Adil Ray Who Do You Think You Are?

With my identity, I feel very fortunate, actually.

I always have done because I've always felt that, you know,

I've got something that's slightly different to others

and also something quite interesting.

Actor, presenter and writer Adil Ray is best known for his comedy series

Citizen Khan.

How about a Muslim fun day!

-A Muslim what?

-A fun day!

You know, one of those churchy fete-y things

that you white people do.

But with some Muslim thingamajigs thrown in instead.

For example?

Alcohol-free bottle tombola!

Halal candyfloss!

Guess who's under the burqa!

My mother's side in particular really interests me

because here's my mother, born in Kenya, East Africa,

comes to this country in the '60s, marries my dad who's Pakistani.

He's a labourer from Pakistan

so that was slightly unheard-of in itself.

And I really love my parents for doing that.

But then if you look further back at my mum's background,

her mother was an African orphan

who marries my grandfather

who was from India.

I mean, his story in itself is amazing.

I knew my grandmother, my grandmother, you know,

was very much the matriarch of our family.

So I'm really intrigued to know

who was she, what was her background, being African?

We're all from many, many different backgrounds,

we've all got different stories,

and I can't wait to find out more about mine.

Adil's on his way to see his mum, Nargis,

who lives near him in Birmingham.

The key thing about my mum, really, she's been so supportive of me,

in my personal life, but more importantly, in my career.

She used to say to me when I was growing up and I said I wanted

to be a radio presenter, she'd say "Well, OK, you can do that.

"Just one condition - get a degree first."

So I said, "All right."

And on the day of the graduation, I gave her the scroll, I went,

"Mum, here you go, here's your degree."

And she said, "That's fine, good luck with your radio career."

You know what, I can safely say, she's the best mum in the world.

-As-Salaam alaikum.

-Wa alaikum salaam.

-How are you?

-All right.

-And how are you?

-I'm OK, thank you.

You're looking very nice.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Expecting visitors, are we?

-Yes.

Still going to the gym four times a week?

-You must be joking!

-Oh, three times now, right?

What about the London Marathon this year...?

Nargis has been digging out some photographs

from her childhood in Kenya.

So this is exciting. So this is... What's this, this is the house...?

This is the house in Kisumu, Kenya...

-OK.

-..where I was brought up.

-Big house, isn't it?

-It is a big house.

It's about eight-bedroomed house,

and the whole family lived in there.

And not everyone could afford a house like that.

-Right.

-Yeah. That's true.

We had a beautiful garden and everything and people used to come

to take photos of it.

My father was Meraj Din and then they opened a business

called Dean Brothers.

So he builds his business, and was that sort of the foundation of...?

The foundation of Meraj Din and his family,

and he built a house for the family.

-What else do we have?

-This is the inside of the house.

-The living room.

-Yes, sitting room, we used to call it.

So, you guys had a pretty... pretty good lifestyle in Kisumu.

I know you've told me things in the past,

but it's only when you see this and you realise, you see this car.

Oh, my God, you know, that's a classic. It's a beautiful car.

Suddenly Kenya got what they call Uhuru - independence.

And then obviously the Africans started thinking

"Oh, now it's my country and I'll have all this."

Which you can understand to a certain extent, you know.

But...

And it was frightening as well.

Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963.

The Asians living in the new country,

many born there when it was still part of the Empire,

were made to choose between remaining British

or becoming Kenyan citizens.

Thousands of Asians left Kenya for Britain,

including Nargis and her family, who settled in Birmingham.

What do we have here?

-This is your grandfather.

-Of course.

-My father.

-Meraj Din.

-Your father. Very handsome.

Yeah. He actually came to Kenya,

he was a worker on the railways.

He didn't actually build the railways, he was like a clerk.

Did he come to Kenya on his own then, initially?

Initially, from what I understand,

he came on his own and then he sent for his wife.

That's, I think, when he first came into Kenya.

See, I've not seen this one. I've only known him from this.

God, look at the transformation, that's the same...

-That is the same man?

-Yeah.

-That is that man there?

-Yeah.

Adil's grandfather, Meraj Din,

was in his teens when he arrived in Kenya in 1912

from what was then British India, and is now Pakistan.

He started with the community there

and he became like a leader of the community or the chairperson.

A community leader? How about that!

So he was a community leader, in a suit,

with some nice headgear and glasses.

