India, and their descendants/ diaspora around the world, the Anglosphere, Lusosphere, Portuguese East Indies etc. Luso-Asians of the Indian subcontinent are primarily from Goa, Daman and Diu, Mangalore, Korlai (Chaul), Bassein, Silvassa, Cape Comorin, and Fort Cochin. There are also a number of New Christian Brahmins and Cxatrias with Portuguese surnames but do not necessarily possess European ancestry, being named as such in the process of their conversion to Western Christianity by Portuguese missionaries in the sixteenth century. This was done to prevent caste-based discrimination among the native converts. Nevertheless, they are in many cases indistinguishable from the wider Luso-Indian population.
Ayeta Anne Wangusa is a Ugandan writer and activist. A founding member (1995) of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association, Wangusa first achieved broader recognition in literary circles for her novel Memoirs of a Mother (1998). She was also a founding member (2009) of the African Writers Trust, currently serving on the advisory board. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Goretti Kyomuhendo is a Ugandan novelist and literary activist. A participant at the inaugural International Literature Festival Berlin in 2001, Kyomuhendo has been internationally recognised for her novels such as Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War. She was the first Programmes Coordinator for FEMRITE—Uganda Women Writers Association, from 1997 to 2007. She founded the African Writers Trust in 2009, after her relocation to London, Great Britain, in 2008.
Damodar Mauzo is a Goan short story writer, novelist, critic and script writer in Konkani. He was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 2021, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his novel Karmelin and the Vimala V. Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Puraskar award for his novel Tsunami Simon in 2011. His collection of Short stories Teresa's Man and Other Stories from Goa was nominated for the Frank O'Connor International award in 2015. He has served as a member of the executive board, general council, as well as the finance committee of the Sahitya Akademi.
Luso-Asians are people whose ethnicity is partially or wholly Portuguese and ancestrally are based in or hail primarily from Portugal and Asia. They historically came under the cultural and multi-ethnic sway of the Portuguese Empire in the East and retain certain aspects of the Portuguese language, Roman Catholic faith, and Latin cultural practices, including internal and external architecture, art, and cuisine that reflect this contact. The term Luso comes from the Roman empire's province of Lusitania, it roughly corresponds to modern Portugal.
Leslie de Noronha was a writer of Goan origin. He is one of the early Indian writers in English. He was also a medical doctor and a music critic.
Violet Dias Lannoy (1925–1973) was a teacher and writer. Born in Mozambique to parents from Goa, India, she taught in schools and advised on educational policy all around the world. Lannoy, called "the lost Goan/Indian/African novelist" by critic and writer Peter Nazareth, wrote Pears from the Willow Tree, a posthumously published novel, besides short stories.
H. O. "Naz" Nazareth is an Indian-born British film maker, writer, journalist and barrister. Resident in London, England, he was co-founder of the film production company Penumbra.