November 17, 1911.
Bangui.
"So this was East Africa's Bangui city? I never imagined East Africans would build such a modern metropolis here!"
It was Congo Colony Governor Klein's first time in Bangui city. After traveling along the long roads through the primeval rainforest, then taking a boat and transferring to a train to reach Bangui city, Klein felt as though he had passed through two different worlds.
The Belgian Congo under his rule was like a primordial forest. Aside from a handful of colonial outpost cities such as Black Point, even villages were relatively scarce.
Yet after entering East Africa, although not much of East Africa had been developed either, the railways cutting across rainforests and grasslands, the countless vessels on the Ubangi River, and the well-developed road network had been an eye-opener for Klein.
The closer he came to Bangui city, the more he felt the terrifying strength of East Africa. Fields, plantations, and villages began to appear. As his destination drew nearer, the farmland and villages grew denser, and fairly large towns began to emerge. If these towns were placed in the Belgian Congo, they would rank second only to Black Point, the Belgian Congo's capital.
East African farmland and plantations were vastly different from those in the Belgian Congo. First was their scale. East Africa had comparatively abundant manpower, so its fields were divided on a far larger scale than those in the Belgian Congo. Moreover, unlike the scattered farms and plantations of the Belgian Congo, the farms and plantations surrounding Bangui city stretched together in unbroken expanses.
The gap in quality was even more striking. East African farmland and plantations were not only grandly laid out, but also equipped with exceptionally complete facilities.
One could tell at a glance that East African farms and plantations