Chamas are small informal savings groups or investment clubs in which members typically pool financial resources together, contributing a fixed amount regularly, and then either taking turns borrowing from the collective fund, investing it in various ventures, or distributing it among the members on a rotating basis.

If you are in a savings and investment Chama, I want to suggest to you that your Chama may be nothing but deadweight dragging you down and you may need to cut your losses and run!

Yes, I said what I said: your Chama may also be the crutch you lean on to avoid facing a hard truth—that you need to take control of your own financial destiny.

Let me make an even bolder statement.

If you don’t have well-established financial goals outside of that your Chama, then you’re building your “house” on sand. Herding and collectivist ideas are great. Until they are not!

I might have pooped on your parade but before you go getting all hot and bothered, let me explain exactly why this your so-called ‘collective investment’ may holding you back.

Chamas: A Simple Assignment for You

Take a good, hard look at five members of that your Chama—the ones you think you know best. Now, ask yourself, and be brutally honest:

• Who do you share the same financial goals and strategies for building wealth?
• Have any of them ever laid bare their financial plans to you? Do you even know their financial philosophy?
• Apart from chasing money, do you share any values, ideology, or identity with them?
• Are you all at the same stage in life?
• Are your life priorities—like marriage, kids, and family—more similar than they are different or vice versa?
• How wide is the age gap between you?
• Are your lifestyles aligned, or are they worlds apart?
• Are you even close in terms of income and financial standing?

Now, stare at those answers, call yourself to a meeting, and ask: Why on earth is this the crowd I’ve chosen to run with?

Let’s be real—if you don’t know these things about those five Chama members, and if at least those five members don’t know these things about you, then how on earth would they ever be solid financial teammates, let alone partner with you to build real wealth?

But Chamas are the Embodiment of Unity?

I am not in any way saying that you cannot achieve a lot in an organized group of people. Speaking to unity, the Good Book, in Ecclesiastes Chapter 4 (Verse 9 to 12) says: Two are better off than one because there is a greater reward for their labour…If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself? …. A rope made of three cords is hard to break.

I am saying, however, that the same Good Book asks, in Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” The same good book goes on to warn in 2 Corinthians 6:14 “…. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

Simply put, two distinctly different ways of thinking will always oppose each other.

Perhaps some context from a personal experience I had a little more than a decade ago with a Chama I was part of will shed some light.

Hope and Optimism

At the outset, there was hope and optimism and a feeling that we were destined for greatness. We were a disparate group of 30-odd persons – a mix of employed professionals and self-employed individuals and entrepreneurs, male and female in the ratio of about 5 to 1 and all roughly between the ages of 32 and 43, (a variance of about a decade). All of course very eager to build wealth together.

The dream was simple: pool our resources, make savvy investments and watch our fortunes grow. But as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The Illusion of Unity

In theory, Chamas are the embodiment of unity. But unity can be an illusion. In our Chama, the self-employed individuals carried the team on the execution of tasks. You might say that they kept the engine running. The employed group, on the other hand, having a consistent income, tended to be more consistent about making their contributions, indeed contributing most of the funds. They supplied the fuel that was supposed to drive us forward. And for a while, there seemed to be some balance.

Here’s the thing about balance—it’s delicate. It doesn’t take much to tip the scales. And in our case, the scale tipped due to power and participation imbalances. Decisions were often arrived at in silos occupied by the elite contributors, then served on the rest for “consensus”. This precluded the financial goals of those who were not calling the shots, instead aligning the Chama to the goals of those who were. Those who invariably felt excluded and voiceless were the individuals who were then often charged with routine, mundane functions. This killed morale and eventually led to divisions within the Chama.

Chamas and the Trap of Groupthink

If you have been in a room where everyone nods in agreement, either out of emotion or maybe a lack of understanding, even when their instincts may be telling them something isn’t right – that’s what groupthink looks like. And it’s a silent killer.

Groupthink breeds where people either lack their original ideas, believe others have better ideas than their own and are unwilling or not disciplined enough to do what it takes, personally, to work on their own goals.

In our Chama, there was little, if any, thoughtful analysis – just head nods in echo chambers where confirmation bias began to take over, depending on who was advocating for any particular choice. The louder voices—those with the most financial weight—pushed their personal preferences, convinced they were on the path to success. And the rest? Feeling voiceless, they began to just go along for the ride. Inevitably, disaster was just around the corner.

The Price of Silence

You know that saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease?” Well, in our Chama, the squeaky wheels were silenced, and the silent majority just coasted along. They participated peripherally, contributing funds without ever questioning how those funds were being used. It’s easy to stay quiet when things seem to be going well, but silence has a cost.

When the big decisions came—those heavy, capital-intensive investments—the silent ones remained just that: silent. And so, we charged forward, led by the few who believed in their own invincibility, their financial contributions blinding them to the risks. The result? Catastrophic financial losses. The kind that leave you questioning every decision, every moment of silence, every missed opportunity to speak up.

The Folly of Collective Dreams

Now, don’t get me wrong—there’s power in collective effort. But here’s the truth that no one likes to admit: Collective dreams can quickly turn into collective nightmares. Especially when those dreams are built on the shaky foundation of misaligned goals.

In our Chama, we started with a shared dream. But dreams are funny things—they can change shape, morph into something unrecognizable. As time went on, it became clear that our individual goals were pulling us in different directions. One group wanted growth, innovation, and smart risks. The other, wanted security, steady returns, something to show for their hard-earned money even in the short term. And so, the dream began to split at the seams.

Chamas and The Place for Expressing Individuality

The thing we try to suppress in collectivist ideas like Chamas is our individuality. Acknowledging our individual goals from the start, if we had embraced them rather than forcing them into the mould of collective thinking, we might have found a way to make it work.

But unity isn’t strength when it’s forced. Unity that recognizes individual goals, and allows for diversity of thought and approach was required. True success doesn’t come by attempting to substitute your individual vision with a collective vision. Rather, it comes from finding a way to align those dreams, let each voice be heard, and make decisions that reflect the wisdom of the whole, not just a few.

The Lesson: Don’t Lose Yourself in the Crowd

So, here’s my caution: If you’re considering joining savings and investments Chamas, or any collective investment group, first develop and prioritize your own financial goals. Yes, there may be strength in numbers, but there’s also wisdom in individuality. Be clear about what you want, be willing to speak up, and don’t be afraid to go against the grain.

Remember, it’s your future on the line. And while it’s great to have a team by your side, make sure that team respects your journey as much as you respect theirs. Because at the end of the day, the road to wealth is a personal one, and no one can walk it for you—not even your Chamas.

PostScript: Relevant to real estate, 11 years after the Chama collapsed, we still collectively hold a piece of land that has sat idly for that time. The “dominant” voices in the Chama are waiting for greater “capital gains” adamantly holding out that selling at this point would be regrettable. We are now stuck together doing nothing!