African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 437: Chapter 114: Fleeing

The final deal was reached, with both parties agreeing to exchange goods and payment at the same time. This way, once the ships from East Africa docked, the Far East authorities would inspect the goods at Jiaozhou Bay and then make the payment.

The Dreyse Rifle is a weapon whose positioning is quite difficult to grasp. It was indeed the first military breech-loading rifle to be widely adopted, but as times change, countries are either developing or already equipping more advanced rifles.

The market for the Dreyse Rifle is nothing but backward regions, and Africa naturally falls into this category. However, Ernst would not sell his own rope in Africa, leaving only the Far East and South America as independent markets.

In the Far East, only the Far East Empire meets East Africa’s requirements. Other regions are either colonies of other countries or cannot afford such expenses, which is the helplessness of small countries. Of course, Japan is an exception. If it’s just an arms business, Ernst might consider getting involved, but not in the military industry.

...

The entirety of Black Africa was shrouded in darkness, with only the cities of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa scathed by faint light spots, revealing any light at all.

The same was true for Bulawayo, deep within the heart of the East African Kingdom. Outside the indigenous village of Bakola near Bulawayo’s wilderness, hundreds of bright eyes looked around.

”Clara, is everyone gathered?”

”Chief, I’ve notified every household, everyone is here!”

”Did you alert the Germans?”

”Don’t worry, the Germans never leave the castle at night. They only patrol the surroundings during the day, and every evening they retreat into the castle on time.”

”That’s good. By calling everyone out today, everyone should know the reason! Just yesterday, the Germans came for more people again.”

”Damn those Germans! According to past schedules, they shouldn’t have come until later. It’s not even time, and they come to capture people again. We’ve lost too many people since last year: Buck, Momo You Si, Kaelrug...” Clara might not know math, but she remembers every name in the village clearly.

By rights, East Africa ought to draft laborers at the end of the month, but now it needs more labor, so the directive was issued in advance. Thus, the indigenous people of Zimbabwe erupted.

However, the Shona Tribe, learning from the experience with the Ndebele, didn’t believe they could handle East Africa. Furthermore, the large clans of the Shona were divided by East Africa into smaller regions, preventing them from networking.

As a result, small villages like Bakola could only rely on self-preservation, unable to fight back, they had to choose to flee.

”Chief, which direction should we flee?”

”The Germans have power in the north and south, so we can only run west!”

Lacking detailed logical analysis, the indigenous people understood that the Germans came south from the north, so both north and south had people from the East African Kingdom.

As for why not east, it’s because Germans often come to Bulawayo for supplies, as it was the former capital of the Matebel Kingdom, and East Africa continued to use it as a logistics hub within Zimbabwe.

”But the west, the environment there is harsh. Warriors from the tribe have gone west to pursue prey and say it is even drier than Bakola.”

”Dryness is a good thing. It means there aren’t many Germans there, so we should go the opposite route.”

So, with the direction decided, the Bakola villagers fled overnight. The initial part of their journey was quite smooth, as they predicted, East Africa couldn’t staff many people in the Kalahari Basin.

While East African Kingdom was building railways and drafting labor heavily, Zimbabwe, suffering the most exploitation, couldn’t hold up. East Africa was wringing every last bit out of this sheep.

Originally with a population of less than a million (3.69 million in 1960), Zimbabwe had about a hundred thousand people drafted just for one project, an unbearable burden.

Previously, East Africa monthly drafted people from Zimbabwe to serve labor elsewhere, called ”blood tax,” where East Africa wouldn’t refund, exporting elsewhere, this one-way trade scared the Shona Tribe, leading to various rumors within.

This ”blood tax” directly terrified the Shona, sparking a mass exodus as they planned to flee to regions devoid of Europeans.

Beginning in March, over a hundred ”desertions” of all scales by the Shona occurred, with nearly ninety percent participating.

Like a torrent, small village groups merged into thousands, crashing through the grasslands, while animal herds provided sustenance on their fleeing path.

The African savannah witnessed a spectacular scene as animal and indigenous groups were both in flight. At their peak, over 300,000 scattered in all directions. By the time East Africa responded, it was too late to stop them, as Zimbabwe was critically understaffed.

So, Zimbabwe resembled a leaking pocket, with masses escaping towards Mozambique and nearby tribal kingdoms, at least a hundred thousand.

East Africa intercepted about the same number for the railroad project, but those who escaped fled to either Mozambique, the Kalahari Basin, or other East African areas. Only a few navigated along the Okavango River into Namibia and Angola.

In Zimbabwe, the ”desertion” wasn’t solely due to ”blood tax.” East Africa’s demanding behavior forced agriculture on hunting and herding Shona people, where they lacked expertise, leading to abysmally low yield. Agriculture being tedious contrasted with the risk yet freedom of hunting.

This exodus forced the East African Kingdom to reconsider massive relocations of Zimbabwe’s indigenous to prevent closeness to Mozambique.

It’s unbelievable to say East Africa had no designs on Mozambique, only they weren’t yet ready for annexation.

Mozambique, with about two million indigenous people (including other tribal kingdoms), if East Africa were to annex them in the future, would mean clearing locals.

Zimbabwe masses flowing into Mozambique indicated loss of control, inflating future clearance costs if tribes genuinely fled into West Angola. East Africa wouldn’t mind, but Mozambique within reach is a ripe opportunity East Africa couldn’t push overboard.

And as for Angola, East Africa isn’t worried. Should tribes enter, they might move further west, unlike Mozambique surrounded on three sides; East Africa still mainly expels, not drown them.