The middle ranks include secretaries, computer gurus, merchants and others who have benefited from economic growth of around 6 per cent annually in countries like Uganda, Ghana and Kenya, and around 8 per cent in Rwanda. As Ramamurthy sees it, the growth of consumer culture reflects something more significant than the availability of Chilean wines and red patent leather pumps from Paris. It reflects a gradual opening up of African economies and a change in how people define themselves.

Ruharo’s identity has to do with where he shops and what he buys, which in turn reflects the wider world he greets each day on the Internet and cable TV or on occasional trips to London. “What matters is your lifestyle,” said Ruharo, “The car you drive—it should be a Japanese import. You have to live in an apartment. The BlackBerry is important. It’s purely a status symbol because no one here is that busy yet.”

Ruharo, who started his own business developing text-messaging products for cellphone companies, now has 14 employees, recent college graduates who share his taste for designer jeans and iPods.

Vijay Mahajan, a University of Texas business professor, recently coined the phrase “Africa 2s” to describe people who are neither desperately poor (Africa 3s) nor obnoxiously rich (Africa 1s), and says the middle group is one of the most important drivers of economic growth in Africa. Mahajan, who has written a book, Africa Rising, says, “(Africa2s) are the people sending their kids to school ... who are the most optimistic, the most forward-thinking.”

... contd.