African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1353 Director Borna

end of 1919.

Cabinda city.

Among the many provinces in East Africa, Congo Province is relatively special. From a climate perspective, because most of it is located in the tropical rainforest area, Congo Province is not suitable for growing food crops.

In ancient times, the Congo Province could not support the emergence of a large-scale civilization and it was difficult to enter an agricultural civilization. Of course, agricultural civilization in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole progressed very slowly, even in areas such as the East African Plateau that were suitable for agricultural development.

This can be seen from the population of relevant countries in the tropical rainforest climate zone of Africa in the past. Even in the 21st century, the population of Congo (Brazzaville) is only more than million, the population of Gabon is only million, the population of Equatorial Guinea is only more than million, and the relatively populous Cameroon is only more than million. The population of Congo (Kinshasa) alone is nearly million.

However, as mentioned before, Congo's population is basically distributed on the edge of the basin, which is the transition zone between tropical rainforest and tropical savannah. Deep in the tropical rainforest area, the population is almost negligible.

Cameroon, with a population of over 20 million and even approaching 30 million, illustrates this point even more clearly.

Cameroon is a country with abundant coastline. According to common sense, the population and economy should be concentrated along the coast, but in the past, Cameroon's population was more concentrated in the plateaus in the north or south.

In the past, its capital, Yaoundé, was built on the hilly area of ​​the southern plateau of Cameroon.

The administrative divisions of Cameroon in the past can also prove this point well. The more tropical rainforest the area is, the larger the area of ​​its province is. This fully demonstrates that it is not easy to develop tropical rainforest areas.

The situation in Congo Province in East Africa is very similar to Cameroon in the previous life. Congo Province is not entirely tropical rainforest area. Its southern part is also in the transition zone between tropical rainforest and tropical savanna due to the influence of the terrain.

The transition zone is also the area where agriculture in Congo Province is relatively developed. Kinshasa, the capital of Congo Province, belongs to this transition zone.

However, more than 20 years ago, this was obviously not the case with Kinshasa. In the past, due to the infrequent human activities, places such as Kinshasa actually belonged to the tropical rainforest area. However, after East Africa controlled the Congo Province, large-scale land reclamation and construction caused a large amount of rainforest to be burned and converted into cities, villages or farmland.

This makes the climate in the entire region begin to move closer to the tropical savanna climate. After all, the ecology here is relatively fragile. The tropical rainforest and tropical savanna maintain a fragile balance and thus compete with each other. The development of East Africa has caused the rainforest to shrink on a large scale, and the savannah-type climate characteristics have begun to prevail.

However, even so, the land in Congo Province is still relatively barren, and the province's main crops are based on a tropical rainforest economy.

The so-called tropical rainforest-type cash crops are actually a classification made against tropical savannah-type cash crops. This is a unique agricultural classification standard in East Africa.

Of course, compared with Kinshasa or southern Congo Province, the tropical rainforest climate of Cabinda, located on the northwest coast, is much more stable. Although the entire city of Cabinda has been developed in East Africa and its urban area and population have continued to expand, it is still a city completely surrounded by rainforest.

As of 1919, the population of Cabinda was as high as , and the registered population was as high as .

As time goes by, more detailed data on the East African population has been released, and the permanent population of each city has also been counted.

By 1919, there were eight cities in East Africa with a population of over one million. Of course, if the population is counted based on registered residence, there are still three cities.

At the same time, there were about ten cities in the United States with a population of over one million, which is higher than that in East Africa. This also reflects the gap between East Africa's urbanization and that of the United States to a certain extent. After all, East Africa's population is nearly 60 million more than that of the United States, which is almost equivalent to the size of Germany.

In 1919, there was only one city on the west coast of East Africa with a population of over one million, and that was Luanda, the capital of West Coast Province. Cabinda's population was second only to Luanda, but far higher than Kinshasa, the capital of Congo Province.

Except for Luanda, the eight cities in East Africa with a population of over one million are basically distributed in the east and central parts. This also shows that at this stage, the economy of the west cannot be compared with that of the central and eastern parts of East Africa.

However, this is also normal. The western part of East Africa, especially the former Angola region, was occupied and incorporated into East Africa too late.

