African Entrepreneurship Record

The solitary smoke of the vast desert stands straight, the long river sets the sun round, used to describe the Namib Desert in Southwest Africa is also not out of place. With the completion of other main railways, East Africa has finally begun the construction of the railway to Whale Bay Port.

Although it is close to the sea, the Namib Desert does not enjoy the nourishment of the Atlantic’s rainwater. Like Chile and Peru, the vegetation relies on fog to obtain the main water source.

”Laidler, am I seeing things, are those elephants?” The railway worker Vasily said, dumbfounded, as he looked at a group of elephants passing by on the adjacent highway.

Whale Bay Port has a highway directly to Manggu City, and this highway is naturally also built in the desert heartland. Similarly, the Whale Bay Port railway is constructed along the highway, which is also in the desert. So Vasily almost thought he was seeing an illusion.

”Don’t make a fuss, those are desert elephants, different from the savannah elephants we usually see. I remember there is also a forest elephant in the Congo Basin, so you still lack knowledge,” Laidler introduced to Vasily, quite pleased with himself.

”This place is full of sand, what do they eat to maintain such a large size?” Vasily was somewhat incredulous, having seen many savannah elephants, which never lack food!

”Look carefully, aren’t these elephants smaller than the ones we usually see? Desert elephants primarily rely on the desert shrubs. Though the Namib Desert is arid, it is foggy, with many vegetations developing a completely different survival method from other desert plants in the world.”

”Anyway, once you stay in the Namib Desert long enough, you’ll understand. I also heard from some elders, and later, while constructing the Whale Bay Port road, I experienced it more intuitively. Not just elephants, the Namib Desert also has lions, zebras, and other animals you have seen in the savannah, you’ll get used to it.”

Of course, Laidler spoke casually, but what he did next gave Vasily quite a fright.

Laidler took out a pistol, skillfully loaded the bullet, and fired a shot in the direction of the elephant herd.

”Bang...”

Of course, Laidler just fired a shot into the air above the elephant herd, scaring them away.

”Why did you suddenly fire, scared me!” Vasily said, somewhat resentful.

”It’s for safety, elephants can be dangerous animals. If there weren’t so many of them, and if we had enough people, just firing a warning shot wouldn’t suffice.”

The gunshots attracted the attention of the road guards behind, who asked Laidler what was happening.

”It’s nothing, Hope, just a herd of desert elephants ahead. I fired a shot to scare them away.”

”Next time, don’t act so rashly in such situations. Even though we have weapons, let us handle such dangerous matters,” Hope reminded nonchalantly, ”Look, the Black people nearby are too scared to work.”

As East African railway workers, they were actually paired with Black labor as substitutes, only handling technically difficult work themselves.

”Don’t worry, Hope, these Black people are just looking to slack off. After all, they aren’t the wildlife, they don’t understand what a gun is for.”

”Very well, as long as you can complete the task within the deadline, handle it as you see fit. After all, if the Blacks riot, that would be quite a headache. Don’t think having weapons in hand means it’s foolproof. There were people who thought so before, but ended up being backfired.”

What Hope said was indeed true. Now East African Blacks are no longer the ”ignorant” natives. Under East African management, they have come into contact with many new things.

For example, what was once considered a ”demon” - the gun, has returned to its correct recognition: it’s a weapon used by East Africans, capable of turning people into ”compatriots” with the pull of a trigger.

It must be said that Black natives, too, opened their eyes to the world as East Africa developed, making East Africans ”fall from the altar” in the eyes of the natives.

It turns out they are not invincible, just having better weapons allows them to defeat us. With this understanding, naturally, some Black people take desperate risks.

Of course, this also solidified the East African government’s resolve, to never allow these ”troubles” to remain in East Africa, and let them go to other ”civilized worlds” instead.

”Hope, we have worked together for a long time, you know I’ve been in Southwest Africa before, I naturally understand the logic, and I certainly won’t cause trouble,” Laidler assured Hope.

Then he asked Hope: ”Do you have any news on the railway construction behind? I wonder if they have finished. I just want to quickly complete this section in the Namib Desert, it’s too painful to stay here.”

What Laidler referred to was naturally the plateau section of the Whale Bay Port railway. The Whale Bay Port railway is divided into two parts: one along the coast of the Namib Desert, and the other on the Homasi Plateau.

The railway construction on the Homasi Plateau affects the progress of the Namib Desert section. After all, only when the Homasi Plateau segment is completed can construction materials be transported more quickly from the inland.

”You don’t have to worry about this. Currently, less than fifty kilometers are left for the railway to connect with the Namib Desert. Now Windhoek has been designated as the new capital of Southwest Africa, so the construction is progressing quickly.”

Previously, the political center of Southwest Africa was naturally Whale Bay Port, while the military stronghold was Swakopmund to the north of Whale Bay Port. However, with East Africa’s construction of Windhoek, it has become a ”nouveau riche” city in Southwest Africa, leveraging its superior geographic and climatic conditions.

Windhoek was the capital of Namibia in a previous life. Historically, Germans established a city there in 1890, and it became the capital of then German Southwest Africa in 1892, although initially, the German colonial capital was in Swakopmund.

Now, East Africa has established Windhoek as the capital of Southwest Africa, much like the Germans did in the past. It is centrally located in Southwest Africa and has some agricultural conditions, much better than Swakopmund and Whale Bay Port, which rely solely on East African subsidies.

Previously, Whale Bay Port and Swakopmund were evidently more important, being East Africa’s only two sizable ports on the West Coast. But with East Africa occupying Angola, having better choices like Luanda and Cabinda on the West Coast, the status of both places naturally declined.

Of course, the significance of both places mainly impacts economic value, while strategically they remain crucial, being crucial to East Africa’s main maritime strategic deployment in the Southwest region - one of the areas the East African Navy focuses on.

In the future, with the development of mineral resources in Southwest Africa, Whale Bay Port and other places might turn the tide, but currently, Southwest Africa is essentially a ”bottomless pit” in the East African countries’ region.

Similar to the Whale Bay Port railway, aside from Whale Bay Port and Windhoek, only regions outside Southwest Africa have a relatively developed economy.

For years to come, Whale Bay Port railway operations are destined to run at a loss, as currently, Whale Bay Port only has a bit of fishery output, and Windhoek has just begun, with the entire Southwest Africa sparsely populated.

So for a long time, the Whale Bay Port railway is bound to lose money. If it weren’t for a country like East Africa, it would be challenging to have any power build a railway in Southwest Africa, and such a high-level main railway at that, for East African government never considers only from an economic perspective.

This is somewhat akin to Tsarist Russia’s Siberian railway, which is still under construction and far from complete.

In contrast, East Africa’s Whale Bay Port railway is forty percent complete, showing the gap between the two countries. Although the Whale Bay Port railway is not nearly as long as the Siberian railway, the difficulty is comparable, though Tsarist Russia’s grey cattle probably can’t stand Siberia’s dreadful weather, while East Africa’s Black slaves can adapt to the Namib Desert region.