Madhvani empire marks 100 years

Mark Antony in Julius Caesar asserts that “The evil that men do lives after them and the good is often interred with their bones.” An Indian Ugandan-turned businessman, entrepreneur, industrialist and philanthropist, Muljibhai Prabhudas Madhvani’s good could have eluded those who wrapped his bones.

It is 100 years since the 18-year-old hatched a business that now employs more than 7,000 people. In the 19th century under colonial rule Indians were dispatched to Africa to aid the construction of the famed “Lunatic Express” railway line from the port town of Mombasa to the River Nile in Uganda.

So tough and treacherous were the conditions that even the local population were reluctant to partake in the railway’s development. Hrishikesa N J, a fourth generation descendant of Madhvani, and now a director of Equatorial Shipping Lines says, “The story of the railway reminds me very much of the Indian attitude to enterprise in East Africa.

“The farming skills that my ancestors acquired in India, together with the savvy business tools they developed through trading in Uganda were a perfect recipe for the beginnings of commercial agriculture in the country.”

He goes on: “Again, this was no easy task; the land ‘allocated’ to them to grow sugar cane was effectively a disease-ridden swamp, infested with snakes, crocodiles and far from any commercial trading centres.

So determined were they to succeed that despite these conditions, they were able to develop their land into a sugar estate, which today is ranked among the largest and most successful in Africa.”

Today, lush greenery of cane plantation that banquets the outskirt of Jinja on your way to Iganga and Kenya is a dream come true for a young man who in 1908 arrived in Africa in search of solace having lost his mother in his early teenage years.

Muljibhai dared to live in the bushy Kaliro, now a town in Busoga sub region where he started as an attendant in his uncle’s shop.

Against the warnings of Sir William Frederick Gowers, the then Governor of Uganda, that sugar business would not pay off, he secured 800 hectares from Busoga kingdom and the colonial government, before setting up Kakira Sugar Factory in 1930.

By 1960, Madhvani had taken root in the Ugandan economy.

The commodity market was promising; an evolving middle class bred by industrialisation was to serve as a stimulus. Several decades ago, before the phrase “co-operate social responsibility” was coined, Muljibhai keenly took care of his employees and community well-fare. Workers and dependents enjoyed free education, housing and health care.

Over time, Kakira has intricately become a part of Jinja, located in the south eastern region, about 87km east of the capital Kampala.

Sugar plantations

Jinja’s story of social, political and economic development is incomplete without a mention of the Madhvanis. It has been Kakira sugar plantations and the factory owned by the family that has felt the weight as many families turn to it for survival in the worst economic times, as well as, the happiest moments.

Former president Idi Amin’s expulsion of the Asians from the country in 1972 was to forever change the history of this town. Like Rajab Kitto, the public relations officer of Jinja municipality says, it is Kakira that sustained Jinja’s heartbeat over the years.