Easterly — whose research, in collaboration with the University of Virginia economist Ariell Reshef, has examined Rugasira’s company — emphasizes that stark advantages and outsize triumphs, like China’s, aren’t necessary to the success of individual businesses or to pushing Africa forward. He stresses that merely reaching the market and holding your own there can be a major victory for a company like Good African, not only because the brand may grow gradually but also because when it comes to African enterprise as a whole, the continent needs to prove, for starters, that in the world of business, it can just coexist.