American woman searches for her Indian-Ugandan grandfather, lost in 1972
by Piyush Mathur
An American woman, Suzie (or Susanne) Ndovya, posted a message on a Facebook group earlier today, August 26, 2025, seeking people’s help in locating her grandfather who got ‘lost during the 1972 Ugandan expulsion under Idi Amin.’
A student of civil engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Ndovya points out that her grandfather’s name was Patel Vasram, and he ‘lived in Kasese, western Uganda, near the DRC border.’
The name Patel Vasram, Ndovya notes, was also ‘recorded as Vasramji / Vasrambhai / Wasram / Vasuram’—and the man was locally nicknamed ‘Dogodogo’, which is a Swahili word for ‘small’, given that ‘he was very slim.’
Ndovya’s family has no idea where their grandfather ended up resettling ‘after the expulsion.’
The post gives an unmistakable impression that Mr. Patel Vasram’s family is deseperate to find him—even after more than 50 years of losing contact with him.
Ndovya posted her search on the group ‘Indians in Kampala, Uganda’.
This is a screenshot of Suzie Ndovya’s Facebook post dated August 26, 2025.
While Thoughtfox has not independently verified Ndovya’s claims, they seem credible; so, if you have any information that could help her in locating her grandfather or his last whereabouts, you may drop a comment in the box below or send us a message via this link. One can also send a message to this address: editor @thoughtfox.xyz (Don’t leave a space before @ when you type that address, though.)
Thoughtfox has reached out to Ms. Ndovya for further details.
It may be of interest to some readers to know that a key English-language movie highlighting Idi Amin’s 1972 expulsion of Asians (which largely meant Indians and Pakistanis) was Mississippi Masala (1991).