A trip to the virtually unknown enclave of Karakalpakstan brings dislocated memories of Stalin
Our plane was delayed in Tashkent because the man sitting behind me began squirming. The people next to him remained surprisingly calm.
The man started moaning. He kicked the back of my seat.
A doctor and a nurse rushed onto the plane. They gave the man a pill and a glass of water. There was an animated discussion in Russian. It was clear that the man behind me felt better now. He refused to get off the plane for further treatment. The doctor shrugged and shut his bag. The man rebuckled his seatbelt.
The aircrew secured the doors behind the doctor. The engines roared and the plane taxied across the tarmac. We were heading for Nukus, the capital city of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, near the Aral Sea in the heart of the former Soviet Central Asia.
I glanced behind me to see how the sick man was doing.
‘It’s okay,’ the young woman sitting alongside me said reassuringly. ‘The doctor said he has a heart problem. But he is fine now.’
She was the only person on the plane who spoke English. Her name was Victoria Kim and she was travelling home from a year at college in the US. ‘I am from Karakalpakstan,’ she said. ‘But I am Korean. For three generations we have lived in Nukus. My grandmother came to the city when she was 17. She is 86 now.’
Victoria hesitated for a moment. ‘My grandmother was forced to move from Vladivostok by Stalin. You do know about that, don’t you? It was a terrible time.’
Just over 1% of the population of Uzbekistan are ethnic Koreans. The first immigrants came to Czarist Russia as refugees in the 19th Century.
hamilton wende
Hamilton Wende is an author, journalist and TV producer. He has worked all over the world, covering historical events and some 17 different wars and conflicts. He is based in Johannesburg and travels from there. He has worked for a number of international networks including BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. He has also reported on events in South Africa for the last three decades. He has published many articles in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. He is the author of 9 books. House of War, Only the Dead and The King’s Shilling are thrillers based on his travels around the world as a journalist. His latest book Red Air is based on his experiences filming with the US Marines in Afghanistan. He has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Wits University.
He is also the author of the popular children’s books: Arabella, the Moon and the Magic Mongongo Nut and Arabella the Secret King and the Amulet from Timbuktu which are set in Johannesburg and Knysna. He is working on the third volume in the series.
