African Entrepreneurship Record

The mobilization of the military cannot do without the assistance of railways. Now, East Africa can also roughly achieve national troop movement with the help of railways. However, the Hessen Railway is still under construction, which has significantly delayed the progress of the southern movement of troops in the northwest. If completed, East Africa would not even need to dispatch troops from the northwest to the south in advance; they could be sent directly to the front via railway during wartime.

Kapirimposhi Town.

”According to the provincial and central government documents, from next month onwards, our Kapirimposhi Town will officially be renamed New Frankfurt City, and its status will be upgraded to a city-level administrative unit. Effective personnel in the city will be promoted according to their annual record,” announced Hans Peter, the town mayor, excitedly to his subordinates as he read the good news.

The reason for Hans Peter’s happiness is that he is also among those being promoted. Ever since the completion of the Central Railway, Hans Peter has been diligently serving as the mayor of Kapirimposhi Town for many years, and finally, his efforts have paid off.

Hans Peter continued, ”I believe everyone understands the significance of the name Frankfurt. The renaming of Kapirimposhi Town to New Frankfurt City fully demonstrates the country’s attention to our city. Frankfurt is one of the most important transportation hubs in Germany and even Europe. In the future, New Frankfurt City will also become the major artery of East African railway transportation.”

Hans Peter was right; the East African government indeed has such plans because Kapirimposhi Town was already the core hub of the Central Railway.

The intersecting main lines of the Central Railway form a cross here, and with the construction of the Hessen Railway, the present Kapirimposhi Town, which will become New Frankfurt City, will be the core point of the two nationwide railway arteries running north-south and east-west in East Africa.

From New Frankfurt City (Kapirimposhi Town) to the east, it goes through Mbeya City and Dodoma City, reaching Dar es Salaam City.

To the west, it reaches Manggu City. Because most of Angola’s land is still under Portuguese control, this railway line currently ends abruptly within the Hohenzollern Province.

According to Ernst’s plan, it is preferred to connect from Manggu City to the northwest, linking the northern seaports of Angola with the East African inland. As for the southern part of Angola controlled by East Africa, it lacks good ports, and southwestern Africa is too impoverished, making it unprofitable, so the western line of the Central Railway remains a semi-finished product.

Heading north from New Frankfurt City (Kapirimposhi Town), it enters the border area between Hohenzollern Province and Swabia Province, which is the Copper Belt of East Africa, connecting successively to Ndola City, Kitwe City, and Lubumbashi City, which is the important railway segment for the current export of East African copper.

The northernmost point of the current northbound line is Lubumbashi City, and the starting point of the Hessen Railway under construction is also Lubumbashi City.

Heading south from New Frankfurt City (Kapirimposhi Town), it reaches Lusaka City, Harare City, Bulawayo City, and Otto City, among other central and southern cities.

Speaking of the geographical location of New Frankfurt City, it does have some connections to the railway structure of Africa in a previous life.

In the past life, Kapirimposhi was an important railway hub in Zambia, the terminus of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway. The eastern section of the Central Railway line basically coincides with the Tanzania-Zambia Railway of the past, thus East Africa rebuilt Kapirimposhi Town at this location.

In fact, before the Tanzania-Zambia Railway existed in the past life, Kapirimposhi was already an important railway stop. During the British colonial period in Zambia, it was a station on the southern railway built by the British.

The southern railway built by the British ran from the Copper Belt Province of Zambia through Kapirimposhi heading south, passing through Zimbabwe and Botswana, all the way to the Cape Town port in South Africa. Later this route was blocked by the southern white nations, leading to the birth of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway.

Hans Peter said, ”Future New Frankfurt City will be one of the key cities in East Africa. Our current goal is to transform this transportation advantage into an economic advantage, driving citywide development to secure a place in the future East African cities.”

The words of Hans Peter were profound because New Frankfurt City, apart from being a railway hub, has no advantages compared to surrounding cities.

The only city somewhat similar to New Frankfurt City is Dodoma City, which prospered because of the railway. However, it has a long history of development, having already been a provincial capital during the colonial times of East Africa, and now it has become the capital of Highland Province.

In comparison, New Frankfurt City lags significantly behind. It has not officially been established and will take another month, whereas the original Kapirimposhi was just a small town that rose because of the Central Railway. Initially, it was a barren land.

Before the Central Railway was built, Dodoma City was always the provincial capital and its economy was only second to Mwanza City in the current Highland Province.

In Hessen Province, the economy of Kapirimposhi Town ranked only seventh, behind the provincial capital Lusaka, two important industrial and mining cities, Empira, Kitwe, and four other cities either earlier developed or mining towns.

The traffic advantage of Kapirimposhi Town had not been utilized because the development was rather late, there were no roads connecting other regions, and the jurisdiction was small with no economic hinterland, so Hans Peter had no corresponding power to develop it.

Once New Frankfurt City is established next month, a large jurisdiction will be incorporated, and Hans Peter, together with the first leadership of New Frankfurt City, can begin to formulate New Frankfurt City’s economic development strategy.

New Frankfurt City does not have many mineral resources, so the option of mining can be discarded. However, due to the railway hub, related industries must certainly be developed, such as locomotive repair and manufacturing, railway technical schools, etc.

The surrounding agriculture is relatively developed, primarily focusing on tobacco, grains, livestock, etc. However, previously, Kapirimposhi Town and surrounding rural areas were under Kabwe City’s jurisdiction, so these resources were beyond Kapirimposhi Town’s control.

Once New Frankfurt City is established, definitely many areas will be removed from Kabwe City as part of New Frankfurt City’s jurisdiction. By then, New Frankfurt City can rely on local agriculture to develop related industries.

”After next month, other districts within the city will also need personnel to complete asset and population census work and integrate city resources. We must initially focus on industrial and agricultural development, and on this basis, vigorously develop manufacturing, especially in applying for railway equipment manufacturing, agricultural product processing, and internal transportation construction, connecting the urban area with surrounding roads and stations as much as possible to leverage our province’s advantages.”

Hans Peter added, ”Because our city has no resource advantages, or rather many things other cities also have, we must seize this opportunity as a railway hub and build New Frankfurt City into a large city akin to Frankfurt in Europe.”

”The premise is the city’s economic development. First, we need to increase the freight volume as much as possible, which requires agriculture as a foundation and is the industry that can achieve results most easily. It is best to formulate our own agricultural plan and compete with surrounding areas through differentiated competition.”

Agriculture is the only industry apart from the railway that New Frankfurt City can confirm in the future. These years, Kapirimposhi Town’s task mainly involved supporting work for marshalling stations and ensuring logistics.

Many industrial or agricultural products required by Kapirimposhi Town were mainly purchased from other regions. This is related to the railway, after all, transportation is a double-edged sword.

It can concentrate populations and industries, but populations and industries are finite. Since they are concentrated in one area, other areas will definitely have reductions, which is also the important reason why Hans Peter emphasized developing his own economy.