The Words of the Williamson Family
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The Words of the Williamson Family |
Probably the typical dream of Unification Church missionaries in 1975, the first year of pioneering work for most of them, went something like this: find a good native member very quickly, say within the first three months, perhaps 40 or 50 within a year, then, on this sound foundation, branch out into all the diverse activities of established Unification Churches as in Korea, Japan, and America.
Second in importance after establishment of a spiritual foundation of many core members would probably come establishment of a solid financial foundation, which would enable you to free yourself of the monetary umbilical cord still sustaining your existence. And if the financial foundation was a venture which would be beneficial for the overall good of your adopted homeland, how much better that would be! Well, it has been done, although not in the order described above.
In Zambia, Robert Williamson and Rudolf Farber have had an outstanding success, both financially and spiritually. First came the financial foundation based on development of a sausage making business. Starting with a hand meat grinder that one used to see in grocery stores or butcher shops, wrapping the sausages by hand, cooking and smoking them in a home-made contraption consisting of a metal drum and a plywood box, delivering the sausages to private customers in homes and offices and to some retail shops, their business has grown to a stage where there are 22 employees and an outside salesman. The business has gone from a "cottage industry" to a full-fledged, government registered plant with a monthly output of 8 metric tons of 40 varieties of sausages and cold meats. That's 17,600 pounds!
The business is grossing over $40,000.00 a month. Any profits go to support spiritual activities. At this point in their growth, as much money as possible is poured back into the business. Air conditioning of the plant and purchase of refrigerated trucks and a facility to slaughter animals instead of having to rely on the government-owned Zambia Pork Products (ZAPP) for their raw materials are projected goals of this new enterprise.
Such a degree of success in four years may sound impossible to believe. Even in one's own country, where there are no legal, language, or cultural difficulties, building up such a successful spiritual and financial foundation in this amount of time seems an impossible dream. But if one examines the details of the initial steps of the venture and talks with the people who made it happen, it becomes apparent that it is not so difficult as it would first seem.
In the case of Twikatane (the name for Robert and Rudolf's sausage company, which means "unity" in Bemba, the local language) the impetus for starting the business came from a casual conversation. The subject of sausages happened to come up while they were discussing what kinds of businesses they could start to make money to support themselves. Rudolf's father had once owned a pub in Bavaria. For some forgotten reason his father began to produce his own sausages for sale in the pub. Rudolf thus learned the rudiments of making sausages as a boy in his father's pub. In Zambia he had also met a German man who made sausages on a small scale for sale in the country and who described his work to him.
The next day they purchased some ingredients and Rudolf went to work. Rudolf s sausages (and now the sausages of Twikatane) are "European style" which means they have little fat, no starch, a high meat content, and lots of spices. In making sausages one mixes all these ingredients (the choice of beef, pork, parts of the animals used, and the kind and amount of spices are varied, which results in a variety of types of sausages) covers them with animal intestines, ties the ends, and they are then cooked.
Rudolf s sausages actually tasted good even though it was his first attempt. Next they bought a hand mincer and the various ingredients for the sausages. For the cooking and smoking step Rudolf acquired two fifty-gallon drums and built a wooden box approximately 4 feet by 4 feet which was placed on top of the two drums with one side made into a door. The sausages are suspended on wire in the box. A fire is lit on the ground inside the bottom drum. The sausages are smoked in this manner for 10 hours or so (the duration of smoking varies with the size and type of sausage)
The sausage business got underway in late 1975 under the name of Twikatane Farm Products. Robert wrote at that time, "Our German colleague, Rudolf, is a butcher expert, his father used to have a shop in Germany, and so we start next week. We are hoping to sell to the hotels and small supermarkets."
The unusual trade was immediately successful. Writes Robert on March 17, 1976:
"Our sausage business is expanding with a new, little machine which we bought this month -- it fills the sausage skin! Although I say "little" it has increased our capacity by about 50 times. We still, however, haven't found a little farm or suitable premises in which we can really expand and get a manufacturing license and operate a little factory. Until then we have to keep it on a "home industry" level -- but we are employing now one Zambian."
