Mutumwa Mawere

The last 52 years have exposed how ill prepared native Africans were in connecting the inherited colonial dots or points of light in an inclusive and progressive manner.

The architects of colonialism knew what they wanted in Africa and to a large extent the settlers were assimilated into the African setting on their terms. They adopted Africa as a new home and proceeded to build institutions that have in large measure witnessed uninterrupted growth.

The institutions that were established during the colonial era were meant to serve an exclusive group but judging by the pace of development in post colonial Africa it is evident that no serious attempt has been made to conceptualise and execute strategies designed to empower the previously disadvantaged without weakening the economic power of the settler community.

The knowledge, capital and execution gaps that confront Africa can only be addressed when it becomes obvious to all that no amount of rhetoric about the ills of colonialism will help create a better continent.

The poverty challenges that face Africa are not new and even when the white settlers were acutely aware that access to capital was one of the stumbling blocks to the exploration and exploitation of the continent's resources.

Accordingly, the first African capital ambassadors were the settler community. They not only encouraged the movement of labour from Europe but also marketed the resources of Africa to European financiers without whose resources no development would have taken place.

The link between capitalism and colonialism was, therefore, direct and mutually beneficial for those fortunate to access capital.

To the extent that the colonial state was successful in creating a functional state machinery serving the needs of its tax payers, it is important that an informed conversation about the kind of Africa that we need to see begin with an examination of some of the institutions that have helped to position South Africa as a success story for the settler community.

South Africa is the host of the largest white settler community and its infrastructure is the most developed in the continent suggesting a causal link between colonialism and the development of a sophisticated financial, industrial and mining infrastructure.

One such institution is the Old Mutual Group, an international savings and wealth management company offering a range of solutions for pensions, investment and protection as well as asset management services, whose origins trace back to 1845 when a Scotsman, Mr. John Fairbain, led a group of 166 members in the formation of South Africa's first mutual aid society, Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope.

The institution was set up in the first instance to serve its members and their premiums, therefore, represented the group's sole capital. The noble idea to establish a mutual to serve members did not need a crowd to germinate but required a small group of people who were ahead of their time but knew that they had sown a seed that would produce a harvest.

From humble origins, the institution became the leader in South Africa's financial services market and in 1885; the name of the company was changed to South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society to reflect its status as an insurance provider for the entire South African colonial state.

In the face of competition from mushrooming mutual aid institutions, the institution was adopted the name, Old Mutual, to emphasize the fact that it was the colony's first mutual society.

The transformation of South Africa into an industrial society required enabling institutions to provide solutions to the growing class of working people. The interplay between politics and business became obvious when South Africa was granted its independence in 1910, its Chairman, Mr. John X. Merriman was elected as the new British Commonwealth's first premier.

Old Mutual grew over the years to become a dominant player in the financial services industry accounting for more than a third of the domestic market. It became a major shareholder in a number of South African institutions, such as the future Nedcor bank, Richemont, the diversified Rembrandt group, Standard Bank, industrial group Barlow, mining group Anglo American, and others.

It also was one of the pioneers in pan African investments when it extended its tentacles to the then Rhodesia & Namibia in 1927, Kenya - 1930, and Tanzania, Zambia - 1950s.

By the late 1990s, more than half of the society's member-customers, which by then numbered more than three million, were black South Africans.

In the 1980s, Old Mutual extended its tentacles outside the continent of Africa.

In 1999, Old Mutual demutualized, moved its headquarters to London, and took a listing on the London, Johannesburg, Frankfurt, Zimbabwe, and Malawi stock exchanges.

Until 1999, Old Mutual was a benefit or mutual aid society organised as a voluntary association to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. This institution was organised around a shared English ethnic background solely to provide solutions to members.

The people who set up Old Mutual must have known that they were on to a big thing that would outlive them.

In 1994, the race based political system was replaced by an inclusive one but regrettably no serious attention has been paid to institution building during the last 14 years.

If 166 white settlers could in 1845 see the need for creating a mutual aid society, why is it that over the last 52 years we have not witnessed the creation of sustainable mutual aid societies to serve the needs of a generation that easily surrenders to blaming the past for the lack of progress in Africa?

Today, Old Mutual is flying its flag high as a global brand with African roots. However, how African is Old Mutual? This question is relevant to the extent that without colonialism, it is safe to conclude that Old Mutual would not have been formed in Africa. We have not seen a working example of collective institutions formed by native Africans to support and facilitate their economic development.

The founders of Old Mutual created their own institution that operated in a manner that our governments ought to operate. It was formed to serve members and in doing so it grew with the times. The real owners of the institution were the members.
As we look back, we have no choice but to start challenging ourselves on what kind of Africa do we want to see. Where is our new mutual? Who is our own John Fairburn? How do we create enduring institutions?

Old Mutual did not need the British Empire to set it up and yet we have a tendency of blaming other people for things that we can do something about.

It is not too late to think seriously about the possibility of creating a new mutual aid society to address the challenges of building a new Africa.

Old Mutual has now relocated its headquarters to London and is no longer a mutual.

With the convenient disappearance of Old Mutual as a mutual, we have no choice but to pick up the pieces and challenge ourselves to be the change that we want to see by using our existing premiums to consolidate them into one platform.