He actually built the mosque.

Well, he didn't build it with his own hands, but...

Yeah, but got the land and...

-The land.

-And organised it all.

-Raised the money.

-Raised the money, that's right.

Wow, interesting.

What a fascinating guy. OK.

Oh, I recognise her. This is...

-It's Aisha.

-Aisha, yes.

So this is... So your mother, taken in Kisumu?

-Yes.

-She was your father's second wife and she was an orphan.

By this time, you know, he's that guy.

Look at him, you know, smart businessman.

And he, you know... Unfortunate circumstances, his first wife dies.

But he chooses his second wife,

this orphan girl, from Uganda.

My father married her at the age of 13, 14, I think.

But I think the reason was

that he had seven children from his previous marriage

and he probably thought

that she'd be the best to look after them.

I remember she would, you know, she'd shout at us,

she'd tell us to don't do this or she'd talk to us, in Punjabi.

But you certainly looked up to her.

Adil's grandmother Aisha spoke Punjabi because, as a young girl,

she was raised in an Indian family.

Did you not say that her father... He wasn't... What was he?

-He was...

-Indian, Turkish, or something?

No, from what we understand,

that my mum's father was a Turkish missionary.

-Yes.

-And he came and he married an African...

-An African Ugandan.

-..Ugandan girl.

So, Aisha.

What treatment did she get from other, you know,

Asian families or Asian people,

being married to this quite prominent family, the Dins?

-Was she accepted?

-I think they had to accept,

some of them obviously they didn't like it.

He was very much conscious of that.

Because she looked African as well,

that the people will talk about her,

so that's why she wanted to give the impression

that she's adopted their way of life, she's an Asian now.

-She's making that effort.

-She's making...

Yeah, she was making that effort a lot.

Here we are in Birmingham.

One of the biggest, diverse cities in the world.

Yet, if today a Muslim son wants to go to his parents

or decides to go and marry an African woman,

there would be people that would frown on that and say,

"What is he thinking about?" And that's today.

100 years ago, almost 100 years ago,

my grandfather did exactly that.

Your grandfather, maybe it was in his mind

that he has to set an example,

-that you have to...

-And he did that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Amazing.

Adil's grandparents, Aisha and Meraj,

went on to have seven children of their own, including Nargis.

Nargis was told that Aisha's mother was called Razia.

That she was from Uganda,

and that she married a Muslim man from Turkey called Moidin.

When Moidin died, Razia was left alone with her young children.

Then she couldn't afford to keep the kids.

So she took them to the mosque

and were saying that these are Muslim children,

so the local mosque then looks for the couples

-who have not got children...

-Right.

..and asks them to take.

So each one of them... Like my mum went to a journalist couple.

And this is in Uganda?

-In Uganda.

-OK. So what else do you know about Razia?

My grandmother, she came from...

from what I understand, the Kabaka family.

-She was distantly related.

-Now, the Kabaka family...?

-Kabaka is the ruler of Uganda.

-Right.

Interested to find out if that's true.

I don't know what that means.

Whether we get a stake of Uganda.

It would be a lovely story if that's true.

The photos that really struck me were the photos of my grandfather.

He meets my grandmother

in a mosque in Uganda, or something.

How does that even happen?

How does a guy like him end up marrying an orphan girl

who's got African blood in her?

And it turns out, not just any African blood,

from what Mum tells me, she may well be connected to Kabaka,

one of the rulers of Uganda!

I just find it really fascinating

and I just cannot wait to get out there and find out more.

To discover the truth behind the stories that have been passed down

in his family, Adil is flying to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

I feel very lucky to be going on this journey.

Identity to me, and my background, my heritage and ancestry,

it's a real big part of me.

It really intrigues me because you know, here I am, I'm a Brummie,

I'm British, I'm Muslim, I'm Pakistani.

And I'm also East African.

I feel so proud of that.

But I know very little about that background.

In 1896, shortly after Kenya became part of the British Empire,

work began on a massive railway

to carry people and goods across the colony.

It stretched nearly 600 miles across deserts, rivers and ravines,

from Mombasa in the East via Nairobi, to Kisumu in the West.

32,000 men were brought over from British India to build it.

In 1912, Adil's grandfather Meraj arrived to work for the railway

as a junior clerk.

What I've got from the family is his passport.

