African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1211 Concentration Camp

Deepwater ports can be said to be one of the most lacking strategic resources in East Africa, so it is no wonder that after East Africa acquired the Port of Lomé, it was eager to build it into one of the most important naval bases in East Africa.

As a world power, although East Africa has a long coastline and territories in the four major oceans, it still lacks natural ports.

This means that the construction and renovation of local ports in East Africa requires more costs than in other countries. Currently, many newly built ports in East Africa have been obtained through large-scale artificial renovation by the East African government, such as Falta Port, Lamu Port, Elle Port, etc.

Port construction is also an important infrastructure, which tests a country's capabilities. For example, in the past, the Far East Empire helped Asia, Africa, and Latin America to build or renovate ports.

Typical examples include Gwadar Port and Karachi Port. Behind these ports is a whole set of transportation construction. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. If you want to activate the distribution function of these ports, you must have roads, railways and other transportation to connect the inland economic hinterland.

This is the case with the Port of Falta in East Africa. Without supporting roads, railways and even water and electricity supply, it would be impossible for the Port of Falta to be developed and utilized.

Of course, East Africa’s positioning of the Port of Lomé is obviously not like this. East Africa does not need the Port of Lomé to connect with Togoland’s inland economy, but rather attaches more importance to its military and strategic value. The more important thing about this military port is its connectivity with the mainland of East Africa. As for what the Port of Lomé lacks, the mainland of East Africa can provide it.

……

When the ship finally docked, Brand began to command the sailors to drive all the imprisoned black slaves off the ship in an orderly manner and hand them over to the colonial garrison in Togoland in East Africa.

"Colonel Brand, these blacks don't seem to be in a good mental state!" Andel, the Togoland garrison officer in charge of the reception, said with some disgust.

Of course, Andel's disdain was directed at these half-dead and mentally depressed black slaves.

Brand said: "These black people are on a boat for the first time, so seasickness is inevitable. It's good enough that they can survive it."

Deputy Tara also said: "We are the worst off. Many slaves can't stand the turbulence on the sea and vomit and have diarrhea in the cabin. Coupled with the humid environment and hot temperature, the smell after fermentation is simply unbearable. Our sailors have to hold their noses to clean and disinfect the ship."

When you see someone who is worse off than you, you will feel much better. After listening to the two people's complaints, Andel was no longer opposed to escorting these blacks. After all, compared with the situation encountered by the navy, their situation on land would be much better.

Of course, what Brand and Tara said was half true and half false. It is true that black people are seasick and unhygienic, but how the specific cleaning work is done remains to be investigated.

If we follow the tone of the two people, it seems that the sailors really completed the cleaning work themselves, but in fact there are so many "black slaves", how could it be the turn of the East African sailors to do it themselves.

The job of the East African sailors was to hold guns and force these black slaves to complete the cleaning work themselves. As for those who were really disobedient, they were thrown into the sea to feed the sharks.

Andel, whose mood had improved, began to change the subject: "I don't know why the government would do this. There are 800,000 black people in the country. Even if we handle them, it would be a lot of work. After all, Togoland itself does not have enough manpower."

Although the black slaves in East Africa were old and weak, there were still many of them! If more than 800,000 black slaves were thrown into Togoland at once, this amount of work could not be completed in a short period of time.

Of course, the East African government has no plans to complete it in a short time. The current situation in Europe is very good for East Africa. East Africa has plenty of time to deal with the black slaves in its hands and does not have to worry about accusations from the international community.

Brand said, "There is nothing we can do about it. As you can see, many of these slaves have reached old age and can no longer provide value to the empire. Even those who are young and strong now will be the same in a few years." "And the empire has never supported inhumane large-scale extermination, so it is better to exile them to West Africa."

"Besides, you think it's too much trouble for us, but we're also having a hard time. We have to exile more than 800,000 black slaves to West Africa. We don't know how many trips we have to make, how many ships and how many people we have to mobilize. The environment at sea is not much better than here. To be honest, I'm a little envious of you soldiers!"

Andel said with a twitch in his mouth, "Colonel Brand, you are being a little unfair. The treatment of the navy is much better than ours. Your equipment and food alone are much better than our army. If we are to envy you, we should envy you. What's more, we have been sent by the Empire to Togoland, a place like no where."

The navy's funding is much richer than the army's, which is reflected in all aspects. As a colonial army, the colonial army is inferior to the domestic army, so Andel thinks that Brand's words are biased.

Brand also explained helplessly: "Well, I will tell you the details in between, and you will know that I am not lying to you. Think about it, it is impossible to be more comfortable on the sea than on land. After all, there are problems such as climate, wind and waves, hygiene, etc. on the sea. Every moment on the boat can be said to be a very painful existence."

"Take the most basic issue of sleeping. It's impossible to get a good night's sleep. I think you must have felt it when you came to Togoland from your homeland."

To get to Togoland from East Africa, you have to take the sea route, so Andel nodded and said, "That's true. I remember the ship we took at the beginning. We slept in hammocks. We couldn't move our bodies. The space was very small, very hot and very uncomfortable."

Brand nodded in agreement and said, "That's right. As you can imagine, sleeping on the boat every day means you can't eat or sleep well. There is also a lot of work to do, so even if our food budget is more than the army's, we still need to have an appetite to eat it."

"As for the second point, look at the ship we are on this time. It's hard to believe that the youngest of these warships is two years older than me. Driving this kind of sailing ship requires more work than driving a modern warship, and the operation is also more complicated."

"Just adjusting the sails is enough to make us miserable. Cleaning the wooden deck is also difficult. We have to do it every day..."

Brand spoke a lot in a long-winded way, but it also proved how bad the comfort level of ships in this era was, unless the passengers on cruise ships and passenger ships would probably feel a little better.

And Andel was successfully persuaded by Brand. The navy is not something that everyone can join. Although the navy salary is relatively higher, it is also very limited. If Andel were to choose, he would definitely choose the army. After all, it is not cost-effective to enjoy the navy treatment just for a little more salary.

"Okay, except for a few people who were fed to sharks due to illness and other reasons, we will leave all of these people to you. We have to rush to the next trip, and we don't know when this kind of life will end." Brand complained.

To which Andel can only say: "Good luck to you!"

After counting the number of people, only 1,789 were left out of the 1,800 blacks, a decrease of eleven people, but this was not something Andel had to consider.

"Take them to the concentration camp first, and when the next batch arrives, take them all to the border."

The East African government built a concentration camp in the port of Lomé to temporarily detain these black slaves. When the number of slaves was sufficient, the colonial army would transport them collectively to the northern border and release them.

The final destination is the French colony of Upper Volta, which is Burkina Faso, which means that these blacks still have more than 500 kilometers to go.

Togoland has no roads or railways to transport so many black people to the border, which means that this journey is not very friendly to black people.

(End of this chapter)