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Indian businessmen welcome in Zimbabwe

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THE Sunday Mail of February 19 2017, in an article titled ‘Indian firms keen on local deals’ wrote that Indian firms were ‘currently exploring possible local investment avenues’.
The paper went on to report that ‘India is more than willing to invest in Zimbabwe’ and that an Indian delegation that was in the country wanted to invest in ‘agriculture mining, infrastructure, SMEs, clothing and textile’.
As a matter of fact, already some Indian companies are in Zimbabwe in the manufacturing sector making cooking oil on a very large scale. Varun Beverages Zimbabwe, owned by Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipurira, is presently building a US$30 million Pepsi bottling plant in Harare’.
More Indian firms are definitely coming to do business in Zimbabwe.
But wait a minute!
Can an Indian succeed in agriculture, mining and manufacturing when we were all taught throughout colonialism in Rhodesia that the Indian was completely useless as far as the above pursuits are concerned?
Yes, that the Indian or Chinese was only good at running a rough and ready retail shop where he sold cheap clothes to downtrodden Africans?
An Indian or Chinese running a very big and very successful tobacco farm in Muzarabani district?
Are you kidding me or what!
It is the aim of this article to show that Indians and Chinese were cast in very bad light as bad farmers, miners and manufacturers by the Rhodesian colonial master so that only he, the evil racist, would exploit the great riches of the country while everybody else was condemned as uncivilised, uneducated and not capable of doing big business.
And so, Zimbabweans should therefore get rid, forthwith, of the dangerous education given them by the racists; that Indians or Chinese were not good enough to run farms, mines or manufacturing plants and instead embrace them as some of the best investors they can ever have in the country.
For example, the Indians are today the biggest and best manufacturers of computers in the world, ahead of the UK.
And the Chinese are simply the world’s workshop full stop!
But let us come to our discussion on how the Rhodesian colonial master drove away the Indian and other races from the centre of the country’s economy onto its periphery.
One B.A. Kosmin in an article ‘Asian trading patterns’ helps with our discussion.
“Right from the start of colonisation of Zimbabwe, Cecil John Rhodes, who was the founder of colonial Rhodesia itself, sent Europeans only to be the European pioneer settlers in our country. He went on to grant every one of those pioneer settlers 6 000 acres of land and 15 gold claims each. This was meant to send the message loud and clear which said that only Europeans were going to be the main players in big commercial agricultural and mining activities in Zimbabwe. Manufacturing was soon added to the list once the country was fully settled by the Europeans. Furthermore, The British South Africa Company’s motto was an appeal to the mid-Victorian liberal — humanitarian precepts expounded for Africa by missionaries such as Livingstone. It was an inheritance of Livingstone’s call for Christianity, commerce and civilisation to be spread among inhabitants of the dark continent, by Europeans.
“In other words, since the British South Africa Company’s mission in Zimbabwe was to spread Western religion, commerce, manufacturing and agriculture, this could only be successfully carried out by Europeans and not Indians or Chinese.
“Therefore from the point of view of the Rhodesians, ‘beneficial results depended on there being British Christianity as well as British civilisation and commerce. In complete contrast, Asiatic religion, civilisation and commerce whether Arabor Indian (or Chinese) were evils…’ Therefore throughout this period (colonial period) this attitude continued and Asian commercial (agricultural, manufacturing) activity was regarded with suspicion.”
It was not just suspicion. It was fear of competition. This fear of competition extended even to employment of Indians in the civil service.
“The growing European concern for protecting settler-interests with increased volume of white settlement precluded the entry of Asians into the civil service or artisan employment. This was demonstrated by the successful opposition to immigration both of Indian and Chinese as mine labourers between 1901 and 1904, Sikh Police in 1905. The early employment of Indians on mines such as 14 Indian engine drivers at one mine called Morven in 1901 was eroded by white artisan Union pressure, and the result was that by 1921 there were only 13 Indians in the whole territory (Zimbabwe) employed on mines.”
When it came to farming as we have already hinted, ‘the reluctance of the company administration to sell Indians land precluded competition with larger white farming operations’.
Refused any land to farm, the Indians decided to eke a living by selling the produce from the white farmers.
“A common Asian pattern was to move into vegetable hawking, then the hawking of other goods. Indian involvement in commerce (of a small scale nature as above) was necessitated by pressure of circumstances as other fields of employment, agriculture, mining, civil service, artisan employment were blocked by opposition from the dominant white settlers…”
It is therefore quite clear that the failure by Indians to participate in agriculture and mining was due to racial discrimination and not that Indians were not able to farm or mine.
It is sad to note that even in the retail market place where the Indians were thrown into, it was not the main juicy commercial market they entered into. No!
The Indians were not found in the big ones – OK, Meikles or Haddon and Sly.
“They had to rely on the African market (which was poor because the Africans were on slave wages).”
Yes! They were relegated to ‘huya tinapanga’ commercial activities in downtown areas.
To justify exclusion of Indians from mining and agriculture the colonial master resorted to inventing racial stereotyping.
“It was the stereotype of the Indian trader which justified his exclusion from two of the largest and most lucrative African markets, the reserves and mines. In the case of the mines, it was thought that the Indian’s fierce desire for gold was such that they would at the first opportunity engage in illegal gold buying. And the second reason the Indians were barred from entering rural areas was because the missionaries who were busy spreading Western religion there would not tolerate it.”
It is interesting to note that the British, who had fought endless barbaric wars over gold with the Dutch in South Africa, would point a finger at Indians and say they (Indians) had a fierce liking for gold more than them.
Today, Indian and Chinese business people would like to invest in Zimbabwe.
The Rhodesian colonial master, through racial stereotyping, taught us that businessmen from these races are bad by nature.
Only white businessmen were good by nature, they told us.
We now know that this was all a pack of lies.
We have shown above that the whole racial stereotyping was done to safeguard white business interests.
Now that colonialism is gone — dead in the water — we must now welcome these Indian and Chinese businessmen with open arms.
They have the money.
They have the know-how.
They mean well.
They will benefit our economy big time.
Indian business people are very welcome to Zimbabwe!

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