Now, in here, it confirms his date of birth, 1st of March, 1896.

He came when he was 16.

The reason why my grandfather Meraj left India

was because his father died,

and he then automatically becomes head of the family.

Now, they were great landowners, they were actually pretty well off.

But he didn't inherit any of the land,

that was members of his father's side the family.

So his family, him, his mum and his brother, become pretty poor.

So he decides, like many Indians at the time,

to come out to Africa to make a better life for himself.

The thing that really strikes me about my grandfather Meraj is that,

when he arrived here, he was only 16 years old.

To leave Lahore to come to Africa, not knowing what to expect,

to be in a totally different continent at that time,

is just amazing.

So I really want to find out more about my grandfather Meraj.

You know, where he lived, what his house was like.

I know he was a businessman.

What was the business like? So I'm off to Kisumu.

Adil's on his way to meet historian Gordon Omenya Onyango.

-Gordon. Jambo.

-Jambo sana. How are you?

-I'm very well, how are you?

-I'm also fine.

-Good.

-Nice meeting you.

-And you too.

-Thank you.

Have you got any records at all about my grandfather?

You can have a look at these records.

-This is exciting!

-Yes.

-What's this, then?

-These records.

The Official Gazette Of The Colony And Protectorate Of Kenya.

-So this is an electoral register, is it?

-Mm-hmm.

OK. So is my grandfather on here?

Here he is!

Number 98, Mehraj Din, tinsmith, there you go, Box 98, Kisumu,

that's his postal address.

Mehraj Din, Aisha Bibi...

That's his wife, my grandmother.

Who's this, Mehraj Din...?

That is his mum.

-Oh, yeah.

-Because when his first wife died,

his mother was still around.

I think, at some point, she did go back to Pakistan in the end.

But, initially, she lived with my grandmother and grandad.

That's amazing, seeing that.

That is great.

So what was life like, specifically, for Meraj Din, back then,

as an Indian man, coming into Africa and Kisumu,

what would it have been like?

He engaged in trade because most of the early Indians were trading,

selling things, commodities, to Africans.

And this is exactly where the Indian buyers were,

where most Indians were trading.

With the railway completed,

thousands of Indians, like Adil's grandfather,

chose to stay on and bring their families to join them.

They were keen to take advantage of the new opportunities

the railway opened up for trade inland.

So many settled in Kisumu,

it became known as the Bombay of East Africa.

Meraj became a successful tinsmith,

specialising in making and selling water tanks

which were in high demand.

Kisumu had a problem with water at that time, also.

So they used these tins to store water.

So he started as a tinsmith,

but the big thing he was selling was water tanks.

-Exactly.

-That's a great picture.

Do you know when that might have been?

Almost the same period, we're talking about 19...

From 1915, 1920, thereabout.

Some of the things that he made,

because he was a tinsmith, you know,

some of those tin lamps are actually still in use up to date.

-Oh, really?

-And I can confirm to you that even me, in my village,

my mum still uses that tin lamp

-in her kitchen.

-Well, it's funny you should say that, Gordon.

One of the reasons we're here now is that I can confirm

I've still got the bill that your mum didn't pay for these!

So, any time you're ready, just a couple of shillings would be nice!

-I'm ready to pay the bill!

-THEY LAUGH

So they introduced products

-that perhaps Africans hadn't even seen before.

-Yeah, exactly.

What kind of things would they have been?

Mostly bicycles,

blankets, sometimes they could also bring iron sheets

because that's the time when Africans are also starting

to move from building grass-thatched houses

to iron-roofed houses, yeah.

So those are the kind of items that they were engaging in.

So, there were coming with real uses and real purpose

and real advantages for not just themselves

but for the wider community?

Exactly, exactly.

And, if you can see this picture.

This is one of the Indian bazaars where they are exchanging goods,

take a look at that.

When you look at Kisumu today, I mean, it's packed.

I mean, there's no room. But just there you get an idea that,

you know, it was busy, but still it wasn't as populated as it is today.

Yeah. We can also have a look at these.

What's this? This is another market, OK.

Yeah, you can see some Indians over here.

God, what year is this? What year would that be, do you think?

Approximately, around 1910, 1912, thereabouts.

