African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1354: Chapter 358: Railway Power (Part 2)

Brutally speaking, what supported the construction of the developed railway network in East Africa wasn’t the tracks, the sleepers, and the gravel, but the blood and flesh of Black people and their dense white bones.

From the grasslands of East Africa, to the deserts, and then to the rainforests, beneath almost every section of railway lies countless souls of deceased Black slaves.

The railway, mining, and river digging in the 19th century were all high-risk professions, with an average life expectancy generally below forty years. Even the world’s most developed industrial countries at the time couldn’t change this situation; strikes and resistance movements among railway workers in various countries were frequent and unstoppable.

As for the Black slaves serving as the main labor force for East African railways, their living conditions were only more miserable. Although other Western capitalist countries also maximally exploited railway labor, they still offered a meager salary. East African Black slaves provided labor entirely for free, which resulted in a much lower average life expectancy for East African Black slave railway workers, generally not exceeding twenty-five years.

Of course, the East African Government certainly wouldn’t admit to these historical processes. In fact, since the ”Three-Five Plan” began, the East African Government has already begun efforts to eradicate a series of evidence concerning the oppression and exploitation of Black slaves in East Africa.

From the East Africa Central Government to lower-level government agencies, and even among the people, a large number of archives, materials, documents, and evidence from the Era of slave economy have been concentrated and burned. Nowadays, one cannot find any paper record within the East African Government concerning the existence of Black slaves in East Africa.

Nevertheless, the keyword here is Black slaves; the East African Government has retained and falsified a batch of archives regarding the quantity of Black people in East Africa and their eventual destinations.

After all, however the East African Government revises history, it cannot change East Africa’s colonial history. The world has memory, and before the establishment of East Africa as a country, millions of Black people once lived on what is now East African soil.

In East African official documents, it is indeed stated that a large number of Black people once lived in East Africa, but these Black people had already left East Africa, heading to the United States, Ottoman, West Africa, Brazil, and other countries and regions, without terms like ”exploitation, oppression, slaughter, repression.”

Adding to this, East Africa did engage in slave trade dealings and also drove away many Black regimes and populations to places like West Africa, such as the Buganda, Burundi, Swaziland, among others. This semi-true information can greatly dilute and beautify the past colonial history of East Africa.

Returning to the railway issue, the railway construction during the Era of planned economy in East Africa was achieved through the unlimited consumption of Black people’s labor, leading to splendid accomplishments.

This also helped East Africa through various social problems in the early stages of industrialization. Looking globally, whether in England, France, Germany, the United States, or other industrial countries, the most brutal stages had to be experienced during initial industrialization, and this brutality mainly targeted the lower-class workers and peasant strata.

The primitive accumulation of capital is the bloodiest, whether in today’s imperialist countries or future Soviet economic model countries, none can avoid this point; development inevitably requires sacrifices.

Events like the ”sheep-eat-people” enclosures in the United Kingdom, the Great Irish Famine, American Black slaves, last century’s widespread famines and wars in Germany, and frequent social movements in France are not even considering imperialist colonial plunder shifting some social issues.

In the former Soviet Union, countless people starved in Ukraine for industrial development, even the Far East Empire once underwent several years of the most difficult economic period.

It could be said, to complete the primitive accumulation of capital, one must pay the price, concentrating others’ wealth and labor force value can drive qualitative leaps in productivity; if this step can’t be crossed, then the next step in development can’t be discussed.

So, in becoming an industrial nation, East Africa inevitably required sacrifices from some people, mostly Black people, but also local citizens of East Africa or nations less developed than East Africa.

Thus, the ”harmless to humans and animals” Black people naturally became the ideal sacrifice target for the East Africa Government. The local citizens are the foundation of East African rule, and in less developed nations and regions, East Africa’s ability to reap was limited, especially since early East Africa didn’t have the vast and wealthy colonies like England and France in Europe.

However, by now East Africa’s primitive accumulation is long completed, which is why East Africa ”kills the donkey after the grinding is done,” clearing out the remaining last batch of Black slaves nationwide.

Nowadays, East Africa possesses more advanced and efficient large engineering machinery to aid in East African railway engineering construction, especially during the railway electrification transformation process, with modern technological tools such as automobiles, cranes, excavators widely applied.

Moreover, due to the significant improvement in transportation and infrastructure in East Africa from last century to the first decade of this century, the workers’ living conditions have also significantly improved. Previously, East African railway construction was basically withstanding and battling the elements, whereas now it simply requires following the transportation routes, continuously expanding, and extending, reducing difficulty and engineering quantity considerably.

Minister of Railways Wells stated, ”Empire railway construction has surpassed the phase of blind expansion and pursuit of quantity, shifting towards high-quality development. The degree of mechanization has significantly increased, workers’ educational level and safety awareness have been greatly improved, and their treatment and salaries have seen a minor rise.”

East African workers are indeed able to endure hardships, but the social security system and welfare treatment for East African citizens are relatively well-established globally, especially in East Africa’s state-owned enterprises.

Although the completely planned economic Era in East Africa has passed, leftover influences from the completely planned economic Era have not dissipated.

During the completely planned economic Era, due to the state-owned enterprise system, the East African Government could supervise the execution of the ”Labor Law,” which allowed East African citizens, especially the original working class, to develop awareness related to this. This awareness did not disappear with the end of the planned economic Era.