Just to isolate and respond on the “black tax” comment: The perspective I have heard from talking to Kenyan entrepreneurs about this is I have a familial financial obligation that expat entrepreneurs do not have. It prevents me from being as risk-taking as I might otherwise be
Here is a direct quote from an entrepreneur I interviewed for a project: “there’s so many cool, really smart Kenyans and local entrepreneurs. But then there’s the sort of like ‘black tax’. It’s family, and there’s all this stuff. And the pressure to make it I think, pushes people to more safer choices, as opposed to picking something that’s a little bit more high risk”
Whatever you might think about the effectiveness or the cultural value of this expectation, I think the term “black tax” does capture that this is a financial obligation for some.
This is a secondhand viewpoint—I am not black nor African. I’d love to hear opinions on this from people with firsthand experience.
Thanks for the response man, the phenomenon 100% holds back entrepreneurs, I’ve heard that many times as well and agree with that! And its definitely an obligation no disagreement there which I agree “black tax” captures.
My inclination though is that despite that the obligation may actually well be net positive, as it forces many people to spend money on things which are better for the world than if they spent them it on themselves.
The obsession with entrepreneurship here is very interesting, its a huge discussion we won’t have right now but I’ve got mixed feelings about whether its necessarily something that leads to good outcomes and should be strongly encouraged.
Lots of good points here!
Just to isolate and respond on the “black tax” comment: The perspective I have heard from talking to Kenyan entrepreneurs about this is I have a familial financial obligation that expat entrepreneurs do not have. It prevents me from being as risk-taking as I might otherwise be
Here is a direct quote from an entrepreneur I interviewed for a project: “there’s so many cool, really smart Kenyans and local entrepreneurs. But then there’s the sort of like ‘black tax’. It’s family, and there’s all this stuff. And the pressure to make it I think, pushes people to more safer choices, as opposed to picking something that’s a little bit more high risk”
Whatever you might think about the effectiveness or the cultural value of this expectation, I think the term “black tax” does capture that this is a financial obligation for some.
This is a secondhand viewpoint—I am not black nor African. I’d love to hear opinions on this from people with firsthand experience.
Thanks for the response man, the phenomenon 100% holds back entrepreneurs, I’ve heard that many times as well and agree with that! And its definitely an obligation no disagreement there which I agree “black tax” captures.
My inclination though is that despite that the obligation may actually well be net positive, as it forces many people to spend money on things which are better for the world than if they spent them it on themselves.
The obsession with entrepreneurship here is very interesting, its a huge discussion we won’t have right now but I’ve got mixed feelings about whether its necessarily something that leads to good outcomes and should be strongly encouraged.
Nice one.