The one thing that strikes me,

and it's ridiculous not thinking this before, but seeing it now,

and seeing how the Africans are dressed, you know,

with not very much on,

because that's what Africans dressed like back then,

the Indians dressing how we imagine Indians to dress, at least,

how I imagine Indians dressed back then... Automatically, I'm going,

"Imagine that as a culture shock!"

Exactly. And that's why,

when the Indians started to bring exotic commodities or exotic goods,

that's when Africans started now to embrace wearing clothes.

Oh, OK, right.

So I have a picture of my grandmother, Aisha.

This was taken quite early on.

-It's Aisha?

-Aisha, yeah.

Now, you can probably just about tell there,

she was Ugandan. Was that unusual for my grandfather, Meraj Din,

not only to marry a 13-year-old, but somebody who was Ugandan?

It was unusual

because of the fact that, if you look at

the Indian culture, you know,

they have the caste system where you have to marry within your caste.

It also went alongside marrying a woman from your own racial group.

But, on the other side,

Meraj probably did not have a chance to get an Indian woman.

I mean, Asian women were also not many.

So the choices were limited.

So, out of necessity, he had to marry Aisha.

At this time, it wasn't uncommon for girls to marry at a young age.

But Meraj and Aisha's marriage was unusual because it didn't fit

the racial hierarchy that the British had created in Kenya,

with Europeans at the top, Indians next, and Africans at the bottom.

Aisha's mixed heritage would not have gone unnoticed.

I do know, having spoken to my mother and my aunt,

and she talked about it much later in her life, that,

in the early days particularly,

she did suffer a lot of prejudice from the Indian community,

and some people quite close to the family, as well.

I know she had a huge complex about her African hair, her complexion.

She didn't want photos taken of her.

She tried to hide her hair, tried to straighten her hair.

Any of her children that had African hair, she would try and straighten.

It just makes me really sad.

Yes, it was...

It was something that was...

..expected, of course, by Aisha because, you know,

around that period, the racial hierarchy was so strong,

so he had to go through that kind of prejudice.

Just suffer this prejudice and do it so...

..elegantly and with real dignity.

She had incredible dignity, she was an incredibly smart woman as well.

Always turned out.

You know, for me, as I was growing up, she was...

I didn't even realise she was African until, you know...

She spoke Punjabi, dressed elegantly like any other Punjabi woman.

But then you realise now, what she had to endure and put up with

in those early days is quite something.

Here's a picture of my...

grandfather, by the way.

What I really love more than anything -

you were talking about integration,

and how they had to...

This was when he first arrived, pretty much, not when he was 16,

but some years later that was taken.

-OK.

-And then, this is a picture taken...

..not long before he died, passed away.

But you see the transition between the two.

-It's quite something, isn't it?

-Yeah, I can see the change.

-Here, he looks more modern.

-Yeah.

He has kind of embraced modernity.

-Yeah.

-Here, he's a bit of an Indian national.

So, it's some kind of transition,

some kind of transition.

Adil wants to see what remains

from his great-grandparents' time in Kisumu.

Sam.

-Adil.

-How are you?

-Very good, how are you doing?

I'm OK. Are you going to give me a tour of Kisumu?

-Let's have a look.

-Perfect.

Local guide Sam has offered to show Adil around.

Sam's family also came from India

when it was part of the British Empire,

and stayed in Kisumu where many Asian-owned businesses still thrive.

Kisumu itself is a very commercial and industrial town.

The street we are on now, the shops on your left and right,

obviously, there's Africans and locals working in them,

but they're Asian-owned businesses.

So will there be some Asian families that, you know...

go back as far as Meraj Din,

and that generation that might even still be here?

I'm sure there is. The next couple of generations.

Sam has managed to track down where Meraj first set up in business.

Believe it or not, this is...

..your father's shop.

Really? What, this is where he was a tinsmith?

This is where he operated from.

And would this be the original structure, the original roof?

The original building, the original structure,

-obviously a paint job and a few things changed there.

-Yeah.

What is it now, it seems to be like a cafe?

It's a cafe and a guest house.

-Tyre centre.

-Tyre centre there.

-Right.

So, what I know is that he was a tinsmith.

So he was selling lots of tin cookware and saucepans

and pots and pans and all that kind of thing.

-And water tanks.

-Yeah, water tanks was the main thing.

And, apparently, he used to make them here.

At the back, there must be like a courtyard area

-where all the work was done and displayed out here.

