From racial abuse When RAM GIDOOMAL arrived in the UK in 1968, he faced prejudice and abuse. To mark Refugee Week – a celebration of the contributions, resilience and creativity of refugees, which runs until tomorrow (26 June) – he and his wife, SUNITA GIDOOMAL, speak about their experiences as he made the journey to become a successful businessman and governmental policy-influencer Interview by Emily Bright
O
Ram Gidoomal with his wife Sunita and their three children at Buckingham Palace for his CBE investiture in 1998
8 • WAR CRY • 25 June 2022
N a rooftop terrace one humid evening in Mombasa, Kenya, Ram Gidoomal’s family buzzed around him, the women sharing recipe ideas while wealthy businessmen complained about work. There was a feast of food, with fragrant spices mingling in the air. But that night, everything changed for Ram. Ram’s uncle, who had been like a dad to him since his biological father died, received a deportation order to leave the country within 24 hours. He would have to start all over again. His family followed him to England. Aged 17, Ram boarded a flight to London on 2 January 1968. Once respected traders in Japanese silk, living in a 15-bedroom house with servants, the family were catapulted into freezing weather and a foreign culture. They set up a corner shop in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, which Ram helped to run. He went from studying at a top school in Mombasa to a comprehensive near Wormwood Scrubs prison at a time when racial tensions were running high. The family shop’s window risked being trashed by football hooligans, and people hurled racist insults at Ram in the street. ‘Life was very difficult for us,’ Ram says. ‘But wearing Queens Park Rangers colours gave us protection.’ He later studied at Imperial College London. In 1972, during his third year at university, he encountered a group called Campus Crusade For Christ. ‘They were leading a Rock for Christ music concert, singing songs by Bob Dylan and others and reading from the Bible,’ Ram says. ‘Afterwards, I invited them to discuss the Christian faith with me. And boy, did we argue! It was all very friendly though. So I began my journey of faith.’ Ram grew up in a Hindu family and had attended a Sikh place of worship and a Muslim school in Kenya, but the Christian faith felt alien. ‘I’d always thought that was the white man’s God – blue-eyed, blond and wearing a pinstripe suit,’ he muses. ‘But I decided to find out if Jesus existed. When I went to the British Library and my university library, I found material there