Chapter 1211 Concentration Camp
Deep-water ports can be said to be one of the most lacking strategic resources in East Africa, so it is no wonder that after East Africa acquired the Lome Port, it hurriedly wanted to build it into one of the most important naval bases in East Africa.
As a major country in the world, although East Africa has a long coastline and has territory in four oceans, it still lacks natural harbors.
This makes the construction and renovation of local ports in East Africa more costly than in other countries. Currently, many new ports in East Africa have been obtained through large-scale artificial transformation by the East African government, such as Falta Port, Lamu Port, and Eller Port. etc.
Port construction is also an important infrastructure that tests a country's capabilities. For example, in the previous life, the Far East Empire helped build or transform ports in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
This is the case for the more typical Gwadar Port or Karachi Port. Behind these ports, there is also a whole set of transportation construction involved. If you want to be rich, you must build roads first. If you want to activate the distribution function of these ports, you must have roads, railways, etc. Transportation links the inland economic hinterland.
This is the case with the Port of Falta in East Africa. Without supporting roads, railways and even water and electricity supply, it is impossible for the Port of Falta to be developed and utilized.
Of course, East Africa’s positioning of the Port of Lome is obviously not like this. East Africa does not need the Port of Lome to connect the inland economy of Togoland, but pays more attention to its military and strategic value. The more important thing about this military port is its connection with the East African mainland. , as for what Lome Port lacks, East Africa itself can provide it.
…
After the ship finally docked, Brand began to command the sailors to drive all the imprisoned slaves off the ship in an orderly manner and hand them over to the East African colonial garrison in Togoland.
"Colonel Brand, the mental state of these black people does not look very good!" Ander, the Togolan garrison officer in charge of the reception, said with some disgust.
Of course, Andel's disgust was directed at these half-dead and mentally depressed black slaves.
Brand said: "It's the first time for these black people to ride on a ship, so seasickness is inevitable. It's good to be able to survive it."
Deputy Tara also said: "We are the worst off. Many black slaves cannot stand the bumps of the sea and vomit and have diarrhea in the cabin. Coupled with the humid environment and hot temperature, the smell after fermentation is simply unacceptable. Yes, our sailors still have to hold their noses to clean and disinfect the ship."
When someone is in a worse situation than you, your mood will become much better. After listening to the complaints of the two people, Andel was not too resistant to escorting these black people. After all, compared to the situation encountered by the navy, they were in Things will be much better on land.
Of course, in fact, what Brand and Tara said was half true and half false. It is true that black people are seasick and unhygienic, but how the specific cleaning work is completed needs to be studied.
If you follow the tone of the two men, it seems that the sailors really completed the cleaning work themselves, but in fact there are so many "black slaves", how could it be the turn of the East African sailors to do it themselves.
The job of the East African sailors was to hold up guns and force these black slaves to complete the cleaning work themselves. As for those who were really disobedient, they would have been thrown into the sea to feed the sharks.
Andel, who was in a relatively better mood, began to change the topic and said: "I don't know why the government wants to bother with this. There are as many as 800,000 black people in the country. Even if we deal with it, it is still a big workload. After all, Togoland itself has very few manpower." Not quite enough.”
Although the black slaves in East Africa are old and frail, there are still many of them! In fact, more than 800,000 black slaves were all thrown into Togoland. This kind of workload could not be completed in a short time.
Brand said: "There is no way around this. You have also seen that many of these black slaves have reached old age and can no longer provide value to the empire. Even those who are young and strong now will be the same in a few years." "And the empire has never supported inhumane mass extermination, so it is better to exile them to West Africa."
"And if you think it's troublesome, it's hard for us too. More than 800,000 black slaves were exiled to West Africa. We don't know how many trips we have to make, how many ships and manpower we have to dispatch. The environment at sea is not much better than what you have here. To be honest, I’m a little envious of you army troops!”
Andel's mouth twitched and said: "Colonel Brand, you are being a bit unkind. The navy's treatment is much better than ours. Your equipment and food alone are much better than our army's. If you want to say envy, That should be why we envy you, not to mention that we are now sent by the empire to a place like Togoland."
The navy's funds are much richer than those of the army, which is reflected in all aspects. As a colonial army, the colonial army is not as good as the local army, so Andel thinks that Brand's words are biased.
Brand also explained helplessly: "Well, I will tell you the details, so you will know that I am not lying to you. Think about it, it is impossible to be more comfortable on the sea than on land. After all, there are climate, wind and waves, hygiene and other issues to consider at sea. Every moment on the ship can be said to be very painful. "
"Take the most basic issue of sleeping as an example. It is impossible to get a good night's sleep. I think you must have experienced this when you came to Togoland from the mainland."
We must take the sea route from the East African mainland to Togoland, so Andel nodded and said: "That's true. I remember that on the ship we took, we slept in hammocks. We couldn't move our bodies out of the way, and the space was very small. It was extremely hot and uncomfortable.”
Brand nodded in agreement and said: "That's it. It can be imagined that if you sleep on the boat every day, you won't be able to eat or sleep well at all. There is still a lot of work to do, so even if our food is more than the army's funding, But you also need to have an appetite to eat it.”
"As for the second point, what kind of ship did we come over this time? It's hard for you to believe that the youngest ones on these warships are two years older than me. Driving a sailboat like this requires more responsibility than There are more modern warships, and their operations are more complex.”
"Just adjusting the sails is enough to make us miserable. Cleaning the wooden deck is also difficult. It has to be done every day..."
Brand talked a lot, but it also proved how poor the comfort of ships in this era was, except for passengers on cruise ships and passenger ships, which would probably be better.
And Ander was also successfully persuaded by Brand. The navy was really not something that ordinary people could do. Although the salary in the navy was relatively higher, it was also very limited. If Ander was given the choice, he would definitely choose the army. After all, in order to earn a little more It is not worthwhile to enjoy the benefits of the Navy just for your salary.
"Okay, except for a few of these people who were fed to sharks due to illness or other reasons, we will leave them all to you. We still have to rush to the next trip, and we don't know when this life will end. ." Brand complained.
To this Andel could only say: "Good luck!"
After counting the number of people, there were only 1,789 black people left out of 1,800, which was 11 people less, but these were not Andel's concerns.
"Pull them to the concentration camp first, and then drag them collectively to the border after the next batch arrives."
The East African government built a concentration camp in the Port of Lome to temporarily detain these black slaves. When enough people were gathered, the colonial army would transport them collectively to the northern border and release them.
The final destination is the French colony of Upper Volta, namely Burkina Faso, which means that these black people still have more than 500 kilometers to travel.
There are no roads or railways in Togoland to bring so many black people to the border, so this journey is destined to be unfriendly to black people.
(End of chapter)