It was my second morning in Nairobi. I was waiting for a matatu (Public Service Vehicle) to take me and my acquaintance downtown. In the van, we were in a lively discussion about literature, until when the matatu took us back to reality. I saw the conductor and my acquaintance quarrel. Downtown, my acquaintance explained he had to pay triple for both of us because he was travelling with a white person. The lesson? Once it comes to business, it’s not the wave-length; it’s skin colour that matters.

After the weekend, my friends came back from a safari – enthused, but  very annoyed. They had booked a tour with a Kenyan. The safari group was quite small: my friends, a Kenyan couple, the guide and his son. Money-wise, the trip turned out interesting. For transport and accommodation, the Kenyan couple paid half the price; while my friends paid double. The use of the swimming-pool on the campsite was free for the Kenyan couple while my friends were charged 500 Kenyan shillings by their guide. Did skin colour really matter that much? A Swiss national came by and told my friends that this was the most wonderful campsite he had ever been to, as swimming-pool use was free. Confronted with this fact, the guide claimed he had taken the money from them, as a deposit. What for?   

What the conductor and the tourist guide had in common was their ostensibly sharp eye for what makes their business flow: the Mzungu Cash Cow. Mzungu cash cows usually have fair skin. They can supposedly be milked on an ongoing basis with little or no expense because they tour on their own expense and use local service. Their  skin is an indicator for money. The older and more dressed like a tourist they are, and the more they display lack of knowledge of local language and infrastructure; the greater the yield.

There was also this lady in the coffee shop trying to already include her tip twice by putting another two Kenyan teas on the bill. Then came burglars who would leave alone the smartly dressed Kenyan business men, but cling to my clothes demanding their lot.

Kenyans must be wary that one day, mzungu cash cows will go grazing somewhere else. A healthy cash flow builds upon trust and mutual respect. That’s the little expense Kenyans should invest into their mzungu cash cows if they want them to continue generating profit for their business. Distrust, discrimination and corruption are business killers. Tourism is an important part of Kenyan economy, therefore, it is not okay to charge Caucasians more for local transport or to diddle them in coffee shops and restaurants-  places where you mustn’t have a two-class society. This is mere racism.If  I would go pointing my finger at the conductor, the tourist guide, the businessman, the lady in the coffee shop labelling them all as racists, all I would earn is a look of misunderstanding. Am I mistaken in assuming that in the eyes of many Kenyans, racism works only one way?  

Africans must stop taking revenge for the black and white imbalance in the world upon seeing fair skin and exploiting this situation money-wise. At the end of the day, you harm yourself because there is a backlash – mzungus who have the feeling that they were deceived won’t use your service again. Most importantly, they won’t recommend you to others. Thus, you don’t lose one but many future customers. Word-of-mouth-advertising is considered most reliable in both Caucasian and African cultures. 

Africans  must realize that there are different kinds of mzungu cash cows.My friends who went on safari were students doing their internship with German institutions in Nairobi. Of course, they were not paid for their work there. Before coming to Kenya, they had two to three jobs at a time working night shifts without weekends in pubs, fast food restaurants, or on the assembly line, in order to afford their flight ticket. Why not ask young Europeans for their international student ID, and offer special discounts or let them go onto the trip for the same money local fellows would be charged? Thus, you might not just have four students come and join you on a trip, but twenty or more, because the word-of-mouth spreads quickly. The criteria for why you charge more, however, has to be identifiable and understandable. Be clever and don’t give mzungus the feeling they are being deprived.

Not all mzungus are well off. Some of them work ages to afford a trip to Asia, Africa or America.  Some make ends meet every month because of increasing living costs and high unemployment rates. If for a moment you step back from the idealized idea of equalizing fair skin with money, you will realize that taking into account all the economic and social constraints in both societies, the money problem is not all too different in Europe and Africa.

It is true that some Caucasians are arrogant, stupid and behave like kings and queens when living in or travelling through African countries. Whenever I encounter such individuals, I feel deeply ashamed and angry at the same time. But you know what? I let them know. In Nairobi, I learnt that being direct and outspoken is not so much part of Kenyan identity. These, however, are moments where your politeness doesn’t pay off and dishonesty even less.

Individuals at the grassroots can’t change corruption and exploitation of the society by Western biggies, but business partners at the grassroots can start changing their attitude towards each other. Thus, stop begging for money, stop being obeisant, stop believing you are helpless and that it’s all  mzungus’ fault which gives you the right to exploit him/her whenever the occasion occurs. Stand upright, suggest your business, and set your terms clear and transparent for your mzungu customer. They will stop being arrogant as soon as you stop being smarmy and fawning. Respect yourself as the wonderful people you are. Westerners will pay any prize you want if you are a self-confident ,convincing business partner, whose business guarantees quality. If Caucasians still treat you badly, look them straight in the eye and confront them for being racist.  

Racism works both ways. It’s nothing Kenyans are innocent of with regard to Caucasians. In fact, Richard Mkhondo, a South African journalist, concludes that everyone is a racist because “after all, prejudice is what human beings are made of.”He also points out that “the real question is how much respect we accord our racial prejudices and what action we take to implement our them.” A healthy business can only flourish if trust, mutual respect and awareness for each other’s social and economic backgrounds are at the basis of the partnership. The quick way to quick cash by means of dishonesty, fraud and discrimination is not the best in the long run. If you don’t take care of your attitude towards ‘mzungu cash cows,’ your cash cow may turn out low-value before long. Most importantly, the Kenyan dream of equalized business with Westerners could remain a dream forever. When it comes to business, skin colour shouldn’t always matter.

By Doreen Strauhs
Russian/English Teacher Hamburg, Germany
PhD Frankfurt Main/Sydney