AN exhibition documenting the experiences of Ugandan Asian families who fled to York 50 years ago to escape dictator Idi Amin has gone on tour - and is already booked up until May next year.

The mobile 'Rebuilding Lives' exhibition - which originally opened at the University of York in October - includes photographs, press cuttings, and the real-life stories of some of the Uganda Asian families who came to York in 1972.

The exhibition has already visited two York primary schools since leaving the University of York.

And Shamim Eimaan, one of the organisers, said new bookings were coming in all the time.

She and fellow Ugandan Asians 'Josh' Joshi and Fazila Zannar visited St Mary's Primary School in Askham Richard on Wednesday (November 16).

Afterwards the school tweeted: "We were lucky enough to have an exhibition from three incredible and inspiring people today. They were forced to leave Uganda 50 years ago. Thank you so much for sharing your remarkable story with us."

Shamim said since then four other local schools had got in touch. "The children love it!" she said. "It's just so good that word has got out, and that people want to learn about our experiences!"

Shamim herself came to the UK with her family when she was just six years old.

She recalls little of her early life in Uganda - and has always believed she must have 'blacked it out' because it was so traumatic.

She has a vague memory of gunshots, of someone banging on the door, of her mum saying 'Hide the girls! Hide the girls!'

Her brother Ebrahim once asked her "Soldiers came and pulled Dad out of the car and you were screaming your head off. Do you remember?" But she recalled nothing.

'Josh' Joshi, meanwhile, was just 16 when his family fled Uganda for the UK in 1972, and eventually came to York.

In an interview with the Press in August Josh - who grew up in York and spent many years working for Rowntrees - recalled the terror that engulfed Uganda after Amin took power.

"There was a curfew, there were soldiers on the streets, there were bodies being dumped in mass heaps. I saw a bulldozer digging a mass grave," he told the Press.

Shamim said when she and her colleagues take the exhibition into schools, they typically give a short talk at assembly, then do workshops with individual classes.

She said some of the questions asked by children are touching and profound.

"One little girl came up to me and said 'Miss, it's a good job that you don't remember about what happened'," she said. "That was lovely. I have spent all my life asking myself 'why can't I remember. But she nailed it!"

  • From Monday (November 21) the 'Rebuilding Lives' exhibition will be at the Guildhall for two weeks. It will then move on to Explore York Library.
  • Other venues which have already booked the exhibition for early next year include York College, York St John College, Fairfax House, King's Manor - and the Holocaust Centre at the University of Huddersfield.