The rest of the year was one of steady growth -- building up the number of customers, hiring a few more native Zambians, getting adequate vehicles to transport the products to the hotels and shops, and in getting bigger and more efficient equipment. By the end of the year they had done well enough that in December Robert reported:
"December is becoming a busy month for business with the Christmas festivals just around the corner. The sausage business has now reached a point where if we want to really expand and create a little industry we must get a manufacturer's license, and come out of the "cottage industry" level. We have now made an application for a manufacturer's license and it seems a very big process. First, the 'industry' must be approved by the Ministry of Mines and Industry and then from there it goes to the city council planners, and then to the building department and then the health inspectors and after all that a license is issued. The red tape seems fantastic! Looks like a few months is involved. Maybe a year!"
By the end of 1976 they were producing about 100 kilograms of sausage products a week with a staff of 8: Robert, Rudolf, and six Zambian employees. Expansion was managed by bank loans which were paid back quickly with proceeds from the business.
Up until January, 1977 the social and political conditions did not permit the Zambian missionaries to develop spiritual work as openly and extensively as they wanted to. Misguided individuals among other western missionary groups who made trouble for them, the universal natural suspicions of legal authorities, the understandable mistrust of white strangers by the native black population, and the tenuous immigration status of the missionaries all worked against their openly promoting the Divine Principle, Unification Church, and Reverend Moon.
By 1977 many aspects of their individual situations had changed favorably -- they were engaged in a commendable activity which was needed by the society, they were providing jobs for Zambians, they had proved themselves good citizens, and they had made important contacts among influential members of the governmental, business, and legal communities. On another level, the government had modified its policy of "Zambianization" which meant taking businesses and jobs from whites and giving them to native Zambian blacks and coloreds. It now favored whites remaining if they were beneficial to the overall development of the country. For all these reasons the Zambian missionaries could breathe a bit more easily in relation to their economic foundation and legal status in the country. Beginning in January they began to devote half the day to spiritual work and half the day to the sausage factory and the farm activities.
Throughout 1977 the letters from Zambia began to be peppered with increasingly frequent mention of spiritual activities and the names of native Zambians, some of whom are now mature members of the family there.
There was also steady growth of the farm and sausage factory. They raised some of their own pigs in addition to chickens on the farm. A German missionary, Uwe Schneider, managed the Twikatane piggery for two years. More machines and refrigerators and freezers were acquired. More workers were hired to meet the increasing demand from new customers, some of whom even drove out to the farm to pick up their own fresh sausages. By the end of 1977 and throughout 1978 they began to merge more and more of the native members into the sausage factory, replacing the hired workers as they left for one reason or another.
Then, in Spring of 1978, a nearly disastrous calamity for the sausage factory occurred. It was thought that the missionaries would soon have to leave their countries and return home, leaving the fate of the missions in the hands of the young native members. Therefore, they were urged to cease all other activities and concentrate only on finding and raising as many members as possible. This news was certainly received with mixed feelings by Robert and Rudolf. After having spent the better part of their three years in developing the sausage business to a respectable level it was going to have to be abandoned. And because they had only recently been able to do full-scale spiritual work their members were still young and inexperienced. How could they be expected to keep alive the message of the Divine Principle if they themselves had not been tried and proved in spiritual battle? They would surely falter and die out. What could be done?
Then a reprieve. In the summer of 1978 Robert was called home to Scotland to see his dying Father. On his way back to Lusaka, he stopped in London where he was asked to report to Father on the sausage business in Zambia. Rudolf was also called to London from Zambia for this momentous meeting. Father not only told them to continue the factory operation, but he also gave them a sizable contribution to expand the work. Robert returned immediately to Zambia to oversee the resumption of the sausage business as well as the spiritual work, while Rudolf went to Germany to purchase the most modern machines to equip the sausage operation: a vacuum-packing machine which would package the sausage and the other 40-odd varieties of meat products they were now producing in exactly the way such products are packaged for American and European supermarkets; an automatic cooker-smoker; and three deep-freezers. In December, 1978 they took possession of a gigantic "cold room" (a walk-in refrigerated room) paid for with a $19,000 "overdraft facility" (loan) from the local bank. This was paid back in full within 1979. In December, 1979, another machine, a "bowl-cutter", arrived from Germany, which mixes the ingredients 4 times faster than their former equipment.
