African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 107: Chapter 102 ”The Great Killing Weapon

Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by malaria parasites infecting the human body and is the biggest challenge faced by the colonial development in East Africa.

The daytime temperatures in the East African colonies remain around twenty degrees year-round, and in coastal areas, they often stay above thirty degrees.

This environment is very suitable for the survival of mosquitoes, and malaria is transmitted to humans through the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes.

Therefore, in areas where mosquitoes are more rampant, the spread of malaria is also wider, especially in this era, when people did not know that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes.

Unable to block the transmission of malaria from the root, malaria is widespread from tropical to subtropical regions.

In the early days of East African colonial development, immigrants really suffered, even under the strong mandates of the East African government, which enforced large-scale transformations of sanitation and living environments.

It had no significant effect because East Africa was initially a vast wasteland with abundant vegetation, especially in the rainy season when the weather was wet and hot, and mosquitoes bred rapidly.

When immigrants first arrived, their numbers were small, and the speed of transforming living conditions was naturally slow, leading many to fall prey to malaria and other tropical diseases.

Fortunately, those who survived in the Far East and made the long ocean journey had seen all sorts of hardships.

Much like the Black Slaves who were sent to America through the slave trade, these were the robust individuals who survived natural and man-made selection.

The Far East immigrants who managed to live and arrive in East Africa were essentially the same, although their transport conditions were significantly better than those of the Black Slaves to ensure a higher survival rate for immigrants.

Subsequently, as the number of immigrants gradually increased, and with the development of East African cities and villages, the living conditions in East Africa also slowly improved.

Under Ernst’s command, a large-scale mosquito eradication campaign was launched in East Africa, a campaign that had been ongoing since the inception of the East African colonies.

Plants around settlement areas were burned, water puddles were filled to reduce mosquito habitats, and biological control was implemented in colonial water bodies with large-scale breeding of fish and frogs to reduce mosquito larvae.

As the colonial development began to take shape, the quality of living in the colonies improved significantly; especially diseases like malaria and dengue fever, transmitted by mosquitoes, greatly decreased due to the mosquito eradication efforts.

The colonies also enforced strict hygiene rules on immigrants, managed water sources more rigorously, prohibited water pollution, and either avoided drinking raw water or conducted simple filtration and disinfection of certain water bodies.

Waste was also centrally processed with new public latrines built in each village to meet the needs of immigrants.

There was even tighter control over wild animals that could transmit diseases. In the early days, hunting was allowed to supplement food due to food shortages, but this behavior was forbidden once colonial food production began.

Ernst always believed that many diseases in Africa from the previous life were the result of Africans’ own actions, such as AIDS being caused by Africans eating local primates.

Regardless of whether this view is correct, all primates in East Africa (of course not including humans, and natives were another matter) were unfortunate to be caught within the range of immigrant activities. Baboons, monkeys, and apes were all exterminated physically by firearms and burned to ashes, which were then buried (remote mountainous areas, deep forests, and savannahs were not included in this, to be preserved for future ecological reserves).

This was done to prevent some people from eating them. After all, immigrants had experienced hunger, even eating dirt and tree bark, and feared someone might secretly add to their meals.

With such strict precautions, the living conditions in East African colonies naturally improved greatly, and the sanitary conditions were better than any location of the same era, including Europe.

When immigrants from Austria-Hungary and Paraguay arrived later, East Africa had already taken shape, and they were distributed into the cities and villages developed by Chinese immigrants to dilute the Chinese population and prevent the formation of future interest groups (like ethnic groups).

Moreover, with more and more Chinese marrying white women (from Armenia, Paraguay, etc.), the East African government gradually integrated all ethnicities, and as long as the cultural traits of immigrants from countries other than German culture were removed in the future, population integration would be completed.

Although the living conditions in the current East African colonies have greatly improved, with tropical diseases kept at very low levels for the same latitude.

It is still impossible to completely eradicate mosquitoes, and since mosquitoes are the most important disease carriers, strengthening hygiene activities must continue alongside scientific mosquito repellent and eradication measures.

As said before, the people of today’s era had no understanding of mosquitoes as disease vectors.

It was not until the late 19th century that European scientists discovered mosquitoes as the source of transmission for malaria and other tropical diseases, leading to research on mosquitoes.

So now, only Ernst and the people of the East African colonies believed that mosquitoes were the transmitters of diseases like malaria.

It’s not that Ernst was selfish and didn’t announce it to the world, but the issue was that he only knew it from a previous life and was not a researcher or authority in this field, likely leading to ridicule if spoken out.

East Africa was different, with a high population of illiterates where public opinion was in Ernst’s hands, and it was easy to fabricate non-existent experts and let his subordinates execute his directives.

Initially, people might have been unwilling since everything was enforced, but gradually, as sanitation and environment improved, diseases like malaria indeed decreased, making immigrants happy to change (after all, no one wants to die).

Early usage of Chinese immigrants proved beneficial, with strong obedience and weak resistance, as they were culturally influenced by the Far East government, so even if there was resentment, they kept it suppressed. This made the enforced health improvement campaign in East African colonies run smoothly.

By the time immigrants from other countries arrived, the model was mature and had become commonplace and routine in East African colonies. Since new immigrants started with fewer people, they had to follow suit, making sanitation a strict rule in the East African colonies that everyone adhered to.

Shortly, immigrants from the German region were set to arrive in East Africa, and good news came from the Heixinggen consortium.

With Ernst’s funding and collaboration with German universities, pyrethroid was extracted.

As long as the subsequent steps were followed according to previous life’s mosquito coils, by patterning after it and hiring professionals to design and produce mosquito coil machines, mass production of this ”killer weapon” for mosquitoes in tropical areas could begin.

This would undoubtedly further enhance the living conditions in East African colonies and further reduce the spread of diseases like malaria.

Moreover, mosquito coil production could bring new wealth to the Heixinggen consortium, and since East Africa itself was a production ground for pyrethrum, it could form a perfect industrial loop.