In 1924, the Kampala Oriental Company built the main building that now houses the cafe. In 1960, the building was sold to Antonio Salvador Monteiro of Jinja. In 1968 the proprieters became Angelina Monteiro and Palmira Monteiro (the daughter of the previous owner.
Unfortunately, Idi Amin issued a deadline to expel all Asians from the country in 1972. The decree gave 90 days to expatriate, allowing people to leave with only one 30kg bag. No money could be taken. Under Decree No.27 of 1973, the Assets of Departed Asians’ Act, Cap 83 Laws of Uganda, Amin created the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board in order to seize the assets left behind. This board owned the property until the Source Cafe purchased the property in October of 1999.
Most ethnic Asians in Uganda at the time were second, third, and fourth generation inhabitants of Uganda: this was the only home they knew. Amin’s command to leave created deep feelings of fear and anxiety as people were forced to leave their homes and busineses to start a new life in a foreign land. So many questions: why didn’t the international community prevent this? how could any government justify such a decision?
This eradication was the downfall of the Ugandan economy. Homes were ransacked. Businesses that had taken decades to build were driven into the ground in a matter of weeks.
In Obote’s return to the presidency, the Expropriated Properties Act of 1982 was issued as part of a large-scale plan to encourage economic growth in Uganda. The Act reclaimed properties (including the Source Cafe building) and made efforts to locate Asian owners and encourage their return to Uganda. If the properties were sold, remuneration went to the proprietors.
The Plot 20 property was never reclaimed and went up for auction in 1998. The auction rules favored the sitting tenants (most of whom were squatters) so that outside investors would not be able to cheaply buy up Ugandan property. As long as sitting tenants of a property had paid in full their taxes and utility bills, they would be eligible to bid against their fellow tenants before the public at large was allowed to bid. James and Jemimah Ssemakadde, who ran Jemimah’s Cafe, a long time Jinja favorite, had long housed the cafe on the premises. The Ssemakaddes won the bidding and later sold the property to five families (Abneys, Bartons, Moores, Smiths, and Taylors) who pooled their resources and purchased the property with dreams of creating a campus of creativity, connections, and resources. Much of the success of the Source Cafe as a popular local attraction is do to the years of hard work done by James and Jemimah. The Ssemekaddes now own and operate Banana Village near Entebbe.
