Abstract
This article looks at African entrepreneurship in the Nile perch export business at Lake Victoria, Uganda. Often heralded as an economic success story, this business has perhaps another tale to tell. The fishermen, traders and other small-scale entrepreneurs at the lower end of the export chain face frequent financial setbacks coupled with an occasional lucky strike. Their chequered fortunes may be related to economic uncertainties, but this study rather points to a major contribution from highly individualistic entrepreneurship. This is the outcome of a self-fulfilling prophecy of anticipated deceit, which conditions the entrepreneurs to regard other persons as opportunistic adversaries. Although this behaviour seems to resemble that of the neoclassical entrepreneur, the study shows that it originates and is reproduced in complicated social links. The article argues, therefore, that an appraisal of the sociogenesis of entrepreneurship has a place in understanding emerging global export markets in Africa.
Abstract
Cet article s’intéresse au secteur ougandais d'exportation de perche du Nil du lac Victoria. Souvent présentée comme un succès économique, cette industrie revêt peut-être d’autres facettes. Les pêcheurs, commerçants et autres petits entrepreneurs en amont du circuit d'exportation sont fréquemment confrontés à des difficultés financières parsemées de coups de chance occasionnels. Bien qu’il soit possible que ces hauts et bas soient liés aux incertitudes économiques, cette étude suggère plutôt qu'ils sont dus en premier lieu au caractère hautement individualiste des entrepreneurs. C'est la conséquence d’une prophétie autoréalisatrice des entrepreneurs qui craignent d'être dupés et qui sont ainsi amenés à percevoir les autres acteurs comme des adversaires opportunistes. Ce comportement ressemble a priori à celui de l'entrepreneur néoclassique, mais l'étude montre qu'il trouve ses origines et se reproduit dans des liens sociaux complexes. C'est pourquoi l'article affirme qu’un examen de la sociogenèse de l'entrepreneuriat peut aider à mieux comprendre l'émergence de grands marchés d'exportation en Afrique.
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Notes
The higher end of the perch chain is associated with the world of big business that some observers equal with a globalizing capitalism in Africa (Taylor, 2012). Although big business obviously impacts on the local level, the linkages between them are complex. This article wishes to make a modest contribution to unravelling this, not by describing the chain in its entirety, but by offering an in-depth analysis of one particular part of it.
The term ‘sociogenesis’ is often associated with Norbert Elias’s civilization theory, but that is not the concern of this article. Nonetheless, believing, with Elias, that actors’ past social experiences structure current social practices, the article emphasizes the historically situated causation of social behaviour (Baur and Ernst, 2011).
‘Social universe’ is a phenomenological concept referring to durable, self-evident aspects of everyday life that are shared with others and shape social action and thought. This is inspired notably by Bourdieu (1977) and Berger and Luckmann (1967).
The creation of Beach Management Units presents another measure of the Ugandan government, which is part of its decentralization strategy in fisheries management (Nunan, 2006). Local interest in BMUs appears to be mixed, however, and attracts chiefly better established Nile perch entrepreneurs with considerable business interests who depend on ties with the local polity.
My survey of 109 boat owners operating in the research area in 2009/10 shows the following distribution: illustration
Throughout the chain, Nile perch prices fluctuate considerably. In my field notes, I recorded local prices between about 1 and 3.50 euro per kilo of fresh fish (Ush 2500–8000). At the other end, retail prices fluctuate too. In my local Amsterdam supermarket, for instance, 1 kg of frozen perch fillet fetched 7−>10 euro in the 2006–2011 period. Fluctuations notwithstanding, price differentials in the chain are considerable. It appears that most of it accrues to the higher end of the chain (Knaap and Ligtvoet, 2010). On the local level, entrepreneurs appear to manoeuvre between local fish prices and input prices, in particular those of petrol – the chief variable cost for boat owners. When petrol prices go up, profits go down; in the event of a petrol price spike, the entire sector may grind to a halt – as happened during the 2007–2008 election troubles in Uganda’s neighbour, Kenya.
My survey of four prominent boat owners shows the following change in crew composition during a 2-week period:illustration
Though women are rarely seen fishing the Nile perch, they occupy prominent positions in trading the fish (Medard, 2012). Further, several female boat owners were active in the area, some commanding sizeable fleets and overseeing a large workforce (compare Lwenya et al 2009). The greatest contribution of women is in the service industry at village landings where they run restaurants, retail shops and accommodation for fishermen.
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Acknowledgements
The research for this article was funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and by the VU University Amsterdam. Earlier versions were presented at the Universities of Oxford (ASA-UK conference, 2010) and Wageningen (SENSE symposium, 2012). The author thanks Moses Nsereko and Michael Ssali for their research assistance; Jens Andersson, Jan Kees van Donge, Tessel Jonquière, Eyolf Jul-Larsen, John Kinsman, Edwin Rap and two anonymous referees for their insightful comments; Catherine O’Dea for language editing; the Makerere Institute for Social Research and the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology in Kampala, and the VU University, Amsterdam for their support of the fieldwork.
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Beuving, J. Chequered Fortunes in Global Exports: The Sociogenesis of African Entrepreneurship in the Nile Perch Business at Lake Victoria, Uganda. Eur J Dev Res 25, 501–517 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2013.28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2013.28