To manage both family and work, Sayani splits his time between Uganda and Britain. Africa’s warm climate does wonders for his health, he says, where he enjoys being a central figure in his local Ismaili Muslim community. And England provides a good rest, not to mention better electricity, roads and medical attention, he says.

Most people in their 70s would think about retiring but not Sayani, who owns Garden Earth Organic Farms, which grows coffee, soya beans and maize in Lowero, about a three-hour drive from Kampala. It’s a fairly sleepy place, with limited mobile-phone reception and poor electricity. Sayani says he spends a good deal of time battling other land owners who want to lay claim to part of his farm or use it without asking. During our visit, a neighbour was using Sayani’s land to graze his goats and had started planting crops on a section of the farm.

“I had a difficult time setting up the farm but that is how life is,” he said. “I don’t make much money but I do my best to look after my workers.”

Sayani currently employs two farm managers in Lowero, allowing him to work mostly from his office in downtown Kampala, where he’s known as a general “go to man”, offering advice on all sorts of matters from filling out paperwork to sick relations to wedding plans.

“I like to help others and I feel I am very useful here, more so than in Britain. I get bored in London drinking tea and watching television. I think that British lifestyle would age me faster.”

A modern perspective

Ali-shah Jivraj is a third generation Ugandan Asian. His grandfather was one of the richest and most influential businessmen in the pre-Idi Amin era, with extensive interests in mining and agribusiness in western Uganda.