ABSTRACT
Until the closing years of the colonial era, business in East Africa in the form of retailing, wholesaling, importing, exporting, transporting, and money-lending proved to be the most attractive investment for the Asian community. Throughout their stay in East Africa, the Asians also devoted a sizeable portion of their income to the support of philanthropic projects overseas. The professionals—the doctors, dentists, advocates, teachers, pharmacists, accountants, and architects—who were mostly among the later immigrants, also tended to put their earnings into some business enterprise. Hindu businessmen left their wives in India, partly to safeguard them from the hazards and hardships of life in East Africa, and partly to ensure a suitable education for their children in Indian schools. These Hindu businessmen thus made frequent trips to India, sent "home" a relatively large proportion of their profits, and anticipated an eventual retirement in the vicinities of their places of birth.
