African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1241: Chapter 250: Inland Water Transport—Bell Port

During the immigration project in the northeast direction of the Great Lakes Region, the cities along the lake, especially the port cities, were not idle.

Let’s shift our focus to Kampala and Entebbe in April 1916.

Kampala is now the location of the provincial government of the East African Great Lake Province, while Entebbe was the former capital of the Buganda Kingdom, now the second largest city in East African Great Lake Province, just over twenty kilometers from Kampala.

As for the third largest city in the Great Lake Province, it is not on the shores of the Great Lake, but on the shores of Albert Lake from the previous era. In the Great Lake Province, aside from the most famous Lake Victoria, Albert Lake, Lake Kyoga, and Wamala Lake, based on their water area, they are among the world’s largest lakes.

However, among the many outstanding giant lakes in East Africa, they seem to be just average.

Therefore, the Great Lake Province, with the former Ugandan territory as its core, is undoubtedly considered East Africa’s ”land of fish and rice,” with lakes, rivers, plains, hills, and mountains interacting, creating the best agricultural land during farming eras.

And the cities of Kampala and Entebbe are located on this fertile and prosperous land.

Take Kampala City, for example. Uganda was called the ”Pearl of the East African Plateau” by the British, and Kampala was dubbed the ”Pearl of the Pearls.”

Although the British spoke of it so much that the value of the pearl was severely depreciated, the double certification still proves the British placed great hopes on this land in Uganda.

Delving into its historical origins, Kampala also served as the capital of the Buganda Kingdom, given its proximity to Entebbe City.

Kampala City, Bell Port.

Engineer Rob Ketz from the East African Inland Port Research Institute was directing workers in the renovation of Bell Port.

This middle-aged man with over twenty years of experience in port construction and renovation in East Africa held the blueprint and guided each site leader.

”The complete renovation of Bell Port must be finished by July next year; clear the silt from the original port area perimeter before Xingguo Reservoir starts to store water.”

”Therefore, everyone must take action actively. This is a major project. Coordination between excavators and soil trucks must be well managed to first clear out the silt and dry soil from the lake bottom and shore.”

Bell Port is the name of Kampala City’s port, located only about ten kilometers from the city center.

And the construction of Xingguo Reservoir will inevitably cause the original lake water level to rise, affecting many Great Lakes ports in East Africa, possibly even submerging some small fishing ports in the northeast.

Thus, the renovation of Bell Port is partly out of necessity for Kampala City’s growth in cargo logistics, and others to adapt to changes in water levels post-Xingguo Reservoir construction.

Rob Ketz continued: ”Summing up the preliminary work, it’s deepening, widening, enlarging and crafting the preliminary form of future Bell Port, building it into a fine deep-water port along the lakeshore.”

”Moreover, the port will add container cranes and other advanced equipment to transform the port into a containerized logistics system, greatly increasing the logistics efficiency of Bell Port.”

”Enhancing Kampala’s core transportation hub position in the Great Lakes Region; the last construction of Bell Port was in 1898, but now Bell Port can no longer meet Kampala’s logistics and shipping needs.”

”Back in the last century, we couldn’t have imagined East Africa’s economic growth rate today, nor the occurrence of such a container revolution in logistics systems.”

”Most domestic ports are in a condition requiring renovation to adapt to changes in technology and social production in the new era.”

”According to the provincial government’s instructions, this expansion of Bell Port must be executed to the highest standards, ensuring normal port operations in the future and for thirty years to come.”

This reveals the East African government’s ambitious plans; the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) has always been the most developed area for water transportation in East Africa, and the lakeside economic belt clearly focuses on the Great Lake, closely connecting cities along the shore through water transport.

Port construction is certainly a crucial part of this, taking advantage of Xingguo Reservoir’s construction opportunity, and with the rising lake water level, the entire Great Lake water level will rise by two to three meters, enhancing the Great Lakes Region’s shipping conditions.

Of course, the disadvantage of the Great Lakes Region is also apparent, with no direct sea outlet, requiring railway transport to Mombasa City for sea access.

This is evidently also in the East African government’s calculations, with the National Canal Plan connecting the water networks of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) and Soron Lake (Tanganyika Lake), and through Soron Lake’s artificial channels heading east, enabling direct access to East Africa’s eastern coast.

Although it takes a big detour, it means ships departing from the Great Lake can reach the Indian Ocean without obstruction.

In fact, leveraging the National Canal System, future ships from the Great Lakes Region can also reach the Atlantic Ocean.

Undoubtedly, the East African National Canal Plan is quite a mad venture, and completing this project came at the cost of post-1915, leaving only over 800,000 black slaves in East Africa, with millions perishing for the canal plan, including the early East African Grand Canal Plan and national water projects, possibly close to five million Black people sacrificed for East Africa’s water construction.

In fact, the official statistics by East Africa number around 2.6 million, but to achieve progress and account for execution differences, the figures should far exceed East Africa’s official statistics.

From this perspective, Ernst’s ”accomplishments” cannot merely be judged by Emperor Yang of Sui’s era; they have ”surpassed the master,” comparable only to Leopold II in the previous era, and the Americans, Portuguese, French, Spaniards, British...

It seems many European countries and major powers are not entirely innocent.

In this timeline, Leopold II doesn’t have operational space, but the natives who died at his hands likely number in the millions. As for Americans, Ernst still falls a bit short, given the near absence of Native Americans within the US, and naturally, the other powers need no further elaboration, without tens of thousands of lives on their hands, it was impossible to become an industrial power in the 19th century.

Moreover, Ernst’s nature differs somewhat from theirs, as Leopold II, the Americans, and other powers engaged in true ”massacres,” whereas East Africa’s was ”merely” normal engineering loss.

Even without black slaves executing these projects, significant losses of East African nationals would occur; this is the cost of progress, so ”normal” loss is fully acceptable, though in East Africa some stood in place of East African nationals to bear these costs.

Yet now, East Africa is ”reaping what it sowed,” post-utilization of black slaves, with current East African projects solely carried out by nationals.

However, differences remain huge, with treatment requiring no further mention; Rob Ketz’s engineering team is well-equipped with excavators, bulldozers, cranes, and transport vehicles, leaving nothing lacking.

These heavy engineering devices emerging in recent years are East Africa’s real confidence backing the eradication of black slaves during the ”Forty-Five” period.

With the development of automotive and mechanical industries, alongside Ernst’s guidance on grand directions, and East African researchers’ relentless endeavors, many previous era engineering devices naturally appeared in the world earlier.

Take excavators, as an example: As early as the late last century, Ernst had already started laying out hydraulic excavator research work, through over nearly two decades’ effort, now realizing hydraulic excavator mass production and practical application.

Even the appearance of this small construction machinery represents a full technological revolution for engineering construction, at least for Ernst himself, its importance isn’t any less than the revolution brought by internal combustion engines or electricity technology.