This flurry of expansion and growth was at Father's direct request that they quickly increase the daily production to 200 kg daily. If the business was successful he would copy it in other African countries. (As of February, 1980, this plan is already being initiated.)
This was another shot in the arm for Twikatane Co. Ltd. It surged ahead again, increasing production, bringing in more member employees, modernizing the entire plant, and in general doing everything called for by the codes pertinent to a food processing facility of its size. By April, 1979 they could report: "Our Twikatane Sausage factory's production is going better and better every week." And on the spiritual front things were not stagnant either: "Our home church system is also going quite well with Father's miracles helping. New members are teaching Divine Principle every day at their areas and we have volley ball competitions Sunday afternoons."
Progress on the economic front continued throughout 1979 so that now (February 1980) there are 22 family members employed at the farm and sausage factory. A significant development is that one of the Zambian native members is very nearly able to manage the entire operation without supervision. He only lacks experience at troubleshooting machinery breakdowns and at maintaining sausage quality control when the ingredients themselves vary in quality and freshness. Twikatane Farm Products now produces 40 varieties of "European style" sausages and processed meat products.
Their chief competitor, Zambia Pork Products, produces "English Style" meats (in 12 varieties, with more starch, blander, and mass-produced). They also control slaughtering and sale of spices for meats. It is Twikatane Farm Products' long-range plan to raise their own pigs and cattle, build a slaughtering plant, and process all kinds of packaged meats on a much larger scale. Such a move would enable them to go from third or fourth position among eight sausage makers in Zambia to a position of an equal competitor with the government owned ZAPP. Will they be able do it? They would be going from the minor leagues to the big leagues in taking such a step. At present they do not have enough members or capital to launch an effort of this magnitude, but it is in their sights. The experience and confidence they have gained as daring entrepreneurs in a field of which they were totally ignorant only four years ago will go a long way toward helping them achieve success in becoming the champion sausage makers of Zambia and perhaps of all of Africa in the not too distant future.
Their economic success has not come at the expense of sacrificing the spiritual side of their activities. There are currently three major centers in Zambia:
1) the city of Kitwe in the north of the country is a missionary center headed by a Japanese blessed couple, Toshiaki and his wife;
2) the farm where the factory is located is on the outskirts of Lusaka and is headed by Rudolf Farber;
3) the Lusaka central center is the main teaching center, where Robert Williamson is director.
There are now 55 center members, 40 "B" members, and 40 to 50 "C"' members. They come from many backgrounds, many of them students and former students, ranging in age from 16 to 30. Home Church is proceeding well. Because of the youth of the members they work in trinities in home church areas and live in the center still. New members go to 3-day, 7-day, and 21-day workshops which they pay to attend in money or by working at the factory. The factory workers also conduct a spiritual program after working hours and carry on a Sunday school program.
These exemplary achievements in both the economic and spiritual realms did not result as smoothly as my description may have implied. There were certainly problems in achieving unity among the missionaries, with the already existing Christian missionaries, with the authorities, and in learning how to get along in an alien culture. Valued older native members left. The police visited them, examined their teaching materials and in general were quite curious about their activities. They were cheated by dishonest businessmen, were blocked from working, starting a business, and at one point the man who had been their lawyer for more than a year for all their affairs had to leave the country suddenly.
Regardless of these typical problems of missionaries and the extraordinary problems brought on by the magnitude of their economic endeavors they persevered and achieved an enviable degree of success. Their achievement serves as a remarkable example of what can be done in any missionary country. Robert and Rudolf established an economic foundation first, winning friends and contacts as they did so. Later, on this successful foundation, they were able to quickly have witnessing success also. Their pattern may or may not be applicable in other places. It is a challenge and opportunity to each of us to discover what will be our individual way to expand the Kingdom of Heaven and bring glory to the True Parents.