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An African
Trading Empire
The Story of
Susman Brothers & Wulfsohn, 1901 – 2005
By Hugh Macmillan
It was a Saturday
morning and I was at Arcades, grocery shopping, and because I was
not in a rush, I popped my head into Planet Books to see if there
was anything new. I try to do this about once a month – check what
new books are out and this time I was pleasantly surprised, for
there on the shelf was An African Trading Empire.
I knew this book
was in the writing as, way back in 2001, the author, Hugh Macmillan
and I had had a discussion about the book, about the Susman
Brothers, about the pioneers who had come to this country in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of course,
with Hugh being an historian and me being a history freak, I was in
my element.
Seeing this book
on the shelves put paid to any other plans I had for the weekend; I
knew immediately that my weekend (and all the evenings until I had
finished reading it) was gone.
 As
the title says, the book is about the Susman Brothers, Elie and
Harry; their business partner, Harry Wulfsohn; and the various
businesses in which they were involved, not only in Northern
Rhodesia/Zambia but elsewhere as well. Many of the names will be
familiar to readers, although you might not have realized that they
were originally part of this business group (or that this business
group was part of them) – Leopard’s Hill Ranch, Kabulonga Farm
(where the present day suburb of Kabulonga stands), Copperfields
Cold Storage, Werners, Economy Stores, Zambesi Sawmills, Zambezi
Ranching and Cropping, Woolworths, Zambesi Trading (which eventually
became part of NIEC), Nkana and Nchanga Hotels, Trans Zambezi
Industries. And many of the people will be familiar if you have read
much about Zambia’s history – the Gersh brothers, Maurice Rabb,
‘Bongola’ Smith, Geoff Beckett, Gervas Clay, Grill family.
Starting out in
the early 20th century with the Barotseland cattle
trade, the Susman brothers operated in a logistically difficult,
physically challenging and sometimes politically problematic
climate. The book tells of these difficulties and challenges and of
the successes and of the failures, of their fortunes during the good
times and also during the bad times.
It also tells of
their community input – they donated the four faced tower clock at
the Livingstone Museum. Being Jewish, they were also actively
involved in the life of the Jewish community at a time when
anti-Semitism was rife.
But they were
pioneers in this country and did much to develop this country and
even today, in many parts of Western Province (and probably
elsewhere in the country), the people remember their trading empire
and the services which they provided and long for them to come back.
Hugh Macmillan,
the author, is an established historian on Africa who taught for a
number of years at the University of Zambia. He is co-author of Zion
in Africa : the Jews of Zambia.
An African
Trading Empire is available from bookstores in Lusaka and is
certainly a recommended read.
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September 2005