-Right.

So I'm guessing, this was the original courtyard,

but it's kind of been redeveloped since.

Yeah, it's been built up, the lodging, the rooms.

Up till about here would have been

the back yard where everything's been...

Where he's making his water tanks.

You know, it's interesting for me. This is kind of...

where his entrepreneurship began, you know,

and where he moved on to, and his sons moved on to, and then my mum,

you know, and then down to me.

-It all started from here.

-Yeah, exactly.

It started from this courtyard.

It's great.

As more entrepreneurs like Meraj arrived, through the 1920s and '30s,

Asian-owned businesses came to account for about 90% of trade

within the colony.

Meraj's tinsmith trade was booming and he brought his sons

into the business. He grew wealthy enough to contribute

to building the local mosque - it's still in use today.

-It's quite lovely, isn't it?

-Beautiful structure.

-Yeah.

It's kind of a peaceful oasis in the mayhem of Kisumu town.

-The hubbub of Kisumu's hecticness.

-Yeah.

Nice.

Adil's keen to meet some elders who went to the mosque

in his grandfather's day.

-As-salaam alaikum.

-Wa alaikum salaam.

My name's Adil, I'm the grandson of Meraj Din.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

They knew Meraj Din because he was one of the elders at the mosque,

and he helped build it.

But they do know him, and they even met him.

They are very happy and proud that now they have met you,

an ancestor of Meraj Din.

Thank you so much. That's so good to hear.

Thank you so much, thank you.

I can't be anything but proud of Meraj.

He didn't just go back to India and say,

"I'm not doing that, I can't hack it."

He decided, "Yes, I'm going to make a go of it

"and really try and work within that society."

And that's exactly what he's done.

Well, how amazing was that?

-It was amazing.

-Wasn't it, just?

They knew Meraj.

I mean, the thing is, they prayed when he passed away,

they were at the prayers.

The prayers must have been...

There was the funeral, and prayers held at the house.

One thing I thought was really interesting, he talked about...

He mentioned that Meraj helped all the communities.

By that, does he mean not just Muslims, so, Hindus, Sikhs?

By that, he means all the communities,

not just the Muslim community.

Yeah.

It's just great to hear that Meraj was one of those men

that just helped everybody.

And I like to think my family back in Birmingham,

you know, we're East African Asians, half East African, half Pakistani,

but we have that sort of unity amongst us, I think.

I suppose it comes from this thing of sticking together, when,

essentially, the Asians were a minority in Africa.

Sam's taking Adil to what was once the Indian quarter of Kisumu,

to see the house that the Din family built in the 1950s...

..and where Adil's mother spent her childhood.

It's a big house.

-It is a big house.

-Yeah.

-It's very Art Deco, isn't it?

-It is.

Those original glass bricks.

So what is it now?

It's now the head office for a construction company.

It's great that it's still standing but it's a shame it's not been...

-Looked after.

-..completely preserved.

Here, I've got this picture, look at that from...

The original. It's actually not changed an awful lot.

It's pretty much the same.

Extraordinary.

Wow, look at this parquet floor!

-Beautiful.

-It's stunning and that is what you call a staircase.

-A grand staircase.

-Yeah.

It's absolutely stunning.

Wow! It's great, isn't it?

That floor is just...

So they move into this house in 1954.

Obviously my grandfather laid the foundations, but I think

part of the reason they were able to move into this house

was because of the wealth of his sons.

They had moved the business on,

I think they had a company called the Dean Brothers.

In fact, my mum tells me the story of my Uncle Zuffur,

who would have business meetings here.

You know, a big dining table, I don't know if it was in this room

but, you know, a big dining table,

and my grandmother Aisha would lay out all the table,

get out the best crockery and cutlery

and my mum and all of her sisters,

they had to stay upstairs and stay very quiet.

-Out of the way.

-Out of the way,

they weren't allowed to even talk or whisper at all.

And they'd sit on the staircase,

listening in to these business meetings.

Just stood here now sort of takes you, really try...

You can kind of imagine that. Imagine that.

Actually, I've got a picture,

I think there's a picture of how it looked here.

Here we go. So, actually,

-that's probably pretty much where we're standing.

-About here, yeah.

Exactly.

Great.

Just brilliant, I love it.

-God, that is gorgeous, isn't it?

-It is.

