Africanisation and Disillusionment

Many Asians became disillusioned after losing relatively senior positions in the old East African civil service. ‘Status’ is a relative term and in some cases it meant just having a white collar job. East African Asians worked well in low to middle ranking positions that were mostly several grades below their English managers. They rejoiced in the recognition that the managers gave them for turning out high quality and reliable work in secure professions such as the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise, banking and teaching.

Other East African Asians worked in technical and service industries, where they were either self-trained or trained on-the-job but felt that they had been performing better than their African counterparts. They had held secure positions and had enjoyed advantages from being there first and by forming support networks to help each other.

They did well until the time came when a new word entered the vocabulary –“ Africanisation”. Their coveted jobs were opened up to local Africans and the Asians became victims of unfair competition as they saw it. The loss of jobs meant that the Asians had to leave. In most cases, there was advance notification- the Government just would not renew their work permits.