Reconnect with Fond African Roots … and Ride the Nile Rapids

Atul Vir, the co-founder of the Connoisseurs Club, introduced the speaker Munir Ibrahim at the dinner social held at Nirvana restaurant in early March.

Atul Vir, the co-founder of the Connoisseurs Club, introduced the speaker Munir Ibrahim at the dinner social held at Nirvana restaurant in early March.

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: Nostalgic is probably not the word to use when reconnecting with your roots after almost half a century, but it does convey the sense of attachment that you feel – and certainly sadness for having been forced out – for a pristine place that which your family called home.

Such were the emotions that Munir Ibrahim shared as he the spoke about his first trip back to Uganda after his family was forced out in 1972 by the dictator and President-for-life Idi Amin Dada. Ibrahim described how his entire extended family had to leave all their possessions and businesses and relocate: those with British passports to the UK and his parents and their three kids – Munir, Azmina and Faiza – who had Ugandan passports to a refugee camp in Italy.

“We stayed there for three months until a church organization in Ohio sponsored us to come and resettle there, he said. The family lived in Louisville, Ohio, midway between Akron and Canton, for almost ten years before moving to Houston in 1982. Ibrahim has since built up a successful real-estate business in the Bayou City.

Munir Ibrahim shared accounts of his return visit to Uganda where he was born, after 45 years.

Munir Ibrahim shared accounts of his return visit to Uganda where he was born, after 45 years.

So it was with much excitement that he visited Uganda again with his mom and two grown sons and it was a pilgrimage of sorts, revisiting the town (Jinja) where he was born and the nearby town (Iganga) where he was raised. Along the way, they visited many of the places where his grandfather and father had their far-flung business ventures – from a ferry boat to cattle ranches, transportation and commercial warehouses – and where they were born. Ibrahim’s grandmothers on both sides came from India.

Ibrahim ran through a series of slides about his three-week long trip to Uganda, including a visit to the Bwindi National Park where they sat close to gorillas and the Murchison Falls National Park, where the Nile River is the narrowest. A little further up, close to Jinga, he and his sons went white-water rafting in the Nile.  

The creed of the Connoisseurs Club is to share experiences with each other that can expand the knowledge and enrichen the outlook of its members. The 5 year-old social group ties each event with a chance to learn something new from a member’s experience and the other constant is that each member brings a bottle of their favorite – or unusual – bottle of Scotch whisky to sample, and a dish for snacks or dinner that follows. This evening, on March 3, the event was held at Nirvana restaurant on the westside which also served a sit-down dinner.