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AFRICA, 1914-1920

Lack of Railroads

nations of Asia, like the Mongols, and in India, under the early dynasties and later under the Mughals, the propagation, of Islam went apace. When a raid was made into Moslem territory the women were carried off and helped to convert the pagan tribe, or when a mercenary Moslem army lent aid to a foreign kingdom, as in the case of China, and was invited to settle, the Mohammedans took to wife the women of the country, and thus formed another outpost of Islam.

"In India the Mughal consorts founded madrasahs or endowed schools, which, together with libraries, were attached to their tombs and mosques. In the course of the many ruthless invasions that have swept India, when devastation was invariably practised, these semi-religious foundations have alone survived as examples of their culture, and they must have exerted an enormous influence from decade to decade. In Africa the fanatical Senussei sect opened schools for girls in the region north of Lake Chad. This form of feminine proselytism has also been most active in Africa, especially on the east coast. In the Sudan, Islam has spread through the Egyptian armyevery fellah recruit being circumcised at enlistment and given a rudimentary education. On the expiration of his term of service, he goes back to his pagan village to be an ardent proselytiser through his wife. In German East Africa the negroes recruited from railway and plantation work form temporary unions with the Moslem women, and since these women insist upon the Moslem rite of circumcision, the men are thus converted to Islam, and eventually take the new creed back to their villages. Perhaps the strongest reason for the success and appeal of Islam throughout the Orient and Africa is the . . . institution of concubinage and marriage. A Moslem will cherish a son by his negro wife or slave, while he readily offers his daughter in marriage to a Moslem negro. Many a sultan and pasha, many an imam and saint, has not considered it a disgrace to acknowledge the negro blood in his veins. Thus, in Africa, the lack of any social discrimination or ostracism, together with a compensating social rise, makes admission into the Islamic brotherhood attractive.

"Another appeal lies in the chance the religion gives warlike tribes to continue in the profession of arms, since the Faith countenances conversion through conquest. Wherever such races in Asia or Africa have been prevented by twentieth century laws and order, by the press of western influence or domination, from indulging in their hereditary pursuit (excepting a few military Hindu tribes like the Sikhs, Gurkhas and Rajputs in India) they will be found to flourish under the semi-military caste of Islam. It is not strange, therefore, that the Turko-Teuton régime seized upon the Moslem idea of jihad as a vehicle for galvanizing the warlike spirit of Islam.

"In Africa, as I have endeavored to show, Islam is rapidly expanding in its pristine eighth-century character, appealing to the dark world of witchcraft and cannibalism that has for centuries made the African a problem to civilization. Writing in 1887 Bosworth Smith said: 'It is hardly too much to say that half of the whole of Africa is already dominated by Islam, while, of the remaining half, a quarter is leavened and another threatened by it.' In this great Asiatic religion the African negro is finding a facile medium of communication and expression; and the future of Africa's destiny would seem to lie with Islam."W. G. Tinckom-Fernandez, Asia in Africa (Asia, Nov., 1917.)-See also WAHHABIS,

AFRICA, 1914-1920

(3) LACK OF RAILWAY AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA, NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE CAPE-TOCAIRO RAILWAY.-A third obstacle to European colonization lies in the lack of adequate railway facilities. "Africa is a big continent-about as large as the United States of America, Mexico, Australia, and the Continent of Europe put together and as late as 1876 the whole of this vast area possessed less than 400 miles of railway. It has been the last of the great areas of this world to become civilized, and as Livingstonegreatest and best and wisest of all explorerspredicted, Africa's salvation is coming through its industrial development. When I first sailed for Africa in 1881 the railway had only been extended to Beaufort West, 300 miles north of Cape Town, where I took the coach to Kimberley. In 1885 the railway reached Kimberley. The main line was next pushed north to the Rand-the greatest goldfield in the world-and the shorter 'economic' lines were built to connect with Delagoa Bay and Natal. The Rand was discovered by the British, and the people of this country put millions into its development. It was not long, however, before financiers of German extraction became to a large extent masters of the Rand, as they had become of Kimberley.

