Abstract:
The culture of doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa involves the
engagement of family members (Waweru, Mutuma & Chege, 2015) to
participate in income generating activities. Each member of the family has
a role towards sustenance of the family. This culture is “nurtured” at birth
and passed on from one generation to another as traditions, customs,
societal norms, unwritten codes of conduct and tend to be resistant to
change (Bruton et al., 2008). Sub-Saharan African’s have a mixed way of
engaging in business activities that ranges from the formal, the informal,
and the indigenous (see Madichie et al., 2021; Madichie et al., 2020;
Nkamnebe & Madichie, 2010; Madichie, 2005). The indigenous, informal
and formal economic activities are best understood as social groupings
whose industrious activities are subject to varying legal statuses, state
intervention, and fabrication of relations rather than as dual sectors (Portes
et al., 1986). The tradition in Kenya bestows on a father, as the head of thefamily, a major role of a bread winner in the family unit. As the patriarch,
a father has a duty to provide for his family (Gupta et al., 2010). The
mother’s role is to supplement what the father brings home, while the role
of the children is to assist the mother in supplementing family’s sustenance
through income generation. If a father is employed or engaged in a formal
business, then other members of the family have an obligation to assist in
income generation for family sustenance through indigenous methods that
are perceived to have value in their own right (Blunt & Jones, 1997). These
types of business activities include farming and raising livestock,
maintaining indigenous retail shops (known as kiosks) and selling of food
items. It is worthwhile to note that these activities are not restricted to urban
areas, but are also carried out in rural areas. The current study adds to the
limited literature on business activities and culture in sub-Saharan Africa
which is currently largely concentrated on the formal sector (see for
example Minnis, 2006; Pedersen & McCormick, 1999) and discusses the
impact of the recent pandemic (COVID-19) on business activities of
women and children who still had to generate income to either supplement
father’s income or to sustain the family.
