SUPPORT
Village Energy
Close this window.

Help Light Up Schools and Health Clinics in Uganda

Our newest promotional initiative is to install our systems free of charge in schools and health clinics throughout Uganda. If you would like to support this program and help light up a school, you may do so through the purchase of a very cool solar LED keychain flaslight. Village Energy can be in your pocket for only 6 USD, and you'll have the assurance that every purchase goes towards the installation of our solar lighting systems in a school or health clinic in Uganda.

Our partner in this effort is Giant Steps of St. Louis, a school for children with autism spectrum disorder. The great folks at Giant Steps have agreed, as part of a global awareness and service project for their students, to help coordinate the packaging and shipping of the keychains.

Together, we've named this program Light up Africa.

Purchase an LED Keychain and Light Up Africa →

This link will open our partner's page in a new window.

« Catch Village Energy on BBC TV World News | Main | A Small Patch of Blood »
Thursday
Nov182010

Mzungu Prices: An Open Letter to Uganda

DateThursday, November 18, 2010 at 6:18AM

For those of you not familiar with the term, Muzungu is a Swahili work that essentially means white person, but a variation of the nomenclature MuHindi (Indian),and  MuChina (East Asian) essentially means the same thing: a foreigner. Of course in many countries, particularly in the developing world there a number of terms, some would say slurs for folks like me: 

  • Gwai-lo- Chinese for Ghost Man. 
  • Ang Mo- red hair sometimes Ang Mo Kow, red haired monkey or Ang Mo Kui, red hair devil, in Singapore and Malaysia.
  • Gaijin- foreigner in Japan 
  • Farang- foreigner and guava fruit in Thailand
  • Gora- India, hindi for white sometimes used with the affix, gora behenchod (someone who has sexual relations with their sister). 
  • Gringo-  foreigner, throughout latin america though often specifically Americans, 
  • Indlebe Zikhayi Langa- those whose ears glow in the sun, in  Zulu 
  • Oyinbo- peeled like a banans  in Nigeria

My guess is that with the exception of Japan us "red haired monkies whose skin resembles a peeled banana (and or guava fruit) and ears glow in the sun" are universally charged significantly more for goods and services that would be provided at significantly lower rates to natives. Of course this is understandable, on average most of us have far more money, don't have a handle on how much things should cost, and are only going to be in the country a few weeks so we probably won't feel the pinch. 

Unfortunately, for those of us that are permanent residents, and especially for those of us attempting to start business in these regions to provide goods and services not currently available, not only does this present us with a great deal of daily irratation I would argue it also presents  a long term economic danger to the residents of the countries we operate in. But before I get into that let me provide you an example of what happened to me today: 

I run a solar company in Uganda called Village Energy, which I started with my Ugandan partner, Abu Musuuza, who owns an equal share of the company. Sadly despite this, at this current juncture Abu has to be responsible for initiating the vast majority of our local supply contracts because inevitably if I try to negotiate them, people will want to charge me exorbitant rates. But sometimes, because Abu is managing our sales operations in the field, I have to go into town and do my best to negotiate. 

Today, I went downtown to buy wires, switches, and wire clips. Over a six month period, I had finally managed to find a place that I felt was charging me reasonable rates. But even though I had bought the exact same items the day prior, when I went in today for some reason, the same person I had paid the last time decided he wanted to charge me three times what I was charged a day ago. The problem was the same thing had happened this morning with my motorcycle mechanic, and the day prior with a wood working shop that supplies us with wooden struts for our solar panels. So, I'm sorry to say,  I flew off the handle. Got in the guys face and yelled at him that I was never coming back to his store and that he just lost a valuable customer. It was probably unnecessary, but I would argue that its also unnecessary to see a foreigner and decide that instead of a steady customer what you need is a margin increase on a single sale. I promptly left the store and went to the next shop where a nice woman gave me a better rate. Though when I counted the wire clips in boxes that were marked 100 clips, I only found 80 clips (a 20% difference).

Some would argue this is just part life starting a business in a developing country. Well if that's case than its a part of life that's driving foreign investment out of Africa. Recently I had a friend visit me who represents a social investment venture fund based in Nairobi. He told me that there was a steady stream of investors walking into his office from all around the world, with dreams of starting venture funds in Africa. According to him about 80% of them pack up their bags and go home after about one year, after feeling very, very un- welcomed and constantly cheated and scammed by everyone around them.  Sadly to most of Africa, white people are walking ATMs machine that, fully with a little cajoling, freely distribute cash. 