"Rhodesia was the next big mineral development, and therefore the next of Africa's milestones on the road to civilization. At that date, 1890, the terminus of the main line was at Vryburg, and it reached Bulawayo in 1897. Rhodes wanted me to report on the mineral prospects of Rhodesia. I started in March, 1891, and reported to Rhodes that the minerals were there all right, but that he must have a shorter economic railway from Beira to make them pay. That line was completed to Bulawayo in 1902. Rhodes had a desperate struggle with the finance of the Rhodesian railways. He had asked the British Government to guarantee the interest, and . . . that Government refused. . . . Rhodes's friend Pauling, the famous railway contractor, and the Messrs. Erlanger, bankers of this city, came to the rescue-they, too, greatly aided the development of the British Empire, for they raised about £10,000,000 sterling to finance African railways. . . . The next great mineral milestone stands 1,000 miles further north, in the very heart of Africa, namely, Katanga. In 1895 Rhodes was anxious to find mineral wealth in Northern Rhodesia, and I sent up one or two of my best men with instructions to examine an area several hundred miles south of Katanga, where gold had been reported to exist. As my men found nothing of value, I stopped operations there and did nothing further until 1898, when, once again at Rhodes's request, I agreed to make another effort, as Rhodes was most anxious to find minerals that would help his railway forward. But as my services at that time were exclusively bound to the Zambesia Exploring Company, Rhodes granted certain rights in which that company should have a large interest. This grant included the right to locate a 2,000 square mile mineral area anywhere in Northern Rhodesia, together with a township and pier at the bottom und of Lake Tanganyika which was intended to be the terminus in Chartered Territory of the Cape-to-Cairo Railway. I organized a prospecting expedition, and appointed the late Mr. George Grey (Viscount Grey's brother) as leader, with instructions to search for minerals as close up to the Congo State frontier as possible. He and his party discovered the Kansanshi copper_mine in Rhodesia, 12 miles south of the Belgian Congo frontier.

AFRICA, 1914-1920

Lack of Railroads

"Meantime, I approached King Leopold, and succeeded in making an agreement with him which gave the Tanganyika Company the sole prospecting rights for minerals over 60,000 square miles of the Katanga district of the Congo State, adjoining Northern Rhodesia. The King did not believe I should prove mineral wealth to exist in his country, as Professor Cornet, the well-known Belgian geologist, had been sent out by him to examine certain old native workings which had been the subject of comment by Livingstone, Cameron, Stanley, and others, The report by Professor Cornet (which had never been published) had been so unfavourable that the Belgians made no further effort for eight years. George Grey and his staff, in a very short time located these mines, probably the greatest in all the world, extending over about 250 miles of country-in short, a copper Rand and many other deposits, including gold, tin, and diamonds, Katanga is now giving tangible proot of its mineral resources. The smelting works there have already yielded a total value of over 10.000.000 sterling, although they only started to produce on a small scale in 1012. They are at the present moment producing at the rate of 30.000 tons of copper per annum, of a value of about £4,000,000, and this output will go on increasing steadily year by year. The railway developments which have also resulted from the opening up of this latest mineral rone will, when compicted, be probably the greatest in all Atrica. Railways are now coming from the north, south, east, and west towards this great mineral and future industrial centre. Thus are minerals once again proving themselves veritable mulestores in the progress of African civiliza

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AFRICA, 1914-1920

Lobito Bay, how valuable it would be as the Western port to her Central African Empire. Four years before Portugal granted me the Benguella Railway Concession Germany had induced the British Government to enter into a secret agreement, under which our Government had pledged itself not to interfere with Germany's political efforts in Angola-the very country in which I had secured the right to build a trunk railway."

"Mr. Williams' continued efforts to secure British backing for the completion of the Cape-to-Cairo railway were also futile. He went to London to ask Mr. Joseph Chamberlain about obtaining the support of the Government, but Mr. Chamberlain's interest in the project was not of a material nature and the Government was unwilling to guarantee the interest on a loan to the railway. “I again met King Leopold, and we resolved upon a great cooperative railway scheme, comprising over 3,000 miles of railway. We agreed to build the Katanga Railway jointly, in order to link up the Rhodesian Railway with the navigable Congo River at Bukama. The King undertook to construct a railway from Leopoldville to Bukama; also the section that would connect the Benguella Railway with the Katanga Railway and the copper belt, and the earnings of all these railways were to be pooled '

"The last link in this international chain of railways proved the most difficult of all to provide for, although it was only 132 miles in length and lay in British territory. It was the little bit between Broken Hill in Rhodesia and the Congo frontier. There the railway stood literally dying for want of traffic, a to extend itself to serve British or Belgium interests I saw that if it was to be done. I ma do it myself, and I wrote to Dr. Jameson telling him I would arrange the finance for the Rhodesian section on certain conditions, with which I need not trouble you Suce it to say, that with the assistance of Mr George Pauling the great African railway contractor, and the Messrs Erlanger. bankers of this city. I surmounted the duty. The Cipe-to-Care Ratway was arranged the at -R Wlams, Rainsy developments in Cenpatra Tie Times (Denim) May 11, III*`. - ise Rates 18:5

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10 Longitude D 20 East E from 30% FGreenwich 10°

Maps prepared specially for the NEW LARNED under direction of the editors and publishers.

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