African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1108: The Belgians' Shock

1911 11 Month 17 Day.

Bangui.

"Is this the city of Bangui in East Africa? I never thought that East Africans would build such a modern city here!"

It was the first time for Klein, the governor of the Belgian Congo colony, to visit Bangui. After traveling through a long primitive rainforest road, taking a boat, and then transferring to a railway to arrive in Bangui, Klein felt like he had experienced two different worlds.

The Belgian Congo under his rule was like a primeval forest. Apart from a few colonial outposts such as Pointe-Noire, even the villages were relatively rare.

After entering East Africa, although there were not many developed areas in East Africa, the railways that crossed the rainforest and grassland, the numerous ships on the Ubangi River, and the developed road system opened Klein's eyes.

The closer you get to Bangui, the more you can feel the terrifying power of East Africa. Fields, plantations and villages begin to appear. As you get closer to your destination, the density of farmlands and villages increases, and large towns begin to appear. If these towns were placed in the Belgian Congo, they would be second only to Pointe Noire, the capital of the Belgian Congo.

The farmlands and plantations in East Africa are also very different from those in the Belgian Congo. First of all, in terms of scale, East Africa has relatively abundant human resources, so the fields are much larger than those in the Belgian Congo. Moreover, unlike the sparse farms and plantations in the Belgian Congo, the farms and plantations around Bangui are connected.

The difference in quality is even more significant. The farmlands and plantations in East Africa are not only grandly planned, but also equipped with quite complete facilities.

It can be seen at a glance that the farms and plantations in East Africa have been scientifically planned, with developed irrigation systems built inside. The rivers have been roughly managed, and many artificial ditches extend along the naturally formed rivers.

Many of these artificial ditches have been hardened and carefully decorated with cement, bricks, stones and other materials. Even the most basic artificial ditches have at least been leveled.

Occasionally, you can see tractors and agricultural vehicles in the fields. Although livestock is still the mainstream way of farming, this level is probably not common in the whole of Europe.

At the same time, the quality of housing in East Africa is obviously much higher than that in the Belgian Congo. The houses in East Africa have basically been updated for more than two generations, and are mainly made of civil, wood, brick and stone structures.

What shocked Klein even more was that many villages and towns in East Africa had obviously been electrified. There were many villages and towns connected by electric poles, and some workers could be seen laying power grids.

Today, some European cities may not have achieved universal access to electricity, while electricity supply in East Africa has penetrated into rural areas.

So after this trip, Klein had a preliminary understanding of the level of rural development in East Africa. It was in no way inferior to the rural construction in Europe, which made Klein feel particularly shocked.

Klein even believed that the city of Pointe Noire under his governance might not be able to reach the level of rural East Africa. As the capital of Belgian Congo, Pointe Noire was actually not badly developed. Basically, there was no shortage of supplies. In addition, because of trade with East Africa and Belgium, Pointe Noire became one of the rapidly emerging commercial towns on the South Atlantic coast.

However, in terms of some detailed indicators, Pointe Noire may not be able to compare with some towns in East Africa. For example, electricity is only available to about 20% of Pointe Noire, and this is achieved with the help of East Africa. Pointe Noire's electricity supply is mainly imported from Cabinda in neighboring East Africa.

For Belgians, Cabinda is undoubtedly one of the most familiar major cities in East Africa, and it is even not inferior to the Belgian capital Brussels.

However, officials of the Belgian Congo colony, including Klein, never believed that Cabinda was universal in East Africa. After all, Cabinda was a port city. However, this opportunity to go deep into the interior of East Africa made Klein feel deeply shocked, and also gave him a clearer understanding of East Africa's status as a world power. Of course, after arriving in Bangui, Klein felt even more that he had been a "frog in the well" in the past.

After a week's journey, Klein finally arrived at this not-so-outstanding provincial capital in East Africa, and he sighed.

Assistant Robinson also exclaimed: "Bangui, a place deep in the interior of East Africa, has been built so well and modernly. The whole city is like a metropolis on the edge of the Congo rainforest. It is hard to associate it with the wild and terrifying primitive rainforest."

Although Bangui is not far from the Belgian Congo, Belgians don't know much about this city because the center of political and economic activities in the Belgian Congo is in the west and south.

That is, the coastal areas and areas close to East Africa. The major cities in East Africa that Belgians have most contact with are Cabinda and Kinshasa in the Congo River Basin, or Luanda, where maritime trade is frequent.

As for Ubangui Province where Bangui is located, although it borders the Belgian Congo, due to the barriers of terrain, rainforest and wetlands, in fact the exchanges between the two sides are not close. Most Belgian Congolese officials only know that there is such a city in East Africa, but almost no one has ever been to Bangui.

Guman, the East African government employee who was responsible for receiving the Belgian delegation, was very satisfied with the surprise of these Belgian "country bumpkins".

Of course, out of courtesy, Guman did not show any arrogance, but said modestly: "Bangui is a medium-sized city in East Africa, with a population of only more than 200,000. After all, it is a regional economic center and transportation hub, and its status as a provincial capital has enabled it to develop to its current scale. In fact, there are not many cities in East Africa that are more developed than Bangui. As a major country in the world, we have more than 40 provincial capitals in East Africa, and Bangui can only be considered a mid-level provincial capital."

This statement is rather harsh to the ears of the Belgians. After all, among the more than 40 provincial capitals in East Africa, even if some of them are not as good as Bengi, it is enough to be shocking. You know, cities in Europe with a population of more than 100,000 are considered relatively large nowadays.

The city of Bangui, with a population of more than 200,000, is definitely not small in Europe. From the perspective of urban construction, Bangui is also very grand, with complete transportation facilities such as railways and roads.

Klein asked Goodman, "Mr. Goodman, I see that there are quite a few cars in Bangui. Even in Europe, cars are considered rare. Bangui's location in East Africa can be said to be relatively remote. Are most cities in East Africa as developed as Bangui?"

Guman said: "That's not the case. Cars are a relatively special industrial product in East Africa. Because our automobile industry in East Africa is relatively developed, it is not uncommon to see cars in many cities and even villages. And as I said before, Bangui is a regional center and one of the national transportation hubs, so Bangui has developed to its current scale."

"In fact, there is no other city in the northwest region of East Africa that can be compared with Bangui. However, the northwest region is relatively underdeveloped in the East African economy, so Bangui is relatively ordinary in the whole country."

"You are from Pointe Noire, so you should know something about western cities like Cabinda or Kinshasa. Those cities are considered relatively developed in East Africa and can represent the economic level of relatively developed regions in East Africa."

Governor Klein nodded and said, "Yes! I am quite familiar with Cabinda. Cabinda has developed rapidly in recent years and has already opened up a gap with Pointe-Noire."

Belgium colonized Pointe-Noire for a much longer time than East Africa developed Cabinda, but Cabinda expanded almost every year at a rate visible to the naked eye. After East Africa occupied Cabinda, it surpassed the Belgian city of Pointe-Noire in less than five years.

Today, the city of Cabinda in East Africa is nearly three times the size of Pointe Noire, with a population approaching 400,000. Moreover, Kinshasa to the east of Cabinda and Luanda to the south are in no way inferior to Cabinda in terms of development.

(End of this chapter)