African Entrepreneurship Record

Germany, Berlin.

Grellin Textile Factory.

Grellin Textile Factory is a medium-sized privately-owned textile enterprise in Germany, which nearly went bankrupt during the economic crisis in 1875.

Subsequently, during an inspection by Heixinggen Bank, it was rated as a quality enterprise, thereby receiving a capital injection and continuing its operations.

In the 1980s, it developed rapidly and became one of the quality textile enterprises in Berlin, also serving as an important talent training base for the Heixinggen consortium.

The main reason Grellin Textile Factory caught the Heixinggen consortium’s attention is the Grellin family’s emphasis on technology and their strict corporate management model.

The Grellin family itself transitioned from Junker land nobility to bourgeois aristocracy, so the factory implemented comprehensive military management.

Due to the military management, all production procedures within the factory are orderly, with workers each performing their duties.

Technical maintenance personnel Will in Workshop No. 3 was in the office handling documents, mostly mechanical drawings.

Knock knock knock...

A knock on the door sounded, but Will continued to deal with the documents, not paying much attention to the visitor. He instinctively thought it was another machine fault.

”Mr. Will, Mr. Grellin asked you to go to his office, it seems someone important is looking for you.”

Will put down his pen and asked, ”Looking for me? Isn’t it the director?”

”It looks like a stranger, but probably an important figure. Director Grellin was quite respectful to the visitor.”

Hearing this, Will had a hunch that the so-called important figure was probably an official from East Africa.

Will tidied up the items on the table, placed a bookmark in the unfinished draft paper, then packed away the fountain pen, put it in his pocket, and went out towards the factory director’s office.

Mr. Grellin was already waiting there, and beside him on the sofa sat a person in a suit and tie.

”Will, you’re here. I remember you’re from East Africa, right?” Mr. Grellin asked with a smile.

”Yes, Mr. Grellin.”

”How many years have you worked here?”

”A total of eight years. I started working at Grellin Textile Factory in the latter half of 1878, shortly after graduating from school.”

”Well, this gentleman is Mr. John Liders from your East Africa, also the manager of Heixinggen Bank’s Mit Street Branch in Berlin. He is mainly here today to arrange for you to work in East Africa. He will discuss the specifics with you.”

John Liders: ”Hello, Mr. Will!”

”Hello, Mr. John Liders!” Will said politely.

John Liders said: ”Mr. Selva, who previously liaised with you, has retired, so I am here to take over his work. Now the country needs young people like you to contribute to national construction, so we have to let you return home.”

Will had long been mentally prepared for returning to his motherland. After all, this was clearly stated in the agreement when he went abroad.

Will: ”Mr. John Liders, I would like to know if the country wants me to go back to continue working in my relevant professional field?”

”Yes, currently there are three options for you to choose from: Nairobi, Bulawayo, and Jisan City. The first two cities are important textile cities in East Africa, the last one is a city preparing to vigorously develop the textile industry.”

”Compared to European cities, Nairobi is not lacking in various aspects, of course, I’m not talking about comparing it to Berlin or Munich, but with the population size of Nairobi, it would be a big city like Stuttgart or Düsseldorf in Germany. As for Bulawayo, it’s also not lacking, but since it started late, the city has great upward potential, especially the textile industry which is a key development area for the city.”

”As for Jisan City, it has the weakest textile industry foundation, with only over thirty textile factories. However, the country plans to heavily invest in Jisan City, so there are big opportunities if you go there now, you might even directly become part of the management team, and at least it’s not worse than your treatment in Germany, with even higher potential.”

After all, Will staying in Germany couldn’t possibly replace Grellin as the director. Talents like Will, with high education from common backgrounds, at most can become senior employees, maybe start a business, but starting a business as a mixed-blood, without much network and capital is relatively difficult.

Since it would be working anyway, it’s better to work back in East Africa. Of course, this is just the East African government’s thought. For talents who have developed well in Germany and are not too important, East Africa is willing to let go.

Of course, more East African students are definitely going back, after all, their families are all in East Africa, unless they don’t want their families anymore, learning from those ”immigrants” of past lives, East Africa wouldn’t dare to use such people!

”Mr. John Liders, going back is something I’ve been mentally prepared for, since I haven’t seen my parents for years, but will going to East Africa mean I can’t live with my family?” Will asked.

John Liders took out a dossier from the table, handed it to Will, and said: ”Your family situation has changed a long time ago, you now have a younger sister, it’s all here. Your parents probably haven’t had a chance to telegram you, but now you can go back and see them directly.”

East Africa has a specialized institution managing international students, so they have all the detailed records of their family situations, updated annually.

Will opened the manila dossier, which highlighted his personal information and family situation, along with detailed records of Will’s study and work experiences in Germany.

”Your parents are in good health and even gave you a new younger sister this year, so including you, your family has six people in total now. They are busy taking care of a few little ones and mostly worried about how you’re doing in Germany. But you also have relatives here, I assume you’ve already met with them?”

East Africa is a population ”attraction”, overall only taking in without letting out, making it extremely hard for ordinary people to go abroad. So many immigrants to East Africa can only communicate with relatives through telegrams. Far East immigrants have it worse, many were displaced or lost contact with their families long ago and can only strive to survive in East Africa, where the wealthy own fields as far as the eye can see, and the poor have no place to stand, reflecting the true portrait of the era.

Having a small piece of land for practical sustenance signifies being part of the ”wealthy farmer” class, which by European standards is akin to smallholders.

Places like East Africa, where although there’s plenty of land, it only grants usage rights, and people have to obey national arrangements to engage in agricultural production, which is essentially agricultural workers or ”peasants”, considering that East Africans are also limited by household registration to the land, both in cities and villages.

”Once you choose your career location, we can adjust your parents’ work accordingly, so there’s no need to worry about related problems, and the conditions in these locations aren’t bad; even the worst Jisan City will come out of its no-railway history next year with the opening of the Hessen Railway, and your generation is lucky in this good time,” said John Liders.

However, Will needed to think this over carefully, as he had heard of Nairobi, knowing that by the time he left East Africa, Nairobi was already one of the five major cities there and the center of the textile industry.

As for Bulawayo and Jisan City, he hadn’t heard of them at all, but based on John Liders’ descriptions, these cities should also be quite important in East Africa.

In fact, these three textile cities were all formed upon the cotton planting industry of East Africa, of course, these three cities had the city’s construction first and then the textile industry’s layout.

There are other textile centers in East Africa as well, but the cities focusing on the cotton textile industry are these three; for example, Tanga City and Tabola City are centers for linen textile, New Hamburg Port City focuses on wool textiles, while Lusaka City specializes in silk production.

Dar es Salaam and Mombasa also hold significant positions in the textile industry, and other cities have some arrangements more or less.