American International Journal of Social Science

African Cultural Perspective in Social Entrepreneurism: De-Fossilizing Western Ideologies in Muhammad Yunus’ Mixed Concept Approach to Building Social Business
TANGYIE EVANI C.A; LEM Lilian ATANGA; LEM Lilian ATANGA; Edmond BILOA; NTONIFOR Helen;

Abstract
Muhammad Yunus’ book “Building Social Business: A new Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s pressing Needs,” presents findings from a mixed concept approach to social business based on the concept that social business is the new kind of Capitalism that serves humanity. From his onset vision of assisting the poor move out of subsistence levels, he created the “Grameen Bank” which means “village Bank” While Muhammad Yunus had as original plan to assist both men and women in the development process, it sooner became clear to him that women provided expected results than men and this led to a gradual shift from the target population as both men and women, to a concentration on the women fold. The book intends to account for an approach in social business that deals with socio-cultural aspects that focus on collective behavior as it constitutes one of the systems of cultures functioning within a holistic context of related socio-cultural economic patterns. As such, sustainable social business development does not only represent the expression from the sociological perspective but transcends to the level of societal acceptability. By applying a cross-cultural analytical lens to the problems plaguing social business in sub-Saharan Africa, and building on the ideas propagated by Yunus’ this article will contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental changes in the nature and goals of building social business alongside cultural knowledge in the undeveloped economic systems of Sub Saharan Africa.

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