INDO-AFRICAN SKILL TRANSFER IN AN EAST AFRICAN ECONOMY

Abstract

THE ISSUE of the training opportunities and wages offered to Africans by Indian businessmen in Kenya is one which rouses strong comment in many circles. It is still in fact widely alleged in the 1970s that the Indian skilled class have little intention of transferring their specialist knowledge voluntarily to the Africans, and that the Africans they employ are kept on low wages. Particularly as attempts are being made to raise the level of African participation in those skills traditionally associated with the Indian community in East Africa, it may be worthwhile to examine precisely how Indian patterns of labour training differ from that model which the Kenya government would like to see adopted throughout the major sectors of industry. First a brief word on this model. The aim is to extend a fundamentally British style apprenticeship system beyond its present confines of the larger British firms operating in East Africa and the technical ministries to a much wider spectrum of industry. At the moment, such few apprentices as there are have been recruited annually from the eight secondary vocational schools, where they will have been exposed to elementary craft practice of a City and Guilds course. From 1972-73, they will all have had four years of secondary schooling with this practical bias, and will be going on to serve their time for a further period of three to four years with the various firms prepared to accept them. It is this kind of candidate that the majority of Indian concerns (and the smaller and more traditional British firms) are disinclined to accept for training. And their reasons for refusal have usually included the allegation that secondary school exposure unfits potential apprenctices for rough work, while giving them aspirations for status and pay that the smaller firms feel they cannot afford.