Jitu Tanna
Jitu Tanna was born in Kaliro Uganda along with his seven siblings. He attended a grade school in Kaliro until his family moved to Jinja when he was in grade 7. In 1971 Jitu’s family was planning to move to the UK since he had been accepted to an undergraduate program in England. While the family was making plans to move to the UK the expulsion decree was announced and they were forced to speed up their plans to move to the UK.
Jitu and his family ended up in a transit camp in Sussex as the British government had converted several army barracks into temporary accommodations for Ugandan Asians. Eventually, they were permanently resettled in Southhampton in London and Jitu worked for an insurance company for ten years in the UK before moving to Canada in 1982 to be with his wife.
He secured a position at the Royal Bank after working several odd jobs for a year when he first came to Canada. Since then he has been happily employed at the Royal Bank for over thirty years. He remains active in the Uganda Association in Toronto and was one of the lead volunteers during their celebrations marking the 50th year of Ugandan Independence in 2012.
This oral history was conducted at a Jitu’s home in Toronto, Ontario.