When East Africa took over Angola from Portugal, it had hardly been effectively developed and utilized, and its industry and transportation were basically zero.

Angola is already the best piece of land in western East Africa. To the north is the tropical rainforest area, and to the south is the tropical desert area, neither of which is suitable for urban, agricultural and other developments.

As the second largest city in western East Africa, Cabinda has developed to its current level in less than 30 years, which is enough to astonish the world.

In fact, Cabinda is the most developed city in the East African rainforest, and the second is Kissan, the capital of Hesse Province.

The East African government has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in building this city, which is built on the coast and surrounded by rainforests on three sides.

After all, it is a city developed in the rainforest, so its development cost is naturally higher than that of ordinary cities. However, the results achieved have made East Africa very satisfied.

The Cabinda Customs Entry-Exit Quarantine and Epidemic Prevention Bureau is located in the port area of ​​Cabinda.

Director Borna was standing by the window admiring the scenery of Cabinda.

Borna looked out at the sea view of Cabinda and said leisurely: "Standing here, we can have a good view of the magnificent view of Cabinda Port, but who could have imagined that this prosperous metropolis was just a completely undeveloped Portuguese settlement thirty years ago!"

Deputy Director Lisher sat on the sofa and drank tea and said: "This just shows the great achievements we have made in the economic field in East Africa in the past 30 years. Before the 1970s, we were still a poor colony."

“But now, East Africa has become a world power of significance, and cities like Cabinda have developed by leaps and bounds.”

Borna agreed and said, "That's true. When I was young, the economic environment in East Africa was quite poor. Apart from its larger area, it was not much different from other backward countries. If we go back further, the economy of East Africa was even more backward at that time."

"My father was a graduate of the fourth class of the Hexingen Military Academy. He was less than 19 years old when he followed others to Africa to explore."

"He later married my mother in Plateau Province, which is now part of Lake Solon Province, and I was born the following year."

"However, my father served in the army all year round and had little time to take care of the family. I still remember the small village where my mother and I lived. At that time, it was still a border area."

"But now it has become the hinterland of the empire. It must be said that fate is a trick of fate. No one could have imagined that a colony that started from the coast of East Africa could develop into a major country in the world in less than half a century." "It is because of living in such a big country and watching the achievements of my father that I can sit in this position today."

"As a meritorious service to the empire, my father has accumulated a wealth of connections in the army. Although his military talent is not outstanding, he knows a lot of people. Even many of his classmates have now become high-ranking officials in the empire's army and government, including some at the provincial level or above."

"My life is pretty good now, but I still miss my childhood in the East where I lived with my mother, where I went to school and eventually entered secondary school."

"At that time, the Empire's education was not yet mature, and the number of places available for middle school was very limited. My grades were not outstanding, but I was able to enter middle school thanks to my father's status."

"It's a pity that I didn't know how to cherish it at that time, and ultimately failed to pass the national unified examination. Otherwise, if I had become a college student, I wouldn't be just a small director now."

Borna, director of the Cabinda Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, is a native of the original generation. The so-called native generation refers to the first generation of descendants born to the first generation of immigrants in East Africa.

After all, East Africa itself is a country that developed from a colony. The people in East Africa today are all outsiders if you trace their origins back to ancient times, except for the extremely rare San people in areas such as the Southwest Province (Namibia).

From this point of view, the Bantu people are the black people who were completely cleared out of East Africa. They are also outsiders, but they came less than a thousand years earlier than the current East Africans.

The further south you go, the closer the time gap is. The East Africans arrived less than two hundred years later than the Zulu and other Bantu peoples.

Because according to clues, the Zulu tribe was established around the beginning of the 18th century. They were also a branch of the Bantu blacks who migrated south. In fact, they arrived in South Africa before the colonists from Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries.

From this perspective, although East Africa has seized the land of black people, the land of black people was originally seized from the San people and other ethnic groups.

The San people, or Bushmen as the Dutch call them, have a darker skin color due to the influence of the environment, but their more features are consistent with the yellow race, but genetically they are an ancient and independent race.

There are currently a small number of San people living in East Africa. This is not because East Africans are kinder than the Bantu people and did not kill them all, but because the place where they live is too harsh and sparsely populated.

