When a man keeps knocking on the door in a certain way, he is assumed a drummer right? This was the dilemma I found myself in when I heard loud knocks on my door around 6 am on a Saturday morning. I honestly ignored it because I thought it was one of those who have been coming to me to ask for money (this is a story for another day) or maybe the robbers that Baba Gen Sec had warned me about.
This Knock continued and I angrily shouted “I know you are from a lineage of drummers, please don’t find your destiny call in front of my house”. Then I heard an echoed “haaaa’. At that point, my brain started booting. I began to wonder if there was a community at my door or if I missed a major collection.
I wore my clothes, held my cutlass, and opened the door. My people, I would have preferred it if I had seen a ghost because what I saw had no business at my door. I saw almost all the Landlords in my street in front of my door and of course, they were headed by my own Baba Landlord. As I opened the door, they all moved back as a result of the cutlass I was holding.
The fear on their faces made me laugh a bit. I greeted and brought my cutlass down. “Hanhan Baba Alajo, would you have cut the head of a robber?” one of them said. I laughed and said a resounding yes. I was thereafter told that my attention was needed at the Landlord’s meeting and I followed. The walk to the meeting felt like I walked a mile as certain things were running through my mind. Is it that they want me to stop my collection or I was reported by someone? But as I got there I was offered a seat. This gave me the confidence that something good must be going on.
I am never amazed at the things Baba Landlord says to me and that is because it is always filled with insulting words. On this day I heard Baba Landlord call me “My son”. I had to look around for a bit to be sure if his son was around. Se you dey whine me ni. A whole “NO future Ambition” is now your son. My people, in this life, be important. Baba Landlord talked to me like we had some type of special closeness and as the good person that I am, I reciprocated.
The community needed to run a project for which they had minimal funds and they thought of having Baba Alajo as a rescue trust fund. I was told to borrow them an amount in which they would be contributing in bits alongside the commission to be paid. Truth be told, I had no plans for this scheme but I said yes because money and validation must be made. Validation because I wasn’t trusted with keeping people’s money but now it is my turn to trust that they would return the money and with this, I would be able to bring them into my Ajo groups as credibility would have been built. The Joy on Baba Landlord’s face after I said yes was that of a proud father.
I left the meeting with a bottle of Guinness and this gave me a realization that people are starting to acknowledge this business of mine. The shocking thing about this Ajo business is that people have been the ones giving me mind-blowing ideas. First, it was Mama Waje wanting to be a collector, then the amala joint which gave the idea of digitizing, and now it is the Landlord giving me the idea of microcredit. All I need to do now is strategize or else I will just be doing everything because the essence of strategy is to put limits on what you are trying to accomplish. I promise you that the next time you hear from me is going to be a time of full upgrade because the possibilities of Ajo are limitless
Thanks, I’ll see myself out.
I read all six episodes like devouring my favorite meal. I also run an ajo group since 2016 along with my wife. In Haiti, my country, we call it ‘sòl’. I’ve been trying lately to get people onboard beyond the usual rotational scheme. It’s very hard in here to convince people to invest as the word only make people run away. But I’m confident we’ll get there someday. I also plan on offering micro-financing services starting January 2023.
I’ve built the website but I need more knowledge to build an app so we can go full digitizing. One problem though, there are no regulations regarding these financial activities in Haiti. All and all, it will be informal. I kind of like it this way somehow because it’s like you have full control over the schemes and keep authorities out.
Anyway, I’ll keep your blog under the radar and borrow some ideas here and there.
Thanks for the episodes.
Woolker Cherenfant