African Entrepreneurship Record

November 17, 1911.

Bangui.

"Is this the Bangui city in East Africa? I didn't expect East Africans to build such a modern city here!"

This was the first time for Klein, the governor of the Belgian Congo colony, to Bangui. After passing through a long virgin rainforest road, and finally arriving in Bangui by boat and railway, Klein felt as if he had experienced two worlds.

The Belgian Congo under his own rule was like a virgin forest. Except for a few colonial stronghold cities such as Pointe-Noire, even villages were relatively sparse.

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

The closer you get to Bangui, the more you feel the terrifying power of East Africa. Fields, plantations and villages begin to appear. And as the destination gets closer, the density of farmland and villages becomes greater, and large-scale 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 farmland 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 rich human resources, so the field divisions are much larger than those in the Belgian Congo, and they are also sparse compared to the farms in the Belgian Congo. , the plantations are different, the farms and plantations around Bangui City are connected together.

The gap in quality is even more significant. The farmland 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 numerous artificial ditches extend along the naturally formed rivers.

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

Tractors and agricultural vehicles can occasionally be seen in the fields. Although livestock farming still dominates, this level is probably not common in Europe.

At the same time, the quality of the homes of East Africans is significantly higher than that of the Belgian Congo. Houses in East Africa are basically updated to the second generation or above, and are mainly made of earth, wood and masonry 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 telephone poles, and some workers could be seen laying power grids.

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

Therefore, along the way, Klein had a preliminary understanding of the level of rural development in East Africa, which was no less than that of rural development in Europe, which made Klein feel particularly shocked.

Klein even believes that Pointe-Noire City under his governance may not be able to reach the level of rural areas in East Africa. As the capital of the Belgian Congo, Pointe-Noire City is actually not too bad in development. There is no shortage of basic materials, and because of its close ties with East Africa and Belgium, Local trade made Point Noire one of the rapidly emerging commercial towns on the South Atlantic coast.

However, in terms of some detailed indicators, Pointe-Noire City is probably not as good as some towns in East Africa. For example, electricity penetration in Pointe-Noire City is only about 20%. This was achieved with the help of East Africa. Pointe-Noire City The electricity supply is mainly imported from the city of Cabinda in neighboring East Africa.

For Belgians, Cabinda is undoubtedly one of the most familiar large cities in East Africa, even Cabinda is not inferior to Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

However, Belgian Congo colonial officials, including Klein, never believed that Cabinda was universal in East Africa. After all, Cabinda is a port city. However, this opportunity to go deep into the interior of East Africa made Klein feel deeply It shocked the earth and gave him a clearer understanding of East Africa's status as a world power.

Of course, when he actually arrived in Bangui City, Klein felt even more about his past "frog in a well" mentality.

After a week's journey, Klein finally arrived at this provincial capital city in East Africa that was not considered "outstanding" and sighed.

Assistant Robinson also praised on the side: "I didn't expect that a place like Bangui, which is far inland, would be so well-developed and modernized by East Africa. The entire city is like a super city on the edge of the Congo rainforest. It is difficult for people to get along with each other. It reminds me of the wild and terrifying primitive rainforest.”

Although Bangui is not far from the Belgian Congo, Belgians really don’t know much about this city because the political and economic activity centers of the Belgian Congo are in the west and south.

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

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

Guman, the East African government employee responsible for receiving the Belgian delegation, was very satisfied with the surprise of this group of Belgian "hillbillies".

Of course, out of politeness, Guman did not show the slightest arrogance, but said more modestly: "Bangui is a medium-sized city among East African cities, with only a mere 200,000 people. After all, it is the regional economic center. And transportation hub, coupled with its status as a provincial capital, it can develop to its current scale. In fact, there are not many more developed cities in East Africa than Bangui. As a big country in the world, we have more than 40 provincial capital cities in East Africa. And Bangui can barely be considered a mid-level provincial capital city.”

These words are quite harsh in the ears of Belgians. After all, there are more than 40 provincial capitals in East Africa. Even if they are not as good as Bengui, it is shocking. You must know that cities with more than 100,000 people in Europe are considered relatively large in scale nowadays. Yes.

With a population of more than 200,000, the city of Bangui is definitely not small in Europe, and from the perspective of urban construction, Bangui is also very grand, with all kinds of transportation facilities such as railways and highways.

Klein asked Guman: "Mr. Guman, I saw that there are not many cars in Bangui City. Even in Europe, cars are considered rare. Bangui City'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 true. Cars are a relatively special industrial product in East Africa. Because our East African automobile industry is relatively developed, it is not uncommon to see cars in many cities and even villages. And as I said before, Bangui City is It is a regional center and one of the national transportation hubs, which is why Bangui has grown to its current size.”

"In fact, there is no other city in the northwest region of East Africa that can compare with Bangui. However, the northwest region has relatively weak economic development in East Africa, so Bangui is relatively ordinary nationwide."

"You are from Pointe-Noire, so you should have some knowledge of western cities such as Cabinda or Kinshasa. Those cities should be considered relatively developed in East Africa and can represent the economic level of relatively developed areas in East Africa."

Governor Klein nodded and said: "Yes! I know Cabinda quite well. Cabinda has developed rapidly in recent years and has widened the gap with Pointe Noire."

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

Now the city of Cabinda in East Africa is close to three times the size of Pointe Noire, with a population of nearly 400,000. Kinshasa in the east of Cabinda and Luanda in the south are no less developed than Cabinda.