I once chanced upon an article recounting an encounter between a Zimbabwean former freedom fighter and his erstwhile prison guard, taking place shortly after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. The dialogue exchanged between these two gentlemen was nothing short of fascinating.
The freedom fighter asserted with conviction that his country was now independent, and that his former jailer had been gravely mistaken when he proclaimed that, although the freedom fighters were valiant and capable, they would never truly triumph. The jailer, however, held firm to his view: while the native population had indeed acquired political authority and held sway over the machinery of government, this power was, in his opinion, essentially hollow. Economic control, he insisted, remained firmly in the hands of the white settlers, who had ensured that the natives were kept distanced from the skills and knowledge required to manage industry effectively.
In hindsight, one cannot help but discern a kernel of truth in the jailer’s observations. Consider, for instance, the events of 1972, when Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, in a bewildering display of buffoonery and impudence, expelled a large number of Asians from his country. Most sought refuge in Leicester and other cities across the United Kingdom, but their departure left behind an economic vacuum. Amin proceeded to distribute their businesses among his cronies and associates, naively expecting them to run these enterprises with the same acumen as the Asians. How utterly mistaken he was!
Not long thereafter, President Kamuzu Banda decreed that all Asians should relocate from rural Malawi, restricting their commercial endeavours to the urban centres of Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu. This, too, turned out to be disastrously counterproductive. The last time I looked, the buildings that once housed Asian-owned shops throughout rural Malawi had fallen into ruin. I was raised at Nkhoma Mission and often visited Linthipe Trading Centre, where my family did much of its shopping — purchasing clothing, toys, groceries, and a host of household goods. This Trading Centre, situated just off the M1 on the way to Kasina, still boasts those old shop buildings, yet today they lie abandoned and decrepit, barely humming with any commercial life.
Fast forward to the dawn of the twenty-first century, and Comrade Robert Mugabe’s sweeping land reforms forcibly dispossessed white farmers of their land, reallocating it to indigenous Zimbabweans. Almost overnight, Zimbabwe transformed from being Southern Africa’s breadbasket to a nation entirely dependent on aid for its food supply.
I am fully aware that these observations may be met with misunderstanding, perhaps even offence. To be clear, I have not suggested for one moment that Africans cannot manage businesses or farms. Far from it! The issue lies not in any supposed innate deficiency but rather in the absence of adequate preparation and groundwork.
One cannot expect individuals unaccustomed to the habits and disciplines of commerce to be plunged abruptly into the deep end and excel. The Ugandans needed years of social re-engineering to cultivate a business-friendly mindset before any shops could rightly be entrusted to them. The same holds for Malawian entrepreneurs and Zimbabwe’s new farmers. As I have stated before, and shall say again, genuine success in business or technological ingenuity can only flourish within a conducive cultural environment.
Unless a culture wholeheartedly fosters and values industriousness, little of substance can be accomplished in the realm of enterprise. The people must first come to embrace a culture that nurtures and enables such endeavour before they can hope to steer successful businesses. This transformation, however, cannot be wrought overnight. It is precisely this misjudgment that Amin, Kamuzu, and Mugabe each made. Rather than abruptly dispossessing “foreigners” of the assets they had painstakingly built over many years, a far wiser approach would have been to prioritise the thorough training of the local population in the nuances of business acumen, thereby equipping them with the skills and mindset necessary to manage these enterprises when the opportunity arose.
For generations, Asians have nurtured a culture of enterprise. They do not perceive anything amiss in working outside the confines of formal employment — a notion which, until quite recently, many Malawians have found hard to embrace. Here in Malawi, it is a common expectation that anyone who achieves a certain level of education will inevitably secure formal employment, working for someone else. We have yet to fully appreciate that individuals can chart their path, prospering through self-driven endeavour. As a result, there remains a glaring ignorance regarding the nature and conduct of entrepreneurship.
As I have expressed on previous occasions, I invite Malawians to search within their cultural traditions, shedding those elements that impede entrepreneurship while nurturing and promoting those that facilitate it.