Just one big glass wall, pretty much, it allows for natural light.

When I think about my grandfather Meraj...

..he also gave Aisha something she'd never experienced before.

You know, in the end, they lived in a lovely house,

of which Aisha becomes the matriarch of 14 children,

seven of which aren't hers.

And what a beautiful house it was.

It's really inspiring hearing about my grandfather Meraj and the life

that he had in Kisumu.

In particular, how he met Aisha, this African woman from Uganda.

And then, when I think about the prejudice

that Aisha would have faced,

being an African woman in amongst that Indian community,

and I know that she had...

a number of things said to her

and the way she was made to feel at times,

but she held her own and she was so dignified in her life that...

..I just feel absolutely compelled to find out more about her, really.

And I just can't wait to get to Uganda and just find out exactly

who she was and who was her family and where did she come from?

Adil is leaving Kisumu and heading for Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

It's an area of the country called Buganda,

which was under British control

at the time Adil's grandmother, Aisha, was born.

Adil knows that Aisha's mother, his great-grandmother,

was an African woman called Razia,

and that she married a man called Moidin.

He's been given details by a family member of relatives of Razia's

in Uganda. They live in a village three hours' drive from the capital.

Adil's being helped by local translator George Mpanga.

Hey!

Hi!

This is Udaia.

Nice to meet you, Udaia.

Udaia and Sarah are nieces of Adil's great-grandmother, Razia,

making Adil their distant cousin.

Udaia's brother, the head of the family, has also come along.

You're really family to them.

Yes.

You look exactly like them.

Exactly!

So Aisha's mother was their auntie?

-Yeah.

-Razia?

-This is Razia?

-Yes.

-Oh, I've never seen...

-You have never seen?

I have never seen.

-My father.

-This is your father?

-With sister.

Oh, they are brother and sister. Wow, OK.

What was she like as a person? Do you remember much?

-TRANSLATOR:

-She was a good lady.

She was very beautiful.

Just like Aisha.

OK, yeah.

The family's story Adil's heard from his mum

is that his great-grandmother, Razia,

married a Muslim man from Turkey.

So Razia got married to...

Moidin?

Moidin was her husband?

How did that happen?

HE TRANSLATES

-OK, because they had been businessmen together?

-Yeah, right.

Business partners.

Moidin was from Turkey?

The father of this one...

..is from Turkey.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

He was Indian but also adds that it was very difficult to tell between

an Indian and a Turkish at that time.

-Right, OK.

-This one says Turkish and this one says an Indian.

Oh, OK. Turkey, OK.

Yes, it was Turkey or...

And then, um, unfortunately, Moidin died.

So then, what happened then?

Because I heard that...

that maybe after he died, that Razia gave the children,

Hamida and Aisha, orphaned them to the mosque, is that right?

It must have been very difficult for Razia to have her children...

to lose her children in that way.

HE TRANSLATES

Oh, that's terrible.

And I know that Aisha, my grandmother, when she's growing up,

she's suffered a lot, because of her African heritage, from other people.

And I feel ashamed for that.

HE TRANSLATES

In England, I tell my family that we should be proud of our background,

proud that we are African, proud that we have African blood in us.

It makes me very proud.

And in this world today, it's very important, very important.

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

You are just like your uncle, he loved African people.

Yeah.

SPEAKS OWN LANGAUGE

So, I have also heard, and I don't know whether this is true,

that Razia was related to the King of Buganda, the Kabaka,

is that true?

TRANSLATION:

-Wow! We are Royal family, we've got kings.

-Yes!

HE TRANSLATES

TRANSLATION:

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

If we were living nearby, we would invite the whole family to meet you.

Right.

TRANSLATION:

Adil's discovered that the old family story is true.

He really is related to Ugandan royalty.

Adil's great-great-grandfather, Zaidi Kirwana,

was the son of a chieftain, Kamanyiro Magimbi.

And Kamanyiro's sister was Muganzirwazza,

the mother of King Muteesa I.

I'll show you a picture of my mother.

HE TRANSLATES

She's 71 years old this month.

HE TRANSLATES

And this is me! Can you explain to them, in a comedy show?

I play as an actor in a comedy show!

HE TRANSLATES

We put the beard on and the hat, as an actor!

-That is hard to tell that it's you.

-I know!

Adil's great-grandmother, Razia, is buried nearby.

