# The influence of Bombay Africans and their descendants on Eastern Africa  
The Freretown settlement quickly developed small industries, such as brick- and tile-making, making palm leaf products (such as mats, screens, brushes and brooms) and woodworking. In Africa, many of the children of the Bombay Africans were initially sent to India for their education. A hospital was established at Freretown with a European doctor, but with Bombay African nurses and midwives. The Rabai and Freretown settlements developed their own systems of local government, which incorporated African elements, such as a council of elders. All of the elders were English-speaking and formed an executive council with written by-laws. Policing was under the authority of the executive council, though Nubian and Indian police were employed on loan from the IBEAC, to which the settlements acknowledged overall authority (Harris, 1977, pp. 44-45). The ideals fostered by the Bombay Africans were transferred to other Africans at Rabai and Freretown. Many of these were the children of formerly enslaved people and had been raised under a Bombay African philosophy of unity, equality, Christianity and a strong awareness of a pan-African identity.