Sean Ndiho Obedih had barely finished high school when he left his native country of Rwanda to pursue his dream of setting up his own company in Europe. “Ever since I was a young child I had this burning desire to explore what the rest of the world had to offer,” he said. Equipped with a handful of business ideas and a smattering of English, Obedih took a one-way ticket to Europe, stopping by Belgium and Germany, before making the UK his new make-shift home. “I cannot pretend it was an easy decision to make,” he said. “The climate, for starters, took a lot of adjusting to. And I really missed being around African people, particularly their natural warmth and vibrant personalities.”
Some 14 years and several winter coats later, Obedih now runs a successful group of businesses in London. His most recent – and flourishing – enterprise is an advisory firm called The Founder’s Hive, which supports early-stage start-ups and has also been assisting African start-ups based in London and beyond. “The goal that excited me the most is to reach out to fast-growing innovative companies in Africa, represent their interests and establish relations with UK-based companies,” he said. Obedih counts businesses in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia among his regular clients.
Ronke Lawal tells a slightly different story. Her parents, like Obedih’s, hail from Africa, Nigeria to be exact, but she was born and bred in inner-city London. She has taken the well-trodden path of most young Brits: attending primary and secondary school in London, attending university and working in the management department of several UK companies. Yet she, too, felt a burning desire to create and operate a company of her own. Nowadays, she runs her own company, RSL Management Services, which provides a range of services including marketing, PR and branding to Afro-Caribbean clients. Is Lawal British or African? “I am a British-born Nigerian and I am very much connected to both identities,” she asserts. “Even though I was born and grew up in London, I consider myself very Nigerian.” Lawal has never spent longer than six weeks in Nigeria at any one time, yet her ties to the country are so rock-solid that she confesses to missing the country. “When I am away from Nigeria I miss it so much! The smells of the city, the tastes of the food, the sounds of the streets. My ultimate aim is to do more work in Africa and establish my physical base there in the next five years. I can’t wait!” she said.
Apart from their African heritages and London-based businesses, the lives of Obedih and Lawal are poles apart. They do, however, share one more thing in common: their drive to give something back to their African mother countries. Welcome to the modern-day “African Diaspora”. According to the African Union, the African diaspora is comprised of “people of African origin living outside of the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality, which are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.” No longer is a diaspora limited to those who are African citizens by birth and who have left Africa seeking asylum or for employment reasons. It also encompasses second, third and fourth generation Africans like Lawal, those who maintain direct ties with their native land even though they were born outside of the continent.
Derrick Emeka-Randall was born in London to West African immigrants. His Curriculum Vitae is jam-packed full of commercial positions for major telecoms companies. He is currently an entrepreneur working on several mobile telecom projects. His purpose, from a career and personal point of view, he said, is to help enrich the quality of life of Africans through the improvement of communications technology, as well as develop stronger ties between the UK and Africa. “I am absolutely proud to say that I am a part of the UK’s African Diaspora,” he said. “I am technically a British citizen yet I consider myself very African. And I want to make a positive difference to Africa in some way, shape or form.”
The presence of the African Diaspora in London is certainly not new. The UK capital has been home to Africans from as early as the 1600s, when African leaders and vendors sent their children to be educated in Britain or to serve as translators to enable smoother trade activity. Africans later arrived in Britain as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Since slavery was abolished in the early 19th century, the reasons for migrating to London have varied. Seeking asylum due to unrest in African nations is one of these motives. Some Africans willingly decided to fly the nest in search of an international education and brighter career opportunities. And more and more Africans are making the UK their home each year. The 2011 census revealed that the number of African-born residents in England and Wales tops 1.3 million, compared with 809,000 in 2001. As of today, some 7 percent of London’s population is Black African.
Looking at the remittance figures alone, from the UK to various African countries, one can see how active the African Diaspora is in maintaining ties with its motherland. Around $5 billion was remitted to Africa from Britain in 2012 alone.
Obedih, Lawal and Randall are taking their contribution to Africa just that bit further by dedicating their livelihoods to the greater good of the continent. But why do this from 10,000 kilometres away? “To begin with, information availability here and the ability to access it quickly and easily is amazing,” said Lawal. “We can get all the research, the data and the statistics that we need to build a research plan for a business via publically available resources such as the British Library. This enables us to develop business models and strategies that we can take back and utilise in African firms.” For Randall, it is London’s secure and speedy technology system and its open business plains that have helped him settle for British Sunday roast. “London gives me the opportunity to network and connect very easily,” he said. “I can get in touch with people in different countries very quickly, not just technology-wise, via Skype, email or video conferencing, but also through the readiness of advisory bodies and other well-established business institutions. If I were in a city in sub-Saharan Africa, I may not have the reliability of speed and connectivity to London.” Obedih agrees. “From London, you can look at Africa as one, even though it is made up of 54 countries. Whereas if you are based in Africa you tend to be locally focused,” he said. But more importantly, he added, is that “in London you can rely on the solid financial structures of your client companies and benefit from a truly entrepreneurial environment compared to anywhere else I have been.”
The latest PwC study tracks the development of the world’s 30 leading cities. London has just topped the list of global financial centres with the most “economic clout”, or the city with the “most opportunities”. A surprising find, considering that London’s economy is only the fifth largest in the world after Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles and Seoul, with an estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) of approximately $546.4 billion in 2012, and a per capita GVA of $65,768.
There must be more to London than fast computers and the British Library, as these factors alone would not explain why more Africans do not move to Japan, Seoul or Los Angeles. For Edwin Broni-Mensah, the founder of Give Me Tap, a social enterprise that provides some African areas with access to clean drinking water, sanitation and irrigation projects, it is the diversity of London’s population that allows him to carry out his work successfully. “London’s greatest strength comes from its massive diversity,” he said. “There are people here from all walks of life. Because of this diversity, many people are connected to Africa, and the advantage of working from London is that we can tap into a larger market and spread our mission further.”
London is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, as revealed by the UK’s 2011 Neighbourhood Statistics. There are over 50 non-indigenous groups boasting populations of over 10,000 people apiece. For an African migrant such as Obedih, building up and maintaining a broad network of people is crucial to running a successful enterprise. “Working in London is magical because it is a very cosmopolitan city, and it helps us to step-up our game and create a world-class organisation,” he said.
Even though London is only a four to six-hour flight away from some of Africa’s major cities, the physical distance means more work must be invested in business relationships. “When you work on a deal with an African company, you need to ensure you are working with or are close to decision-makers to guarantee a greater chance of success,” said Randall. “Otherwise you can be slowed down and you could potentially lose a deal because you spent all this time liaising with the wrong people.”
The wonders of technology, while they are certainly a blessing, can also be a curse if used incorrectly. “While in Africa, face-to-face dealings are the standard way of doing business. In London, people tend to work virtually – via email, Skype and video conferences,” explained Lawal. “If you don’t take time to adjust and learn the technology and the London way of working, then you can find yourself losing precious opportunities to seal deals.”
Moving to any new city is challenging, and that is without the added stress of establishing a career there. Broni-Mensah is the first to admit this, having expanded his own activity to include Switzerland, Greece and America. “Moving countries can be hard but by believing you can do it means you are halfway there,” he said. Obedih’s approach is more pragmatic: “You need to give yourself time to adapt to London – the people are different, the culture is different, the food and weather are completely different to what you know and love at home. You must always remind yourself of why you are here in London in the first place. The changes and sacrifices you make to live and work in London are part of the investment of returning to Africa, and being able to solidly give something back to your continent.”
