African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 74: Chapter 70 Mombasa

March 11, 1867.

Mombasa is the only port in East Africa that rivals Dar es Salaam in fame, and this port was built by Arabs in the 11th century.

Now, with the signing of the East Sango Treaty, Mombasa, the second most important port of the Zanzibar Sultanate, has also fallen into the hands of the East African colony. To enhance the operational capacity of the port of Mombasa, the colonial government of East Africa has begun to renovate the port’s infrastructure.

Today, the highest temperature in Mombasa is 33 degrees Celsius, and the lowest is 22 degrees Celsius.

Working at the port during the day is somewhat stuffy, but still bearable.

Colonial soldiers are directing Black slaves to push wheelbarrows back and forth in the port area to transport sand and stones, and the clearing of the port area is entirely completed by Black slaves.

These Black slaves are all assets of the Zanzibar Sultanate and have been temporarily requisitioned by the East African colony due to the incomplete work of colonial transfer.

Aside from the soldiers supervising the port renovation and the Black slaves, most of the remaining workers are Chinese and Austrian immigrants.

To renovate and repair Mombasa, this important port city, the Mombasa colonial government of East Africa has taken out their treasured cement.

The current cement of the colony is still shipped from Europe, so the quantity is limited.

Mitrovic, an Austrian immigrant, is directing his workers to construct on the dock.

Mitrovic is a Slav farmer from the southern part of Austria. It’s fortunate that he attended school for two years and has participated in constructing the church in his hometown, so he was appointed by the Mombasa colonial government as a foreman to direct the workers’ construction.

In this era, farmers themselves are skilled in some crafts, and minor repairs are naturally no problem, as the one or two dilapidated houses at home can often be passed down for four or five generations.

Therefore, something new like cement, which Chinese workers have never encountered before, can be quickly mastered as long as Austrian immigrants take the lead to demonstrate. It’s just a matter of switching from mixing mud to mixing cement.

A few workers use iron rods to pry off the loose and decayed bricks and stones, and even some rammed earth foundations.

The staff nearby shovel the chipped bricks and stones into the wheelbarrow compartment, and once the cart is full, they push it to the riverside and dump it onto a temporary pile, as these waste materials might be used later to pave roads.

”Here, it needs to be built up to half a meter,” Mitrovic said to the worker.

He held a measuring tape, placing the edge outward, using his hand to cut off vertically at the half-meter mark, indicating to the Chinese workers to take note.

”Like this, understand?” Mitrovic said.

This is the downside of language barriers; a lot of body language is needed for communication between both sides, although both parties know some German, but not much.

Many Austrian immigrants themselves know German, but more of them only know local dialects within Austria, and might only know a few words of German, possibly learned or heard from the ruling nobles.

And Chinese immigrants have also received some German education, mostly from temporary classes opened by the colony, teaching some simple words and phrases.

However, there was not enough time and no environment to apply the German language, as early immigrants were basically all Chinese, aside from the German mercenaries, who had no use for German, with even students from Heixinggen Military Academy handling translation work.

Nevertheless, recruiting workers was not done blindly by the East African colony; they fully utilized this point, only allowing old immigrants with some knowledge of German to qualify as workers in the colony.

Therefore, Austrian immigrants and Chinese immigrants working in Mombasa all know some German, but not much.

In the colony, the number of workers is quite small, but from the moment they step away from the fields, the status of Chinese immigrants has risen a step.

Currently, East African colonial soldiers rank above workers, and workers rank above farmers. And knowing German (at least a little) is required to become a worker or soldier, otherwise, one must honestly till the fields.

Chinese workers are at least on the same level as Austrian immigrants who remain in agriculture, which is reflected in wages.

Austrian immigrants are no fools. It’s not easy to satisfy them with just a full meal without any benefits.

They might not have the ability to resist the colony, but they have the courage to strive for their legal rights from the colony.

After all, when they boarded the ship heading for the East African colony, they still had a slight hope for a better life in their hearts.

The East African colonial government indeed did not disappoint the Austrian immigrants. Although they earn little money, it’s stable, and since there are virtually no entertainment venues in East Africa, there’s nowhere to spend the money, so over time, the savings become considerable.

Of course, the colonial government has now begun using an accounting system, as they cannot print money, so the currency immigrants hold is ”virtual.”

When needed, they can withdraw from the Heixinggen Bank via their accounts, although this method has mostly been used by German mercenaries.

German mercenaries come to East Africa purely to make money and, strictly speaking, are not immigrants. Their families are in Europe, and they can maintain contact with their families there, albeit at the expense of time. If their families need money, they can prepay their wages through Heixinggen Bank to send to their families.

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Near dusk, more than half of the refurbishment of the Port of Mombasa was completed.

In Africa, there is ultimately nothing of substance to export, so the freight volume isn’t large, making the Port of Mombasa not particularly prominent internationally in terms of size.

At most, it holds some significance on Africa’s mere three acres of land, which is also a reason the colony’s repair work progresses quickly.

Of course, the use of slaves also significantly helped; currently, Mombasa is still in the transition phase, local residents of the Zanzibar Sultanate haven’t completely withdrawn, and so slaves plundered from Uganda and other locations are temporarily requisitioned by the colonial government.

Once there’s space on the ships, the East African colonial government will package these Black slaves along with residents of the Zanzibar Sultanate and send them to the island of Zanzibar.

Due to the senility of Sultan Magid in his later years, the Port of Mombasa fell into disrepair, with silt sedimentation greatly reducing its transport capacity.

Currently, agriculture is the most important industry in the East African colony, and food as a bulk commodity requires a large transport volume.

Not to mention there are immigrants, machinery, and merchant ships from various countries docking, all requiring the East African colony to prepare more excellent ports.

Africa itself lacks excellent ports, so it’s crucial to utilize existing ones.

Currently, the port of Bajamojo is also under construction, and by then, the East African colony will simultaneously have four excellent ports: Dar es Salaam, Bajamojo, Tanga, and Mombasa, significantly solving the transportation capacity issue.

The renovated Mombasa, with port roads expanded by twice their width, has thick layers of crushed stones and building debris laid down to reinforce them.

The dock is reinforced and widened, and unreasonable structures removed; safety hazards are gradually investigated, and old facilities replaced.

Now, Mombasa’s cargo capacity will be about 1.5 times that of the pre-renovation state, serving as the most northerly important port of the East African colony.

Mombasa will replace the ports of Dar es Salaam and Tanga, undertaking the reception of commercial ships from Europe and Asia after the opening of the Suez Canal, becoming the most important and cargo-heavy port in the future of East Africa.