Chapter 20 – The First Town

Chapter 20 – The First Town

Heading about 58 kilometers west from Dar es Salaam, you arrive at a brand-new settlement—this is the first base established in East Africa by the Hexingen colonial team. To commemorate this important site, the team's leader, Yalman, named it "First Town" (later known as Mlandizi in Tanzania), symbolizing the very first step toward developing these colonies.

First Town sits in the transition zone between the East African coastal plains and highlands. There are no real mountain ranges nearby—only some small hills to the southwest—so the terrain is relatively flat and open. It's not far from the Indian Ocean, near the Zanzibar Sultanate's borders. Because of warm and humid airflows around the equator, First Town gets over 1,300 mm of rainfall yearly, and the surrounding vegetation is lush.

Due to uneven rainfall patterns in Africa, heavy rains upstream can gather into rivers and cause flooding downstream. To avoid sudden flood damage in the rainy season, First Town was built on a bit of higher ground. To the north, a major river flows by—originating in the Uluguru Mountains—which Yalman named the "Little Rhine" (the Ruvu River). It runs on toward Bagamoyo in the Zanzibar Sultanate and empties into the Zanzibar Channel.

Located in the Little Rhine basin, First Town enjoys plentiful rain, plus strong sunlight and warmth from being near the equator—well-suited for growing rice, flax, and corn. For now, it's largely wilderness. Apart from wild animals roaming everywhere, only slave-hunting parties from the Zanzibar Sultanate pass through occasionally. Because Zanzibar has long carried out slave raids, there are no large native tribes nearby. The raiding teams must go farther inland for any real capture, so they only pause here briefly.

The Hexingen colonists have dug trenches around First Town and built low fences to protect against wild animals—no small undertaking, so the settlement remains fairly modest. Currently, about eight hundred people live in First Town, including team members stationed there, newly arrived Chinese immigrants, and around five hundred native captives temporarily held in the area.

In February, the first group of seven hundred migrants from East Asia arrived by a Dutch fleet. Most were tricked into coming under the pretense of labor recruitment, but in reality their chances of ever returning home are slim. The Hexingen labor contract stretches twenty years—effectively a lifetime in this era, given people didn't live very long. For these adult arrivals, twenty years means spending most of their days here. Still, once East Africa develops down the road, they might not even want to leave for that distant and troubled homeland if Ernst tried sending them back.

Upon docking at Dar es Salaam, the immigrants were marched ashore. The local staff, already prepared, carried out a disinfection procedure. In temporary shelters, they were grouped in fifties, stripped of clothing, and washed with water and soap from large wooden barrels. With the heat, there was no fear of catching cold. They then changed into standard German garments (mostly used Prussian military uniforms Ernst had bought up) and underwent haircut and shaving. Getting rid of their queues caused some panic—after all, they'd been under strict repression for over a century, and fear still lingered. But here, they no longer had any say; they had to comply whether they liked it or not.

Once cleaned, they were sent to First Town for land-clearing work. Over the course of a month, the colonial team cleared out dangerous wildlife within about five or six kilometers, leaving a safe perimeter. Being near Zanzibar's domain, there were hardly any native settlements around—a few small villages at most, which the colonists scared off by threats. Those who resisted were taken captive to serve as forced labor. Why not capture them all? Because every member of the colonial team is a precious asset right now, and warring with local tribes isn't worthwhile. Nonetheless, a handful of tribespeople who refused to leave were made examples of.

At present, over five hundred of these prisoners are digging canals and building roads in a POW camp near First Town. The trenches around the settlement were finished a few days ago with their labor. Right now, they're constructing the first gravel road from First Town to Dar es Salaam. Initially, these natives stand in for livestock and machines as the colony's main labor source, needed to plow the land. Over the next several dozen kilometers around First Town, plenty of land remains to be cleared.

Tanzania's terrain is mostly flat, so these immigrants haven't struggled to adapt. Most of them come from northern China, also known for wide plains. While the weather is hotter here, that beats the cold. And the strong African sun is nothing new to farmers used to working with face and back to the dirt.

One unexpected problem emerged—something Ernst never anticipated or forgot to mention. Along East Africa's coast, the warm, humid climate is better suited to growing rice, but most of these migrants were northerners with no experience in rice farming, and Ernst hadn't prepared rice seeds. Wheat is possible in the tropics, but yields are low unless in higher elevations, while First Town lies on the coastal plain. For example, in India, the Deccan Plateau mainly grows wheat, while the Ganges Plain centers on rice—both produce similar overall harvests. Lacking other choices, they're temporarily planting wheat for subsistence, not expecting high yields, while devoting other fields to cash crops.

The main one is sisal, a priority for the Hexingen colonial team. In future times, tropical Tanzania became globally known for sisal production. Its fibers are resilient, resistant to seawater, and excellent for making ropes, sacks, and floor mats. In an age when ships are still wooden, sisal has high value and a large market. Compared to the long, slow struggle of the global grain trade—where the world's population is mostly farmers and competition is fierce—sisal is in demand and can fetch rapid profits. After all, people can quickly saturate the grain market, but sisal, grown mainly in tropical areas, remains scarce. Tropical deserts exist as well, and tropical rainforests are too hard to develop, so not all tropical regions can grow sisal extensively. By contrast, Tanzania's climate is ideal, with broad expanses of farmland.

Modern statistics say Tanzania could have 600 million mu (about 40 million hectares) of arable land—40% of its territory—enough to sustain four hundred million people. Ernst doesn't know where such numbers came from, but from personal experience in his previous life, he knows East Africa is indeed suited to farming. Most of East Africa is a vast plateau, but to Ernst, who grew up on the North China Plain, it feels almost the same—just higher in elevation. Where other areas have hills or plains, East Africa is mostly gently rolling. Along the coast, there's no steep shield like in Brazil, so the lowlands gradually transition into highlands, creating a strong "hinterland" for economic development. Hence modern Tanzania's population ended up fairly spread out, unlike Brazil, where most people crowd into the southeast corner of the plateau.

Of course, one big question baffled Ernst in his past life: the abrupt rise of Kilimanjaro and the African savannah side by side, with no gradual transition. But never mind that. Ernst believes East Africa's natural environment is excellent. The real limitation on farming is water. In his earlier life, Tanzania's agriculture ran into trouble mainly for lack of effective irrigation infrastructure or reservoirs. During the rainy season, huge amounts of rainfall drained into the Indian Ocean unused. If, in the future, the East African colony solves water storage and distribution, it will overcome the biggest obstacle to agricultural development.

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