According to the East African government's inference, there may be many San survivors in the desert areas of the southwest. Because of the harsh environment in the Kalahari Desert and other areas, they have avoided the Bantu people and the great purge of East Africa.

As for why the East African government did not find them, there is really no need. The Kalahari Desert alone covers an area of ​​more than 600,000 square kilometers, and there are many complex terrains such as mountains, plateaus, canyons and gullies in southern East Africa.

It is extremely difficult to explore and find these San tribes. The only feasible way is to use airplanes to conduct continuous aerial reconnaissance of the Kalahari Desert and other areas in the hinterland.

However, aircraft have only been around for a few years, and their endurance and technology are also a big problem. The East African government obviously does not have the time or energy to play this game of hide and seek.

However, there is absolutely no need for the East African government to find these San people who are rarer than some rare wild animals. According to the East African government's forecast, there may be less than 10,000 San people in East Africa. Compared with the population of more than 100 million in East Africa, the San people are not even a drop of water.

This also means that there is no need for East Africa to exterminate the San people. East Africa's solution to these San people is to continue to maintain their status quo.

After all, if there were no external interference in their living environment, their population size and level of civilization would probably not have changed much over tens of thousands of years. In fact, the San people may not have changed much for tens of thousands of years since they separated from other humans.

Otherwise, they would not have been defeated by the Bantu people from West Africa. You have to know that in the eyes of the colonists in East Africa and other countries, the Bantu people were already quite primitive.

Of course, neither Lischer nor Borna cared about the fate of a weak race that might exist in the southwest.

Lischer expressed admiration for Chief Borna’s experience and said, “The chief has a good father!”

Director Borna said without hesitation: "Of course. After all, my father fought for the empire for more than ten years and made great contributions."

Lisher said, "Not only that, even without your father's resources, I think you would have been able to get to where you are today. After all, a high school student more than 30 years ago would have been considered a highly educated intellectual in East Africa, and not bad in the world."

Today, although academic qualifications in East Africa have been devalued to a certain extent, this has only been the case in the past thirty years or so. When Borna was in school, primary education was not even fully universal in East Africa, and secondary education had only just begun to be promoted on a large scale.

Therefore, thirty years ago, Borna's academic qualifications were still very valuable. Of course, now that East Africa has experienced the devaluation of academic qualifications, the so-called high school students can be said to be almost worthless.

In East Africa, it is rare to find people who have not attended secondary school. On the contrary, those who are truly unaffected are college students. Although many universities have been built in East Africa in recent years, they can barely meet the needs of East African society. Even so, if we make a horizontal comparison, East Africa is already a country with a relatively "flooded" number of college students.

Of course, people in the early 20th century did not witness the true prevalence of higher education in countries around the world in the 21st century. Now East African college students can find good jobs, but it is more difficult for many college students in the 21st century to find employment.

Although Ernst knows that more talent is better, he does not intend to follow the higher education admissions model of the 21st century.

After all, this means the issue of cost. Higher education is a very expensive thing. Of course, here we are referring to higher education institutions that are truly capable and serious about running their schools.

In addition to the high investment cost for the government, the popularization of higher education is also very expensive for some ordinary families. In addition to basic expenses such as tuition, time cost is also a problem.

The duration of higher education is basically about four years, and many families not only have to bear four years of expenses, but also have to pay four years of time cost. However, for an ordinary person, these four years are very precious.

After all, the most important stage for life and society is the youth stage, and the higher education stage happens to be in this golden period of life.

However, if the threshold for higher education is lowered, resulting in a group of "surplus" college students, but there are no corresponding job arrangements, causing them to overflow into farmland, construction sites or factories to do the most basic work, this is completely meaningless.

After all, this kind of job, which does not have much value, can be done by East African high school graduates after graduation. In fact, they can perform better because they are in better health and younger.

Therefore, higher education in East Africa has always been maintained within a controllable range, emphasizing the principle of "better to have fewer than enough students". This can be seen from the experience of Director Borna. Even though he has a father with a relatively strong background, he has no way to enter the university campus through the back door.

However, even so, the standards of higher education in East Africa are much lower than those in other countries of the same period, otherwise it would not have become the country with the largest number of college students in the world.

(End of this chapter)