BY TOM ODHIAMBO
One can argue that the cooperative movement was formed immediately Eve and Adam met and started to live together in the Garden of Eden, if you are of the Christian persuasion. But if you believe in natural evolution, then you would say that the moment two members of the same species – and this isn’t just about human beings – encountered each other, they could only have continued to live together or within the same environment, if they cooperated.
Those two organisms had to avoid harming each other. They probably figured out that if they stayed near each other they could fight off other non-member species better. It may have mutually occurred to them that looking for food produced better results when they combined efforts. Over time they may have figured out that staying near each other simply made their lives much better than when alone. Two bodies next to each other produced more heat, which was shared among the two. Two bodies of different sexes could eventually reproduce another body. If one organism wasn’t feeling well, the other could cater for the ill one, etc. In other words, cooperation between organisms is more or less a natural instinct.
Given that human beings count among the most advanced of animals, they tend to cooperate more than conflict. This tendency cuts across the whole spectrum of life. We cooperate when faced with danger – to save our lives. We bandy together when we need to resolve a common problem such as the current drought in Kenya. This is why the cooperative movement remains the best option for economic progress in this country and on the continent, given the low levels of savings due to poor general economic productivity.
Today, many working Kenyans but whose salaries can’t cover the cost of living within the month largely depend on workplace savings and cooperative societies to pay bills. They borrow from their SACCOS almost every year to pay school fees, cover medical charges, for investment, among others. This is why reading Labourn Minishi’s book, Understanding Cooperatives in Africa (Acacia Publishers, 2012) is refreshing. For a country where talk of economic hardship is common in public places despite forecast of economic growth by the government, Minishi makes a compelling case for an understanding of, investment in and support of cooperative societies.
Although Understanding Cooperatives in Africa takes on a broad area – it isn’t realistic to adequately write about the cooperative sector in the whole continent in a book of less than 200 pages – the author highlights why the cooperative movement is a significant economic sector in Africa. Minishi writes about cooperative groups concerned with different areas of the society, from savings and credit societies, building societies, farmers’ cooperatives, environmental groups, etc. He notes that the values that make cooperatives work such as self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality and equity and right of participation significantly distinguish them from other enterprises.
It is such values that make cooperatives such inclusive organizations today, compared to, say, public liability companies. Where cooperatives are firmly established, have professional staff, are regulated and are accountable to their members, there are more chances of economic progress through better returns on investment by the members. But when cooperatives are poorly run, they ruin rather than improve the lives of their members. One would say that the latter case has been the reality for thousands of Kenyans who have invested in SACCOs.
Many Kenyans employed in the formal economic sector, those who are self-employed and even those with irregular work are members of one cooperative or another. Chamas as they are commonly called serve different purposes. It may be a neighborhood women’s meeting group, which may be simply for socializing and supporting each other. Such a group may start ‘table saving’ and later convert into a savings and credit society with members beyond the original cluster.
Individuals may come together to save and raise money to buy land and build houses for themselves. Members of a soccer support team may become a cooperative. Individuals from the same village or region may form an association, which eventually spreads beyond their group. There are cooperatives in churches, schools, colleges, market centers, nearly everywhere where people congregate for a common purpose. What is common to all these groups today is that some money – in some cases as little as Sh100 – is raised, some used, some saved.
That money can be borrowed – in some cases with minimal interest charged – to be used by a member. The skills, knowledge and connections of the members can also be exploited by other members either for individual or collective benefits. This is how millions of Kenyans and Africans survive hard economic conditions today. They depend on SACCOs, which offer them loans and other services – such as access to fertilizer or veterinary services for farmers – to cater for their daily needs.
This is why any African government that is serious about economic progress has to consider the cooperative movement as its major partner – and not bilateral and multilateral donors and funders – in its economic policies. Local cooperative societies have significant credit that can be exploited to be invested in projects that benefit immediate local communities. For instance, the drought that has devastated much of northeastern Kenya wouldn’t have been as damaging as it has been if there were working cooperative societies in the region. Such cooperatives would have bought the animals in advance from their owners and supplied them with hay for the remaining livestock. The money earned from the sale of the animals would probably have been invested in restocking the livestock when the drought is over. But also, cooperatives would have taught the herders better methods of managing their animals and preparing for poor weather conditions as well as investing in insurance schemes.
One can confidently say that there is no society that has ever developed without investing in self-help. Reliance on external economic aid for development will never succeed unless Africans start to exploit the energies and resources stocked in the thousands of cooperative societies found all over the continent.