Of course, there is plenty of blame for this phenomenon to go around. The history of colonialism had foreigners move in and endlessly exploit the developing world. A history of western racism and discrimination,  probably gives many folks here a desire to see a certain retribution paid. I would also argue that for the last 70 years, a history of "aide" has made the situation even more untenable.  At the end of the day, the biggest driver is probably the fact that people in the developing world also don't have much to survive on and if they can make an extra buck at the expense of a muzungu then so be it. 

But here is the thing. Every foreign investor that you drive out, every business they start that you charge exorbitant rates means that thousands and possibly millions of Ugandans are not going to get employed, receive training in new skills, feed their families, send their kids to school, save up their money, and possibly even start their own enterprises. In the case of Village Energy, every time I get charged an exorbitant rate for any services, that means that many families will not have their dangerous, expensive, cancer causing kerosene lanterns replaced by clean efficient, manufactured in Uganda micro home solar systems. It also means that I can't hire as many employees as I would like. 

Honestly, this really doesn't have to be said. I'm largely only saying it out of endless frustration. Uganda's government should have learned its lesson after Idi Amin drove out the Indians in the 70s and watched the economy collapse. Its not as dramatic now but if 80% of foreign investors are leaving because of so much frustration, then its a tragedy on a similar scale. 

But I'm not one to outline a problem without offering a solution. What Uganda, and many country's need is two things: 

1. Government Legislation to end racial and ethnic discrimination (particularly I would argue discrimination against businesses and individuals on discriminatory pricing). 

2. An Organized Civil and Private Sector that attacks this problem head on, as a fundamental threat to the country's economic well being. 

We should start some sort of group (company or NGO) that creates a set of standards for good business practices, and rule number one should be: 

1. Do not inflate prices based on your customers race or ethnicity

This rule can be regulated by creating a list of businesses that willingly subscribe to such practices and advertise themselves as a "Fair Pricing Business" operating in a "No Discrimination Zone." Any profits lost from inflating prices would easily be made up with increased sales volumes when muzungus, muhindis, and muchinas flock to these stores, to the detriment of those that continue to discriminate against us.

Foreign investors and progressive local businesses  unite! You have nothing to lose but discriminatory prices, and a world of economic prosperity and equality to win!

AuthorRoey Rosenblith | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

I was fortunate enough to catch the BBC coverage of your company and the sterling work that guys are doing.
Interested to know more I checked out your site and facebook page and came across your open letter with regards to Mzungu prices.

Having lived and traveled extensively in 18 African countries I cannot agree more with your sentiments as many years ago in Ndola Zambia I had a local utter the immortal words "Ah but it is nothing for you as you are a Mzungu" as he attempted to sell me a 200 USD item for 700 USD.

After seeing and hearing of many scams and falling for my fair share I moved to Tanzania to work on a contract and decided to look into becoming a potential investor. It was fortuitous that I saw the potential problems at my employers expense; as the company I was contracted too was visited "harassed" so many times by fraudulent or corrupt officials; from genuine and fake government departments that doing business there became untenable . The never ending stream of parasites that see foreigners as a meal ticket coming from a distance was dismaying, no one appears to see the potential investor and creator of job opportunities as they are blinded by greed, instant gratification and the desire to be part of a feeding frenzy .The same also goes for many holiday makers who are latched onto by similar people with views to scalping where they can.
Whilst i enjoyed my time in TZ I would certainly never invest there and quite frankly would probably not invest anywhere in Africa with the exception of South Africa which is now my home.
Now let me point out that there are many good and wonderful people in Tanzania and many people have happy holidays there, but there did appear to be more than the general average when it came to what I have described above.
I know of many business owners who packed up and laid off their staff, as well as others who had gone into substantial business ventures only to find themselves wishing they had invested somewhere else.
A rich Mzungu living in Dar put it best when he said " Lovely people the Tanzanians, they say Karibu Sana, lovely to see you, please put your wallet on the table as you leave" !

After that I worked in Uganda where I lived in Bugalobi for over two years, also some stories to tell but I found that Ugandans were not nearly as calculatingly or parasitic as in TZ.
For me the great thing about Uganda is that this is where I met the love of my life who hailed from Nebi and worked in Luzira.
We are very much in love and live happily in South Africa with plans to start a family in 2011, for this I will be forever grateful and will always have a soft spot for the country and the many friends I made there.

November 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterStevie D

There are many foods that increase cholesterol levels and you should avoid them as most of them are also bad for your figure. For example, butter and similar fatty products we use for cooking. These products have a high concentration on fat that together with other fat we take during the day can increase the total fat levels very much tzjhxx tzjhxx - moncler down jackets.

November 14, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterwrbgsu wrbgsu

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.