Success Under Duress : A Comparison of the Indigenous African and East African Asian Entrepreneurs

The East African Asians have become an integral part of the commercial sector in post independence era. Today, they virtually control almost all the trade and commerce. Asians in East Africa still continue to operate under a hostile business environment. They are regarded as exploitative and exclusive privileged minority. The Kenyan government after independence adopted some Africanization/indigenisation policies, which adversely affected the growth of Asians businesses. In Tanzania, the nationalization policies through the 1967 Arusha Declaration was major set back for the Asian investments in the country. In 1972, the new regime of Idi Amin in Uganda expelled Asians from the country. They lost property and businesses estimated as worth between 100-150 million pound by being forced to sell to a government agency rather than the open market. Despite the setback, most started from scratch again and become prominent businessmen in Britain and Canada. The core objective of this paper is to identify the entrepreneurial features possessed by the Asians that other indigenous entrepreneurs can adopt to compete effectively in a globalised market. These factors include; historical, environmental, family cohesion and attitude towards business