
Sugar is big business in Uganda. These trucks loaded with sugar cane are heading for the factories of Kakira Sugar Limited -- one of the east-central African country's oldest and largest sugar companies.

Farmhands stand atop a truck as they pile on sugar cane.

For farmers like Mwanja Banuli, harvesting this rough, woody crop is heavy going but valuable.

Banuli sends much of his produce to the nearby Kakira company, which was founded by Muljibai Madhvani, an immigrant from the Indian subcontinent in the late 1920s.

Kakira was once producing about 50% of all the sugar produced in Uganda, according to the company's assistant general manager, Kenneth Barungi.

However, the ruinous reign of Idi Amin in the 1970s forced the company's Indian founders out of Uganda. The company collapsed as a result.

Indian refugees land at Stansted Airport near London after being airlifted out of Uganda.

Workers smile for the cameras at the Kakira plant. After Amin was deposed in 1979, the Madhvani family returned to Uganda and looked to piece together their shattered business.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni promised to return the property Amin had confiscated from those Indians forced out of the country during his reign.

Today, Kakira employs over 8,000 people and provides work for almost as many others through contract or supply work.