Malian Business Strategy

For Tabaski, the Muslim holiday, my friend invited a woman over to the stage house who could do henna, nails, fake eye lashes and that sort of thing. She was in her early twenties and really sweet. She came over at 9 to just do my friend Paula but as everyone else in the stage house woke up, one by one all the other girls signed up in a list to have henna and things done as well. She did mine, did an awesome job and charged $3. She ended up staying till 9 that night and even came back the next night to do hair. She said it was the best day she had had in a while and felt more respected than she could remember. Turns out, that Paula had run into her in a salon originally, where this woman worked. Paula really liked the job that she did so she asked for this woman’s phone number so that she could do house calls. After Paula left, all the other ladies in the salon got really angry because she had received special attention for the job that they all do. Their jealousy caused this girl to have to leave the salon because the other girls were being so mean. I have seen this many times in Malian business strategy and everyday life- Malian culture seems to crush individualism and individual drive to such a point that no one can succeed. Or if you do manage to succeed alone, you end up having to western union money transfer your income to other family member and tons will move in with you as well. Another example is that in my village, we have 5 boutiques. They all sell the exact same thing. All at the exact same price. And are all within 100 meters of each other. Why not lower ones price, have sales, buy varied merchandise? It makes no sense. They say they don’t want to lower their process because it will hurt the others. Sweet but illogical.