His cousin, Sarah, is taking him to see the grave.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

-My great-grandmother?

-Your great-grandmother, yeah.

So, which one is it?

-This one.

-This one?

-Mm, this one.

THEY PRAY

I think, learning about my great-grandmother, Razia,

and her story...

really has affected me,

in that it wasn't what I thought in the first place.

The thing that I really...is quite sad, really, that I found out,

is that this sort of family story that I've been told,

that Razia gave up the children at a local mosque or something,

an orphanage, that's not true at all, according to Sarah.

It's actually that...

an Asian family, an Indian family at the time,

took the children away, because, you know,

they didn't want them to be brought up in that family,

which is terribly, terribly sad, it really is.

And I know that Aisha, my grandmother,

and Razia, her mother,

did actually meet up, but when they sat and met...

..they couldn't communicate with each other.

Aisha spoke Punjabi,

so they sat next to each other

without being able to speak to each other.

But apparently gesticulating and touching each other

and just holding each other's hands.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Well, that was just extraordinary,

probably one of the biggest days of my life, meeting these ladies.

I mean, they were just so lovely and adorable

and really took me in as a member of their family

almost straightaway and I recognised that love and that feeling.

I remember getting the same thing from my grandmother, from Aisha.

It was just uncanny.

And then the other thing which IS true,

which I thought was never going to be true,

was that I'm related to the King of Buganda!

I can't wait to find out a little bit more

and find out about this chief,

and, hopefully, I'll keep my feet on the ground.

Back in Kampala,

Adil's now on the trail of his great-great-great-grandfather,

Chief Kamanyiro Magimbi, his link to Ugandan royalty.

Time to find out who this Kamanyiro fellow is.

Kamanyiro...

Best of Kamanyiro on YouTube, I'm guessing that's not him.

Edward Kamanyiro on Twitter?

No, that's probably not him either.

Oh! Sir John Grey has written a journal...

..on Magimbi Kamanyiro!

Adil has found an article

in which a European explorer describes meeting Kamanyiro

in February, 1890.

Oh, here's a description of him.

"A dark kaftan embroidered with silver,

"fell over wide sky-blue trousers."

Nice! "Also adorned with silver embroidery.

"On his head, he wore a diadem..."

Which is a crown - of course you would.

"..made entirely of strings of beads of different colours."

"The wearer of this adornment was Kamanyiro."

Ah... This is great stuff. Wow, this is...

"In the afternoon, Kamanyiro invariably got drunk...

"..but as he was always in good humour..."

There you go.

"..he contributed in no small degree to the hilarity of the expedition.

"Kamanyiro's drummers, like all his followers...

"..were one-eyed."

"When I asked him how it had happened,

"that he had engaged none but one-eyed people,

"he made a gesture with his hand

"to indicate the action of tearing out a man's eye

"and with a snap of his fingers towards the ground, cried,

"'Eh, it looks better.'"

I don't like the sound of that.

Adil's travelling to the area in the traditional Kingdom of Buganda

where his three-times great-grandfather, Kamanyiro,

was a chief in the late 1800s.

This was one of the last parts of Africa to be reached by outsiders.

Arab traders had come first via the East African coast in the 1840s,

followed in the 1870s by Christian missionaries

seeking converts in the kingdom.

By the 1880s, British and German explorers arrived,

competing to expand their rival empires.

Adil wants to find out more about Kamanyiro

and his Royal relatives during this time.

-Hi!

-Nice to see you too.

-How are you?

-I'm good! I'm looking forward to talking to you

-and finding out all about my great-great-great-grandfather.

-OK, sir, I'll do that.

He is meeting historian Sam Wirilinyigo

in a traditional Bugandan village.

Now, I know there were lots of chiefs at the time,

but how significant would my great-great-grandfather be?

Where we are now...

..was one of the major provinces of the Kingdom of Buganda.

And the chief...

was very important

in that he was at the frontier, guarding the kingdom.

Do you have any photos, any pictures of him?

Yes, I have.

Wow, so, clearly not photographs, what we call drawings, yeah!

Drawings, yeah, maybe we start with that one.

This is Muteesa I...

-OK.

-..with his leading chiefs.

-Right.

-They're not captioned, of course.

So I wouldn't tell you that this is definitely Kamanyiro

but since he was a very important provincial chief,

he must have been one of these.

