Africa’s infrastructure were built by imperialists to serve their interests. Africans have to correct this. Part I

By: Mweusi Karake

Africa infrastructure challenges at independence are well summarized by Angela Thompson in the following words

“One of the most pressing challenges African states faced at Independence was their lack of infrastructure. European imperialists prided themselves on bringing civilization and developing Africa, but they left their former colonies with little in the way of infrastructure. The empires had built roads and railroads – or rather, they had forced their colonial subjects to build them – but these were not intended to build national infrastructures. Imperial roads and railways were almost always intended to facilitate the export of raw materials. Many, like the Ugandan Railroad, ran straight to the coastline.”

The colonialists had had no intentions of linking African countries to their neighbours let alone link the whole continent. For example,  the vast Belgian Congo today (The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),with  the longest land borders  in Sub-Saharan Africa, stretching a total of 10,420 Kilometers  in length, had no rail nor tar macked road linking it to any of these countries. A total of nine countries share a land border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. North of the country is South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Countries bordering the east part of the DRC are;  Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda ( all members of the East Afican Community). The Republic of Congo (popularly known as Congo Brazaville) borders the western part of the country, while Angola and Zambia are situated southern part of the country. It was not for lack of resources that the country was not, and still is not; well linked to these neighbours. The railway links inside the Congo were built to be able to transport mineral resources to the Atlantic Ocean. The 366 kilometers Matadi- Kinshasha railways built from 1890 to 1898, was meant to circumvent the series of rapids and falls which hindered access from the South Atlantic Ocean to the Congo Basin. In short if the River Congo and its tributaries had been navigable, the Belgians would not have cared to build much of this railway. It was not built to serve Congo. The completion of the railway cost about 2000 lives, mainly indigenous people, additionally up to 60,000 slave laborers worked on the project. In 1928, Belgium Congo as it was called and Portuguese in Angola did a land exchange to facilitate the new route of the railway to the Congo – Kinshasa. It was not strange for the colonialists to re draw the borders to facilitate individual exploitation as opposed to work together and interlink their network!

Similarly in Angola, several railway lines were built, by the Portuguese but to link inland Angola to the Atlantic Ocean, once again, the purpose? to take oil and cash crops to Portugal and other European countries.  Note that like Kinshasa), Luanda is also built right on the Atlantic Ocean.

 In West Africa, the Gold coast railway is just in the South of the country. Once again to link to the ocean to Accra and Kumasi. The famous Kenya- Uganda railway in Eastern Africa, was only extended to Kasese – western Uganda, only when the British discovered copper in that area.

In North Africa, the construction of the Suez Canal was an idea of a French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. In 1854, this French former diplomat, persuaded the Viceroy of Egypt, Mohamed Said, to permit the construction of a shipping canal through the 160 kilometers of desert between Africa and Asia. Not between Africa and Africa! And for once the British and the French put aside their differences, and both contributed to the successful construction of the Suez Canal!

Incredible as it may sound, some of the colonial infrastructure was created to help fight European proxy wars in Africa. For example, During World War I, German and Allied forces engaged in the East African Campaign, a series of battles and guerrilla actions which started in German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika) colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania.

 Towards the end of 1915, the Allies decided to build a railway from Voi– Kenya, a station on the Uganda –Kenya Railway, to Maktau, Taita Taveta County- Kenya, as a supply route for a full-scale invasion of the German colony, including an offensive down the Usambara Railway to Tanga. Subsequently, the line was extended to Kahe, a station on the Usambara Railway near Moshi, Tanganyika. As both the Uganda Railway and the Usambara Railway were meter gauge, the transfer of vehicles from one of these lines to the other was achievable.  The British even constructed an airstrip at Maktau! (The name Maktau, is believed to be a corruption of the military command “mark time”), it was a garrison town held by the British when the Germans, then in charge of Tanganyika, tried to storm it, the British established what is believed to be East Africa’s first airstrip that was used by light planes during the war.

Watch this space for part II of the article in our next publication.

Mweusi Karake is a veteran journalist and former head of Public Relations/Corporate Communication at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

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