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Abe Galaun, who has died in Lusaka aged 90, was the last of a small group of refugee entrepreneurs from the former Russian Empire who did much to shape the commercial world of colonial Northern Rhodesia. He continued to live in Zambia after Independence, a mover and shaker in commercial agriculture and other branches of business, in the chambers of commerce, and in service organisations, notably Rotary International. Once a supporter of Federation and a friend of Sir Roy Welensky, he quickly adapted to the new political climate and was widely respected among all ethnic and religious groups. He was born in the shtetl of Vorne, Lithuania, then the Russian province of Kovno, in February 1913. With World War II looming he followed his elder brothers to South Africa in December 1938. Increasingly restrictive anti-Semitic legislation there necessitated a change of plan and in February 1939 he moved to Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. His mother and one of his sisters were murdered in the Holocaust. Abe Galaun’s first real break came in 1940 when he became the representative in Barotseland of Jehiel Jacobs, a Livingstone trader and labour recruiter. He helped in the revival of Barotseland’s cattle trade and moved to Lusaka in 1945 to set up a butchery. That year he married South African Vera Harris with whom he formed a loving, hard-working and creative partnership that was to last for nearly 60 years. Abe Galaun set up Lusaka Cold Storage in January 1946 and in the 1960s achieved a pre-eminence in the butchery business in Lusaka that lasted for the next 30 years. He acquired a number of farms and played a major part in the re-establishment of the dairy industry in the 1980s. Abe ‘retired’ in 1988 and handed over to his son, Michael, but then launched a series of new enterprises based around the old Grand Hotel in Cairo Road. In recent years he had resumed control of Lusaka Cold Storage, as he saw its supremacy challenged in the late 1990s by Zambeef plc. An indefatigable entrepreneur, he will also be remembered for his charitable work, of which the provision of wheelchairs for the needy was a notable feature. Abe Galaun combined commercial toughness with generosity, courtesy and charm. He is survived by Vera and their sons, Jack and Michael. Hugh Macmillan |
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