Right. OK, so one of these guys is my great-great-great-grandfather.

Wow. I reckon it's him, he looks quite handsome.

And then what do we have there?

Here is the Queen Mother, in state, really.

It's great, isn't it? A great picture.

This lady is Muganzirwazza,

the sister of your great-great-great-grandfather,

Kamanyiro.

And she's obviously being entertained there.

Entertained, she has visitors, two of them European.

Kamanyiro's sister, Muganzirwazza,

was skilled at bargaining with foreign traders.

Her son, Kamanyiro's nephew, King Muteesa I,

gained a reputation as a clever negotiator,

playing one foreign power off against the other.

But after his death in 1884,

the kingdom split along religious lines

allied to the foreign powers

and descended into civil war.

For a chief like Adil's three times great-grandfather, Kamanyiro,

it was a dangerous time.

So, I know there were Muslim groups and Christian groups,

but where did Kamanyiro position himself in amongst all of this?

He never was attracted to any of these religions.

Foreign religions.

Because he had his own.

We had our traditional religion.

Kamanyiro never became either Muslim or Christian...

..although, he, from time to time, moved from one group to the other,

as the political situation demanded.

And I think he was, your great-great-great-grandfather,

was a very shrewd politician.

One of the things I read, which is a little bit disturbing,

is that he could have been a bit barbaric.

I read things like, he would gouge out the eyes of his followers.

Could that be true?

A lot of stuff has been written about Africans,

especially in the 19th century.

And all of it intended to excite Europe...

..and this is one way of exciting and attracting readership.

So, I think this is an exaggeration,

and I think when you rise to such a position as Kamanyiro did,

you are intelligent enough to know

that one-eyed fighters wouldn't be the best.

Yeah, to say the least, yes!

Well, it's a bit of a relief that my great-great-great-grandfather

wasn't just a drunk and a savage,

as described by some of those European explorers...

..although, you know, they were quite violent times

and he was quite a notorious fighter, being a chief,

so, I'm sure some of it might well be true.

But more importantly, I think, by the sounds of it,

he played quite an honourable role in Ugandan history

and I'm particularly proud

that he stuck to his values and, you know,

didn't sell out and held on to his traditional beliefs.

By the 1890s, the British-backed Christians

had taken control of Buganda.

In 1894, Britain brought Uganda, as it came to be known,

into the empire.

Chiefs like Kamanyiro were allowed to keep their titles

but were stripped of their power.

Adil has learned from his cousin, Sarah,

that Kamanyiro's tomb survives in a nearby village.

The tomb, where Kamanyiro is buried beside his brother,

has become a place of pilgrimage.

Adil, his cousins and George have joined the tomb's caretaker

to pay their respects.

TRANSLATION

Do many people come here to pay their respects to Kamanyiro?

HE TRANSLATES

TRANSLATION

TRANSLATION

Because Kamanyiro was a great man

and he was a very rich man, money should continue flowing.

And that money is used to help to take care of the people

who clean the place.

So, you mentioned the bark cloth

and I've bought some bark cloth here as well.

Why do we use bark cloth?

HE TRANSLATES

TRANSLATION

So, can I cover the brothers with the cloth?

HE TRANSLATES

-Yeah, they will help you too.

-OK.

She's going to show you.

I think by far the biggest discovery I've made on this trip,

and the most surprising discovery I've made on this trip

is that, yes, I am related to the Kabaka...

Your grandson, great-grandson, has come all the way from...

..via a Chief.

Chief Kamanyiro Magimbi.

I mean, it doesn't make...

it just doesn't connect, in many ways.

How can I be related to somebody called Chief Kamanyiro Magimbi?

I mean, it's just ridiculous!

But I am! And it's fantastic.

Coming to Uganda, for me, has been a fantastic experience and...

..it's now, for me, not coming to an African country and going,

"Oh, look, there are Africans."

It's coming to a country and going, "Oh, this is part of my home.

"This is part of my heritage,"

You know, it's still only now beginning to sink in

that I am African,

that I have African ancestry

and that just feels, it feels great

and it just feels that Kenya and Uganda and Pakistan

and England are all of my homes.

I feel very lucky to have discovered that,

and it just reminds us that you really don't know who you are

until you know what you were,

and I've just found that out, and it's just fantastic.