Africa-Press – Namibia. ALTHOUGH long departed for higher service, Harold Pupkewitz, Abe Galaun, Sam Levy and Abraham Block are entrepreneurs who left a legacy that lives on in their respective countries.
Of the four who made their mark in Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya respectively, only Sam Levy was born in the country where he built his business empire.
The other three, Namibia’s Harold Pupkewitz, Zambia’s Abe Galaun and Kenya’s Abraham Block hailed from the Baltic state of Lithuania, which was then part of Tsarist Russia.
Refused residency in South Africa shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Galaun made Zambia his home. Up to his death in August 2003, he remained a dominant force in Zambia’s meat and dairy sectors.
Of the three Lithuanian Jews, Pupkewitz was schooled in Namibia, but Galaun and Block already arrived in their adopted countries as young men. Known for his Sam Levy’s Village shopping mall in Harare, Levy embarked on his entrepreneurial journey as a trader. He started the Macey’s Stores supermarket chain in 1960.
The empire created by Pupkewitz is known for building material supplies and hardware, and motor vehicle sales. Sam Levy passed away in June 2012 and Pupkewitz the same year, but two months earlier in April.
What a privilege it was to have known the iconic Pupkewitz, Galaun and Levy. They were humble men, who liberally shared lessons learnt and cautioned on challenges that one is likely to encounter on the entrepreneurial journey. I never had the good fortune to meet Block.
He was much older than the other three iconic entrepreneurs and died way back in 1965 when I was just a little lad. But decades later, during visits to Kenya, I was privileged to meet people who had an association with him, as friend, business associate or employee.
Through the community service organisation, Rotary, I developed a friendship with Michael Johnson, and he gifted me a copy of ‘Abraham’s people – a Kenyan dynasty’ authored by Jane Clare Barsby.
I am ever so grateful to Tanzanian-born, and Kenya-raised Johnson for the book, as now I have gotten to know more about the legendary Abraham Block. Barsby’s writing style is one that readers who do not hail from former British colonies might find dry, and not appreciate the unique wittiness and clever sense of humour.
In her book, Barsby narrates how Block built his business empire over six decades, from trading, farming, and operating enterprises in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Of the four entrepreneurs, two created business empires with a genesis in farming, Block from delivering milk into a formidable meat and dairy product business.
Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, applauded and acknowledged Galaun as the man who feeds the nation. Pupkewitz and Levy made their mark in trading. But all four will be long remembered for creating business empires that survive to this day.
The aim of sharing this brief historical account of four iconic entrepreneurs is to underscore the importance of entrepreneurship in growing economies.
And it starts with an enabling environment in which those who yield to their entrepreneurial pull find it easy to create wealth and jobs.
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